NFL Draft Dairies: Cornerbacks. Deep Cover.

What I’m About To Attempt Could Be By Far The Most Unenviable Task In Writing. Transcribing The Preternatural Biomechanics Of Playing Cornerback On The NFL Takes More Than Words And Metaphors. The Movements are Poetic With The Structural Formalness Of Hymn Books. I Will Attempt To employ Scoreless Records Of Lexicon and My Juanted Understanding of Schematics To earnestly Capsulize How These Men Consort And Hold Their Frames In A Reflective Pose. I Have Found Videos But I Wanted To Build On The Points That Make The Position Difficult. Here I Go.

I Would Suppose To Say a corner Might Be The Most Difficult And Most Technical Position Of The Sport. What The Jaire Alexanders, MarShon Lattimore, Jalen Ramsey’s Achieve On Sunday Could Make The Curriculum Of An Advance Physics And Biomechamic Studies. Their Names Don’t Need  Pluralities. Those Corners Play The Game At the  Highest Tier Of Positional Exceptionalism. Their Feet, Play recognition, And Ball Playing Ability Puts Them In A Class By Themselves, Of Themselves. They Have All Mastered  The Art of The Position. Pivots, Double Extended Jab The Crucial Components to Success On Downs. Body Placement Along Holmes-Sian Level Acuity To Mirror Their Opponent. Staying In Front Of The Receiver Whiles Attempting To Reflect His Movement. “He’s Counting His Steps.” An Indication That The Receivers Will Break On His Because He Hasn’t Climb The Boundary Into The Second Level. It's just a matter Of Instinct And Reading “Tells” Certain Inflictions In The Body Indicate Patterns And Lead The Cornerback To Beat The Receiver you the Play On The Cards. Sometimes Those Instincts Can Achieve The Adverse Results Of Biting On A Double Move A Sudden Release. As The GAme Evolve. So Did The Game And The Regimented Styles To Reflect. The offense Adapted. The Defensive Side Adapted In response And The Image Of That Can Best Captured in The Battle On The Boundary.

Corners Are Quarterback On The Other Side Of The Felid. They Have To Be Atleast From A Cerebral stand Point. But They Take The Game From Different Posture.

It’s Not The Moves Themselves But How The Movement Deflects the Natural Alignment Of Joints And fundamentals. Thats Why the Human Beings Often On The Wrong End Of Your Favorite Touchdown Have The Unenviable Task Of At least Making It Looked Contestable When Your Team Best Receiver Or Tight End Soar Above Or Scoots Past Them With The One And Extended.  The Crushing Art Of Cornerback Starts With How The Human Body Evolved To Move. It’s Not Something Adults Ponder  Too Much Effort Into, at Least Not me, Who Spends A Systemic Amount of Time On Me Feet. After Those Strength Forming Days Crawling, We’re Off. In and Out Of The Doors Of The World.

But What Happens When We Move, And how Does this Affect Cornerback. It Starts With Leverage. Cornerbacks Use Positional Leverage At Every Turn. Inside Leverage Hip To The Sideline, Outside Leverage Hip Turn Towards the Dominant Side Of The Formation. Otherwise, The Corner Plays Direct Press Or Off Coverage. The Leverage A Corner Aligns In  Usually reflects the Corners responsibility In The Zone Coverage Or Where his Helping Safety Stands In wait According To The Coverage On A Drop backs.

The Corners Attack on His Counterpart Begins with One Step Backward. “I Jab To Get My Feet Moving.” Xavier Rhodes, Former Pro Bowler. At Full Speed, The clipping Toes and Violently Striking the Floor Are Nearly Imperceptible Then It’s Flurry Jabs And Pivots Functional Practiced To One Cause.

I Think We’re All Familiar With The Axiom: “A Body In Motion Stays In Motion.” But Which Direction Of Motions Is Most Agreeable.  These Split Second Decision Test Corners Ability To Adapt. By The Best Estimation, The Evolved And Develop To Move All Mammals Are Structured That Way. The Eyes Are Position forward, Or else they Would Be Useless. The Higher Functions Of The Brain Are At The Forefront Of Brain. Felicitously Dubbed “The Frontal Cortex.”  Motion Deviate from This Same Line. Think about It. When Last  Have You Walked Backwards? Yeah, Rarely, And If You Did, You Only Did So To Return To forwarding Motion. I Do It More Often Than Recommended, But That’s Because I’m Obsessive. If You Don’t, You’re Missing Out.

