Official Day one Draft thread

[run pMc]

If you think about it though, it makes sense. Campbell and Melifonwu is too stiff. They didn't hit the Packers minimum testing requirements. Samuel is short. He doesn't meet the Packers minimum height requirements. Joseph fits what the Packers want, but he has character concerns. When you look at it that way, you have Stokes and the next guy on the Packers board is probably Paulson Adebo. There's a pretty good difference there. I like Aaron Robinson, but he's more of a slot CB.

I wouldn't be surprised if the Packers doubled up at CB, if Kelvin Joseph (round 3) or Marco Wilson (round 4) later.

You're right -- it does make sense. King will start to begin the season, but Stokes should replace him by the end of it. It seems like maybe Stokes' speed is more legit than King's, so he should be better able to blanket the Scottie Millers of the league on 9 routes.

Agree on doubling up at CB -- I was thinking Ambry Thomas in R4 maybe? He can return kicks.
I don't think they'll take a WR until Day 3, and then they'll double dip by picking two. (Unless Nico Collins is still there in R3.)

[HarveyWallbangers]

I was thinking Ambry Thomas in R4 maybe? He can return kicks.
I don't think they'll take a WR until Day 3, and then they'll double dip by picking two. (Unless Nico Collins is still there in R3.)

I'm not a big Nico Collins fan in most schemes. However, I think he fits what the Packers like--and there's a chance we'll pick up. He's big, he's a good blocker. Downside is that he has a hard time getting open. However, MLF schemes guys like him open (see Lazard).

[wist43]

I think the knock on Stokes, more than being "grabby" is his feet and instincts.

He can get turned too easily, and then doesn't recover b/c of poor footwork... that's hard to coach over.

If it's bump and run all day, he's fine; but, CB has evolved into a much more complex position.

We'll see...

I'm sure Rodgers is thrilled, lol...

[Joemailman]

Gute's kind of guy.

[Guiness]

They can get the boxing gloves they used with Grabby Smurf.

gawd I was waiting for someone to bring that up

[HarveyWallbangers]

Another scouting report

https://nfldraft.theringer.com/

SCOUTING REPORT
Stokes has a tall, sinewy frame with long arms and rare, twitched up athleticism. At his pro day, he clocked in at 4.25 seconds in the 40 while notching a 38.5-inch vertical. A former three-star recruit, he won First-Team All-SEC honors in 2020 after tallying four interceptions (two for touchdowns) and four pass breakups. In three seasons at Georgia, he appeared in 36 games, making 26 starts, and showed consistently excellent ball skills, racking up 22 total passes defensed. Stokes lined up on both sides and got a few looks in the slot, showing coverage skills in both press man looks and in off-zone coverage. He has good length, and knows how to use the sideline as leverage. He’s patient, trusts his speed, and can flip his hips and stay in phase down the field. He’s physical at the catch point, looking to swat the ball or rake an opponent’s arms.

Stokes has a good feel for off-coverage, reacting to the quarterback’s eyes to anticipate throws. He is quick to plant-and-drive to the ball. And he screams off the edge as a blitzer. However, he’s too easily blocked out of the play against the run, and is a pile watcher who is too content to let his teammates do the hitting. He’s physical downfield and may need to adjust his techniques to avoid flags at the next level.

WHY HE COULD RISE
Stokes combines elite speed with length, physicality at the catch point, and the versatility to play multiple coverage looks.

WHY HE COULD FALL
He’s a bit too physical downfield and lacks oomph as a tackler in the run game.

[HarveyWallbangers]

https://www.si.com/nfl/draft/nfl-draft/hot-take-tuesday-georgia-cb-eric-stokes

So who is the top corner in this year’s class?

The prospect that has the talent to be an elite shutdown cornerback at the next level is Eric Stokes. He is the top cornerback for the upcoming 2021 NFL draft.

It starts with Stokes’ measurables. He is going to check all the boxes when it comes to his size. According to Eric Stokes, he's 6014 and 194 pounds. He claims his wingspan is also 79 inches. All of which are perfect for the position. That length shows up on film, as Stokes had 22 pass breakups in his career. His speed is unbelievable for his size, as Stokes, who ran a 10.39 100 meters in high school, projects to run in the 4.3-range at his pro day.

