By Charlie Campbell
Weaknesses:
Summary: Over the past few seasons, Mitchell was a solid cornerback for the Wildcats. He recorded 48 tackles and six passes defended in 2021. He then played better better as a senior, notching 52 tackles, one interception, seven passes broken up, one forced fumble and one sack.
Mitchell is a gritty cover corner with quickness, nice feet, and instincts. He is fluid and does a solid job of running the route with receivers to prevent them from gaining separation. Mitchell keeps his wideout from coming open and is quick to recover if they get a step. Mitchell has nice hips to turn and run downfield with speed receivers. Mitchell possesses sufficient twitchy athleticism to break on the ball and drive down hard on wide receivers.
On top of his man-coverage skills, Mitchell is a disciplined corner who does not bite on double moves. Utilizing disciplined eyes, he is skilled at reading receivers and not showing vision issues that lead to falling for play fakes. Mitchell flashed some ball skills at times for Northwestern. He is also skilled to slap passes away and times his contact well.
Mitchell also is a willing run defender who will contribute to the ground defense and tackle. He fights off blocks, fires to the ball, and shows nice tackling technique for an undersized corner.
For the NFL, Mitchell could play nickelback and also could handle some duties at dime safety. Some team sources question whether he is a nickel only, while others say they thing he can play outside or inside at the next level. Considering NFL teams play nickel defense on the vast majority of snaps, and sometimes the entire game, the top three cornerbacks are starters, so Mitchell could be a starter regardless of fitting only on the inside.
Mitchell is likely to be a second- or third-round pick in the 2023 NFL Draft.
Player Comparison: Kendall Fuller. Mitchell looks to compare well with Fuller coming out of Virginia Tech. Fuller (5-11, 198) was a gritty corner who some thought was an inside corner only. Mitchell and Fuller almost identical in size and in terms of style of play. I could see Mitchell being a similar caliber pro to Fuller.
RELATED LINKS:
2023 NFL Mock Draft: Charlie’s | Walt’s
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