While there were a number of good cornerbacks taken in the 2023 NFL Draft, Connor Rogers and Chris Simms find a few with a chance to be immediate studs in the NFL.

Video Transcript

- The next one is who will be this year's Sauce Gardner. Tough valley, tough peak to make it to after what we saw from Sauce, but definitely around one or two cornerback who simply shines as a starter, and man, was this corner class good. I think the clear cut answer is Devan Witherspoon.

- Right.

- So I answered this of who besides Devin Witherspoon.

- Sure. I get you there. Yeah. I mean, Gonzalez of the Patriots is-- like, it's amazing.

- Yeah. I mean, they were probably shocked.

- I'm guessing they were.

- After moving back and him still sitting their, size, athleticism, length.

- No doubt.

- A very Patriot demeanor of like never too high, never too low.

- Right.

- Gonzales was my pick for this one just because I thought his talent far outweighed where he went, ultimately.

- I hear you. I hear you. I mean, and two, we know they like their island corners, and they're going to put some pressure on them right away. Man, it is a good class, and I think there's a lot of good fits. Like, even though I didn't love Emmanuel Forbes, I think him and Washington, they play a lot of zone, they got a good pass rush, and then you got a guy in the back end who's fast, long, playing zones, and got unbelievable ball skills that makes sense, even though he's not my favorite there.

- Same.

- Right?

- Man, Cam Smith with Miami. Them getting him, I thought that was unbelievable.

- It's a lot to sort through. I thought Cam Smith went way too late. I thought outside the top 50 was just insane.

- I did too. I mean, Cam Smith would have been like next up for me. I like Cam Smith actually more than I liked Emmanuel Forbes.

- Oh, it wasn't close for me. That was about 20 to 25 spots higher.

- I think what Cam Smith got hurt by is how he was played at South Carolina.

- That's fair.

- Where he got the-- he had a play-- he started the year playing corner, and then I don't know what happened, but then they moved him to slot and put him in the spot where it's just like, wow, we're just going to make him, like, put him in the toughest spot on the field every play? Like, he just him cover 0 against the slot receiver every play? Like, no one's going to ever help the guy? And it led to some, yeha, bad-looking plays for him where I'm going to go--

- What do you expect?

- It's him versus Jalen Hyatt, and there's nobody to help him anywhere on a 100-yard field. What do you guys think's going to happen?

- They asked him to be Jaycee Horn.

- Exactly.

- Like, they saw what Jaycee Horn did, and Jaycee was loud, and I want to trail and all that. And I know Cam Smith has the same demeanor. That's very difficult to do in the college game.

- It's crazy.

- It's borderline crazy.

- I think they made it harder on him than they did Jaycee Horn just because of all the slot stuff he was doing there. All right, well, I'm going to go with Devin Witherspoon.

- I mean, you have to. Somebody has to on this desk.

- He's [BLEEP], man, and with a bunch of crazy people up in Seattle in the secondary and the coaching staff and everywhere up there that it's just fits. Yeah. So I'm going Devin Witherspoon. But man, let me just tell you, I [BLEEP] love Deonte Banks to Wink Martindale and the Giants, and you know I love DJ Turner. I mean, the Bengals they're secretly getting like the fastest secondary in football here.

- Starter, starter, starter is what they drafted.

- Holy crap.

- I mean, it's impressive.

- It is impressive. I mean, so I'm going with Devin. He's the man. But my man at the bottom there, DJ Turner, and now with Cam Taylor Britt, Mike Hilton, Dax Hill.

- Yeah.

- I mean, you just talk about that secondary, that's scary. Yeah. There's a lot of good corners in this class, like you said.