2024 Cornerback Prospect Rankings
The Gridiron Review’s 2024 NFL Draft Cornerback Rankings.
*Click on the player names to see our full prospect profiles of each player.
Updated 4/8/24- Post Combine/Pro Days Ranking
| Rank | Rank Movement | Player | School | Height | Weight | Grade | Comp | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  Stay | Nate Wiggins |  |  | 6'1.5" | 182 | 82% | Higher End Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie | Nate Wiggins is a dawg. Wiggins is one of our draft crushes, and we believe he could end up being the best CB of anyone we’ve watched since we started and that includes names like Sauce, Stingley, Gonzalez, and Witherspoon. Wiggins does have a few weaknesses right now, but there’s a lot to love about him that we believe will overshadow the negatives. The best part about Wiggins is that we believe he’s still raw, there’s more to unlock there than he’s showing on tape. |
| 2 | Stay | Khyree Jackson |  |  | 6'4" | 194 | 72% | JuJu Brents | Updated 3/21/24: Upon a quick rescout, our thoughts have not changed about Khyree Jackson. We don’t care that we are higher on him than most, Jackson has a rare blend of size, length, athleticism, fluidity, and footwork. Even if you don’t think he’s fully polished as a prospect, someone has to take a chance on the skill set that’s there. |
| 3 |  2 | TJ Tampa |  |  | 6'1" | 189 | 66% with upside | Shades of Aqib Talib | TJ Tampa is a prospect that we absolutely love. When you watch the tape, there’s a lot of things that indicate to us that Tampa is going to crush the combine. He is almost everything you want from a CB. He’s got great size, he plays like a safety, he’s physical in man, etc. The big problem is that he struggles as a zone corner. In the right scheme Tampa is 100% a 1st rounder, but for teams that don’t fit his style of play he’s probably more of a Day 2 prospect. |
| 4 | 6 | Max Melton |  |  | 5'11" | 187 | 68% | Slightly higher end Donte Jackson | Updated 3/23/24: Pretty much everything we said in Max Melton’s original summary stands true, except for the part about film(we ended up finding a good amount of film). Melton is a physical, well rounded cornerback prospect who has some of the best athleticism in the class. His reaction time and closing speed may be some of the best we’ve watched in the class. He’s active against the run and isn’t afraid to trigger down hill, not to mention he can hawk down ball carriers. |
| 5 |  1 | Kamari Lassiter |  |  | 5'11.5" | 186 | 68% | Darius Slay | Kamari Lassiter is going to make one NFL team very happy in April. Lassiter is one heck of a player and more importantly a leader and has a team first mentality. Lass has some things to work on, particularly block shedding, but overall is a sound prospect. His speed is hard to gauge, but it doesn’t stop him from playing aggressive and in your face. |
| 6 | 7 | Cooper DeJean |  |  | 6'0.5" | 203 | Scheme Dependent 62% with upside | Ceiling: Trent McDuffie; Floor: Kelee Ringo | Updated 3/19/24: Upon our rescout of Cooper DeJean, we actually really like DeJean as a prospect. When he is a deep zone player, the statement stands, you don’t have to worry about him getting beat deep. When we say DeJean bails, he turns and runs faster than prisoners during a jailbreak. The first time we watched his film it was watching him turn and bail time again and again. In the rescout, thankfully we decided to turn on the Wisconsin tape because it is night and day. Cooper DeJean, similar to fellow 2024 CB Quinyon Mitchell, is a prospect who’s true talent is horribly hidden behind a scheme that doesn’t let him play ball. The similarities between Mitchell and DeJean are actually quite freaky, and honestly could be compared to one another, although DeJean is probably a tad more ready to play Day 1. One of the things we noticed this time around that we felt we kind of ignored the first time around was that very rarely if ever do you see DeJean back pedal. We believe one of the primary reasons why it looks like he bails immediately is because he may not be comfortable in a pedal. When DeJean gets to play the low-mid zones and man coverage, he looks much more comfortable with his ability. Granted Wisconsin didn’t really have an “alpha” receiver, DeJean’s flashes of ability to excel in a different scheme is promising. Just keep in mind that just because we have a starter grade on DeJean doesn’t mean he’s not a bit of a developmental project. If he starts as a role player and special teamer we wouldn’t be surprised, but should win a spot by the end of rookie season. |
| 7 | 4 | Josh Wallace |  |  | 5'11" | 185 | 67% | Taron Johnson | Updated 3/21/24: Alright, so most of our original summary of Josh Wallace stands true. The part that doesn’t is “We don’t think he’ll start, not right off the bat at least, but he will be a high-end backup and possible role player.” Upon a rescout, Wallace is ready to play now. We are under the firm belief that Wallace would be a high end CB2 or even a CB1 for a lot of teams in CFB. He is going to be drafted lower than we have him projected, and he’s going to have to compete, but we believe he is going to come out a starter. He was a UMass transfer that went to one of the CFP’s biggest contenders over the last few years, and not just won a starting job, but in a year established himself as arguably the top CB3 in CFB. Wallace is going to find a way onto the field and only get better with time. |