Humans developed The Lever System to make physical work more accessible. Heavier and Sluggish, Swift. In the Case Of Moving, The Human Body Levers Make It Possible.

Forward Movement Requires The Fundamentals Of The Leverage At Complete Scope Make Incline Traction. "Give me a place to stand, and I will move the world with a lever." The Principle Statement That Defined What Archimedes Put Into His Study. But Corner Camp Just Stand. Motion begins With A Fixed Point(s), The Joints. A Fulcrum Or Inflexible Lever(Bones). The Muscles Are Used To Generate The Force Needed. Ideally Called “Muscular Force.” The Change Force. The Power To Break Or Overcomes The Resistance Or Countering Forces Withholding The Change Or The Load. In the Case Of Motion, The Load Would Be Our Bodies. Corners Learn To Stay On Their Toes To Keep The Load Or Resistance At A Minimum.  Allow For a Seamless Transition From Back Pedaling  Into an A In step Before taking a Directional Pattern.

The Magnificence Of The Levers System in The Body Are The Muscles Developed To Coordinate Dynamic Movements. Corners Have To Program Into Their Mechanics Into Their Muscles Memory, The Quick Twitch Fibers That Line The Muscles. The Force Has To Travel Back And Forth In-Circuit Of Stop And Starts. Cornerbacks, As Goalies In Soccer,  Use AN Instep To Break And Propelled Momentum. It’s Paramount. Proper instep technique Eliminates the Need For Multiple or Choppy Steps When Break Backwards Momentum. The Technique Reigns supreme Because The Body Natural Wants To Fight Back Into A Upright Position.  In A Way You Could Compare Playing Corner To Teaching Your Body A New Language. With Different Conjugations And Responses. The Instep glides When Executed Properly. A Seamless Transition On A Hinge Like Opening A “Double Acting “Door Or A Continuing Loops Of Such Doors Depending On How Many Moves The Offensive Player Makes.

I Take Umbrage  When Panelists Proport That A Player Has The “Tools” To Play At Said Position, Like Corner. I’m 6’1, 180-ish Lbs, With Hands That Are Roughly 10 Inches Across. A Above average Wide Span.  I, Too, Have The some of the “Tools” To Play Corner. Should A Team Draft Me? Maybe.  I Can’t Tell You Where My Forty Time Might Land But I Ran Track In High school, To Skeptical Results But I’m An athlete.  But I Wouldn’t Be Very Good At The Position, At Least Out Of The Gate. Many Guys Have The “Tools,” And Those Are Ranged And Deep To Play At The Position.  What Matters On Sunday? Can He Play The Position At A High Level? Does He Have The Instincts, The Feel For  Mirroring? The Best Cornerbacks Run The Receivers Route Pattern With Anticipating Awareness. The Athleticism To Transpose His Mental Recognition To  Physical Response. Playing Corner Can Be Attended To Playing Chess On A Roll Coaster Ride with The Russian Roulette Meter Running. The Mental and Physical Pressure Are Climbing With Each Step, and One False Move Or “False Step” Could Be The End Of The Play—the Game. “I Gatta Win. That’s The Only Thing On My Mind. I Gatta Win.” It’s Palpable,  The Razor Thin Room For Error. You Feel It Exuding out From Within.

These Cornerbacks Prospects Are Entering A World That’s Both Hungry For Them but Designed To, In Some Effect, Carve Them Up. Defensive Schemes Demand One On One Coverages. Offensive Coordinators Salivate For The Opportunity To Take advantage Of “Unprotected” Pieces.

Over The Past Five Drafts, The League Has Drafted 15 First Round Corners. Many Who Have Had Immediate Sucess. Many Of The Best Cornerbacks have only been in Residence Of the League for Five Years Or Less. It Remains Uncovered What Become Of Both Jaycee Horn and Caleb Farley. Farley The 22nd Pick In LAst Year’s Draft Missed All Of the Season With A Spinal. Horn Number 8th Last Miss Most Of Last Season With A Foot injury. Except The Raiders’ Who drafted Two Ohio State misfires In Gareon Conley and Damon Arnette, then The  Giants’ Miscue With Deandre Baker.

