'Christian Gonzalez is the pick here for sure'
Brad Spielberger sits down with Jay Croucher and Drew Dinsick to break down and analyze the market for the first cornerback drafted with eyes on Christian Gonzalez over current favorite Devon Witherspoon.
Video Transcript
JAY CROUCHER: First cornerback drafted market, Devon Witherspoon, -225, pretty heavy favorite but not off the board by any means. And then Christian Gonzalez's, plus-160. And then outside of that, it starts to get a little fanciful. What do you make of this market, Brad, between Witherspoon and Gonzalez?
BRAD SPIELBERGER: Yeah, this will be my biggest exposure in the draft probably by a decent amount. And I think Christian Gonzalez is the pick here, for sure. I don't know why this market keeps swinging back and forth. I know a lot of it is tied to mock drafts. A lot of it is tied to, oh, Devin Witherspoon can eat glass with Dan Campbell and all these picture perfect things.
I would be shocked. I would be downright shocked if it's not Christian Gonzalez first. Like I said though, I could be wrong. But that will be my biggest exposure of the draft.
DREW DINSICK: I don't know. The eating glass correlation is pretty strong. The last time I had a guy tied to a coach because they both ate glass, it was 100%. So I don't know about this one.
I will say though, that there's enough uncertainty about what the Lions will do. I agree with you that it's not out of the question that they would take an offensive tackle. It's not out of the question, if Anthony Richardson is available at six, they wouldn't take him as a project.
I think the Lions are definitely sneakily in the quarterback market if someone slides. And I think that could really turn that market on its head because I think Witherspoon is the favorite only because people have decided that it is already a done deal that he's going to the Lions. And I think the top five unfolding in an uncertain way could create uncertainty there.
And actually, let's go back to your point, Brad, laying juice in a market like that where you're expecting that the sixth pick will certainly be this is a sucker bet this far out of the draft. So we fully, fully agree there. Do you have a read and just in terms of how the quarterback-- excuse me, cornerbacks overall are evaluated by this year's draft?
Because I have a-- I do have one minus money play in the accounts. I tied it to a number of other parlay pieces, that is over 4 and 1/2 quarterbacks drafted in the first round-- or actually, I think it's defensive backs, which hopefully includes safety. But we'll see.
Do you have a read on, just in general? This is a good cornerback class. We're expecting five or six of these guys to get picked on day one.
BRAD SPIELBERGER: I think it's a great bet. I think four are an absolute lock. And those would be, of course, Gonzales, Witherspoon, Joey Porter, Jr., and I've actually heard Emmanuel Forbes could be the fourth cornerback taken. And then Deonte Banks looks like he'll be a first-rounder as well.
And then you hear some talk of maybe a guy like DJ Turner in Michigan sneaks in. Of course, you're referring to Brian Branch, didn't test very well but is a phenomenal football player, whether he's a safety or a corner. You get the DB. Importantly, I guess I should mention, a lot of these websites use nfl.com's positional designation. And they have Brian Branch as a cornerback. So if that's your bet, you should be safe there. But yes, the over 4 and 1/2, I think, is probably one of the few position-type bets I'd probably place here.