| 8 | Stay | Josh Newton |  |  | 5'11" | 190 | 64% | Sean Murphy-Bunting | Josh Newton is a really good coverage prospect in this year’s class. He’s good in zone, and really good in man. He’s comfortable playing from press or off, but it definitely feels like he has a preference to press. However, he wants nothing to do with run support and tackling(when possible). When he does tackle though it looks pretty good. |
| 9 | 7 | Quinyon Mitchell |  |  | 6' | 195 | Scheme Dependent 57% with upside | Ceiling: Riq Woolen Lite; Floor: Kaiir Elam | Updated 3/18/24: We will not apologize for giving Mitchell a 20% grade originally. His Toledo film is the reason we find CBs hard to watch. That being said, Mitchell has saved himself in our eyes during Senior Bowl week. We even noted it in our Senior Bowl recap article. From what we can tell Toledo’s system really did not showcase the type of prospect Mitchell COULD be. It’s kind of like if Giannis were to try to get into a smart car… something is very clearly out of place. In Senior Bowl 1-on-1’s Mitchell showcased an ability to press and play physical as well an ability to run and cover most receivers. Was he perfect? No, but it was more impressive than his actual game film. Dating back to our original scout of him, we noted his hips are pretty fluid and footwork is pretty good. It showed true Senior Bowl week and his hip fluidity showed at the Combine. His footwork and overall drill work at the Combine was a bit rougher than we thought it’d be, but that’s the reality. Whoever takes him needs to understand he’s a bit of a development project, and his footwork in particular is going to need cleaning up, but there’s athleticism and a skillset there ready for the right opportunity. We believe his success will be dependent on the team that takes him. We have faith in the right situation he could pan out to be the prospect people are hyping him up to be, but given the wrong situation he’s going to make someone in the organization look really bad. That’s where the comp comes into play. Mitchell in the right situation could pan out like Riq Woolen did, or he could flame out before it even starts like Kaiir Elam. |
| 10 | 3 | Kris Abrams-Draine |  |  | 5'11" | 179 | 63% | Jack Jones without the firearm | Kris Abrams-Draine is a solid cornerback prospect in this year’s class. He has inside-outside versatility, and based on size may move to the slot, but we think he could handle outside duties if asked. He is better in man coverage than zone coverage, and has extremely sticky coverage skills. His zone is good, but you can see more issues with his zone than man. His breaks in zone drops not being as clean as man are the main thing. His willingness to come down hill and support against the run varies, and that’s a primary reason for his Day 1 and 2 tweener grade. |
| 11 | 2 | Kool-Aid McKinstry |  |  | 5'11.5" | 199 | 62% | Casey Hayward | Updated 3/22/24: Kool-Aid McKinstry is a slightly better CB prospect than we originally had him pinned to be. We still like his man coverage ability more than his zone coverage. We worry about him losing sight of receivers going vertical on deep drops. The biggest positive we noticed this time around that we didn’t see the first time was that his closing speed looks extremely solid. The other is that we saw much better physicality. The things that popped out this time in a negative way is his tackling. It’s not as decent as we saw the first time around. He hits high and doesn’t have the strength to finish. The sideline is his best friend. |
| 12 | Stay | Cam Hart |  |  | 6'3" | 202 | 55% | Jaylen Watson with Peanut Tillman's FF Mindset | Cam Hart is going to be a solid Day 3 pick for someone. Hart has really good length for the position that it feels like he’s still trying to figure out how to use to his advantage. Hart for the most part feels like he has the potential to be a lock down to an extent(while covering Marv, he was only targeted once). Our favorite part of his game is that when he gives up something underneath you can see his eyes dart immediately for the ball, he wants to punch it out. The reason his grade is not higher is because he does have a handful of negatives which include questionable speed, being minimal in run support, and sluggish change of direction. |
| 13 | 1 | Storm Duck |  |  | 6'1" | 200 | 45% | Shades of Kyu Blu kelly | Storm Duck is a prospect that we are super upset about, and of no fault of his own. In the 2 games we watched from 2023, Duck played probably 50% of snaps against Kentucky, but next to nothing against ND. If Louisville thought they had two corners better fine, but we are telling you Duck could’ve started for many other schools at CB. He’s got stuff to clean up and get better at no doubt, but he’s a really good coverage prospect. Good in man and zone, press or off, and he’s got good footwork that helps him break on route and mirror receivers. Not to mention he’s aggressive against blockers and wants to be involved in the run game. We believe he should be taken on Day 3, but due to lack of snaps this year it feels more likely that he’s going to end up a UDFA. |