“The Islanders,” As These Corners Are So Passionately Branded and  Defined By Those who Scrutinize And Empower  Their Playing Style. For  The Records,  Grade, And Allegory Of How The Game Should Be Play In technique and memorandum. “ The Island. You[Tre White] And Odell And Nobody Else.” Elite Corners Who Take On The Challenge Of Skilled Boundary Receivers Most Times Without Help. White’s Just One Of The Highly Deft, Difference Making At Position. But Their Only As Good As The Rest Of Your Defensive Unit. Drafting A Corner, Who Isn’t A Jalen Ramsey  Or Patrick Peterson, Top Ten Would Amount To Nothing If The Other Corps Of Your Defense Are Vulnerable. The Bills Had The Best Overall Coverage Unit In Football, According To Total Passing Yards Allowed.

The Secondary, Consequently Linked To An Average Pass Rush At Best, voidable Pressure Rate At Worst When The Hinge on Its Coverage, The Couldn’t Hold Up—the Season Ended In Heartbreak. The Rams purported an antithetical Arrangement Of Skills On Their way To The Super Bowl. The Team Finish Near The Top In.

 Their Superior Pass Rush Continued Its Vaunted Raging Sack Machine Through The NFC. The Rams Defensive Co-Ordinator  Raheem Morris Could Have  Taken a “lais·sez-faire” Approach To Coverage. Still, Most They did On The Backend, Depended on Star Cornerback Jalen Ramsey Bookending The Secondary With Little more Than liabilities Elsewhere. It Worked. Even A Star Like Ramsey Acknowledge His Dependents On The Pass Rush Dating Back To His Days In Jax. Defensive Backs Can Only Hang Around In Coverages So Long. There Has To Be A Symbiosis Between The Two Units For The Full Effect Of A Corners To Impactful Transform a Team. Think Of Second Year Corner AJ Terrell Being Grade Number 1 Back in Atlanta, Finishing Last In Sacks and Near The Bottom In Wins. For Some Guys, The Scheme Fit Will Matter More Than Their Raw Ability. For Others, They Can Plug And Play. We Can't Judge Corner In A Singularity Anymore; We Have To Transpose Their Skillset Within The Greater tapestry Of The Team.

Who Are These Guys:

Andrew Booty Jr. DB, Clemson.

A Former Five Star Recruit Who Play Two Years Of Starter Level Corner At Clemson. Supremely Physical Corner Who Can Ben And Shifts Gear And Use His Range To Lock Down Areas Of The Field In Pass Sets And Rushing Game. A 6’0 194 Lbs. With 31.5 Wingspan Booth, the Physical Tools To Be Limitless On The Outside On the Next Level. He Played a Ton Of Zone Snaps, Nearly The Highest In His Tier Of Round 1 Corners.

Along With His Physical Tools Are His Technique Booth Has Quick Twitchy Feet, Like “Hitmonlee.” He Rockets In And Out Of His Next Step On the Back Pedals. He Doesn’t Have Near The Glide, Or Fluidness As Say Stingley But Exact in His Movement And Form. Even Relative Down Year For Clemson Teams Rarely Tested Booth. He plays 529 Snaps Out Wide, and Teams Just Avoided Him. Whether In Zone Or Man(Which Accounted For Just 65 Of His Coverage Snaps). Targeted Only 49 Times In Coverage, Surrendering 30 Receptions For 329 Yards. He Didn’t Test In The Speed Or Explosive Drills at the Combine, But On Tape, Booth Rockets Down Hill To Clip Off Runners and Short Pass Catchers. Great Play Recognition. Considerable Better On Defense When Track The Motion Of The Quarterbacks Rather than The Reciever. A Testament To Why Clemson Play Him In Zone So Often. The Speed Doesn’t Translate Up. Booth doesn’t Have Long Speed To Travel Deep With Receiver and Can Get Pretty Handsy Up Top. Booth Had Difficulty Tackling In Open Space. His Missed 11 Tackles On The Season. He Lunges PreEmptively At Open Field Ball Carriers. Booth Also Didn’t Move Around Much. He Played So Zone On The Boundary, And That’s Where Team Want Him But Playing In The Slot Earns Higher Grades son Draft Boards. Will Teams Demand Booth To Play More Man. The NFL Has Moved Into A More Zone Orientated League. Booth Should Be The Third Corner Off The Board In The First Round And A Immediate Starter on Day One In The League. He Covers the Field Except for Directional Speed and Length.

Pro Comp: Xavier Rhodes.

Kaiir Elam. DB, Florida.

