*Walt taking 2014 and 2018 |
Charlie Campbell, Senior Draft Analyst |
Teams Disagree on the Top 2018 NFL Draft Cornerback
Updated March 4, 2018By Charlie Campbell. Follow Charlie on Twitter @draftcampbell.
The NFL Draft always has big variety among teams’ grades on players, with beauty being in the eye of the beholder. However, typically, there is a consensus around the league about who is the top prospect of any given position. This year, that isn’t the case for the cornerbacks, one of the most important positions in the NFL, and one that has a lot of teams targeting talent upgrades. In surveying sources from a handful of teams, there were three different cornerbacks mentioned as the top cornerback in the 2018 NFL Draft.
Ohio State’s Denzel Ward had two votes, and even other teams that didn’t pick him liked him, saying he was close to the top. Iowa’s Joshua Jackson was another cornerback mentioned by two different teams. The final corner who received one team’s vote was Central Florida’s Mike Hughes. Other scouts like Hughes a lot as well, but didn’t have him higher than Jackson or Ward. Hughes has some off-the-field questions that are going to get discussed with him at the combine and in the weeks to come.
Team sources say a lot of the decision on who is a team’s top rated corner is heavily influenced by the team scheme. Jackson, Ward and Hughes have different strengths with better fits in certain defenses. Because of this variation, it isn’t clear who will be the first cornerback to go off the board in the 2018 NFL Draft.