I May Just Copy And Paste Booth Evaluation Here. At Least Physically, Kaiir Stands At 6’2 191 Pounds. He Doesn’t Possess Exceptional Length  But Uses His Height To His Advantage On The Outside. He Plays Patient Trusting His Frame To Be The Difference On Well Time Pass Breakups. These Two Represent The Peak Of Frame Strength Intertwined With Mr. Fantastic Like Bendiness. Elam Has A lot More To Offer in Shear Quickness. Elam Had A Ridiculously Decorated High-school Playing On Both Ends Of The Game. Recruited as An Athlete To Play Corner In Florida. His Feet are Average, But His Hips are Fluid. He’s Explosive. Registering 37-inch Vertical Jump at His Pro Day. He Gets In And Out Of His Break With With Efficiency And  Elasticity. Excellent For Closing Space Quick And Deflecting Passes. I had 26 Pass Breakups In Three Years, Starting In Florida. Elam Has a Good Base. He Holds His Form Throughout The Entirety Of The Play. On the Negative Side, Elam Tends To Get Handsy With the Receiver. Tussling And  Hand Fighting. This style Lead To Him Committing Seven Penalties in 10, Six Of which Where Coverage Related. Elam Impressed at The combine With 4.39 Speed, But His Speed At The Second Level In Coverage Looked Average.

Elam Played a lot Of Press-Zone Snaps In Florida, And He Figures To Translate To That Place In The Pros. The Bills Play A lot Of Cover 3 Type Coverages. And Elam Can Lock Up Guys In Condense Spaces. First Round Florida Corners Don’t Have a History Of Success. Most Never Pan Out, Including Kaiir Uncle Matt, Whom The Ravens Drafted 32nd Overall Nine Years Ago. This Elam, Whose amongst The Youngest Prospects In This Draft, Could Change the Narrative.

Pro Comp: Pat Surtain.

Trent McDuffie. DB, Washington.

Sweet feet. Moving Away from The Length And Unto one Of The More polished End To End Cover Guys, Trent Mcduffie. Mcduffie Could Be The Second Or Third Corner Off The Boards Depending on Whether he Favors A Better Round Player Over The Higher Potential Of Others In His Class. As Pro Football Focus Put it So Succinctly, “May not meet height or length thresholds for some teams.”. McDuffie, At 5’10,  193 Pounds With Sub Thirty(30) Inch Arms Chained A longed,  Doesn’t Offer The Size On The Outside As Say Sauce Gardner Or Even Booth Jr. For Corners, Physicality  Doesn’t Mean As Much, Especially With less Press And More Off  Zone Systems.  But This Modicum of Length Does Leave  Mcduffie With Little Margin For Error Thin Given His Lack of Physical To accommodate Out of Place Position.  The Former Huskies Has More Than Enough To Make up Dearth In That Area. He Could Be The Best Player Prospect At The Position. At First Impression McDuffie, He’s Smooth And  Plays Bigger Than His Frame. His Build Resembles That Of A Power Running Back Rather Than A Projective Slot Corner. Excellent Mobile Athlete With Snappy Hips. He Bounces In, Breaks Off At The Point of Release, and Shifts Rare Flexion Mirror Every Sudden Move His Receiver Makes.  He Also Uses This Change Of  Directions To Follow The Ball In Motion. And It Works. McDuffie Has Legit 4.4 Speed On Tape And Break From His Position On The Boundary To Close In On Runners And Shorts Route Breaking For The End zone. He Missed Five Tackles  All-Season, Most of Which Were In The Open Field. Not only Does Four-Four  Represent His Speed, but It also Symbolizes  His Completion Percentage Surrendered. Like Many of His Peer, Teams Avoided Pushing The Ball In Mcduffie’s Direction. He Gave Up Only  111 Yards On 44.4% Of 36 Targets Thrown His Direction On The Outside. He Had Six Force Incompletions, Which Could Mean One Or Another, Good Or Bad, Depending On How You Look at It. Like Most Of His Contemporaries, He Played Most Press Zone Coverage. Approaching His Receiver Before Falling Back Into His Deep Quarter Or Flat Responsibility. He’s locked Up With Bigger Guys Against Colorado and Oregon But  Leaving Him In-Press Man, Bump and Run, On An Island Could Be A Recipe To Get Light Up Sunday By Bigger Guys.

Pro Como: Kyle Fuller

I’m Interested To See When and Where This Group Of Guys come Off The Board. Last Years Troop Lead By Pat Surtain Greg Newsome Integrated Into The League Seamlessly. Guys Like Asante Samuel Jr and Eric Stokes Showed Promise as Well In Spots. This Group Could Be Just As Talented and Impactful. It May Depend on Where They Land. Less Than Two Weeks To Go.