To put that into perspective, the only player to run sub-4.4 at the combine who was 6010 or taller was CJ Henderson last year. Henderson went ninth overall and the only reason he wasn’t the first cornerback off the board was Jeff Okudah, who truly had one of the most dominant collegiate seasons in recent memory.

At this point last season, Henderson was thought of by the media as a fringe first-round pick. Once people got to his tape and he tested the way he did, Henderson skyrocketed up boards.

At Georgia, Stokes put up three years of really good tape, in which he improved every season. With a position like cornerback, it is essential to see growth. There are instances where young cornerbacks come in and have success that they can never duplicate.

Can they handle giving up plays? Were they lucky? Did an aspect of their game get exposed over time? These are all valid questions about how difficult the position has become.

Stokes was solid as a freshman and sophomore but he took his game to another level this past season. His biggest knock was his lack of ball production. This season, he had four interceptions in only nine games in the SEC and took two of the picks to the house.

He was targeted on 28 passes, four of which were intercepted and four were broken up. When looking at the analytics, he only gave up 0.51 yards per snap, better than both Pat Surtain II and Jaycee Horn.

One of the most underrated aspects of Stokes’ game, though, is his ability to shut down receivers in the red zone. With the high-powered offenses around the league, the notion “bend, but don’t break” is critical. Stokes is at his best inside the 20.

There are other talented cornerbacks in the class but they all have their flaws. Both Jaycee Horn and Pat Surtain II lack top-end speed and athleticism. In a league where both are so crucial, their absence of them is concerning.

Lengthy Virginia Tech cornerback Caleb Farley is very athletic but he did not play this year due to opt-out and his sophomore year film wasn’t strong enough to warrant some of the praise he’s getting. However, Stokes checks every box that a defensive coordinator will be looking for in a cornerback.

Size, speed, character, good tape and upside, making him the top cornerback in the upcoming 2021 NFL draft.

[RashanGary]

I like that he can play both press man and zone. And the speed.

I don’t like that he’s soft in the run game and grabby.

We’ll see. It’s typical of Gute to make these high upside home run swings. Every first rounder is a swing for the fences. There’s zero “play it safe” to Gutes early picks. But it’s scary.

[texaspackerbacker]

The more I read about this guy the happier I am with the pick. Newsome might have been more polished, but Stokes seems a lot more athletic, and not a word about injury issues - unlike Newsome. His few faults seem like the kind of thing that good coaching can fix.

[HarveyWallbangers]

I like that he can play both press man and zone. And the speed.

I don’t like that he’s soft in the run game and grabby.

We’ll see. It’s typical of Gute to make these high upside home run swings. Every first rounder is a swing for the fences. There’s zero “play it safe” to Gutes early picks. But it’s scary.

To be fair, he's had great success drafting ultra-athletic DBs in round 1 (Savage and Jaire; King was a TT pick).

On a positive note: Bahk is rumored to be way ahead of schedule in his rehab, and it looks like there's a good chance he'll be ready very early in the season.

[RashanGary]

Looking at the write ups, I actually think he’s a good bet. He plays good man coverage and good zone coverage. That’s the biggest part of his job so being good at playing multiple coverages is a really good sign.

He has one wart that will probably be long term in the run game

He has one coachable wart in the grabby play style

His speed makes him a high upside, possibly Sam Shields, sort of player.


It’s high upside home run kind of swing late in round 1. You can never accuse Gute of playing it safe.

[red]

a lot of the things that draft writeups are saying about stokes were said about jaire

[RashanGary]

To be fair, he's had great success drafting ultra-athletic DBs in round 1 (Savage and Jaire; King was a TT pick).

On a positive note: Bahk is rumored to be way ahead of schedule in his rehab, and it looks like there's a good chance he'll be ready very early in the season.

1. Yeah, jaire and Savage definitely give me hope that Gute knows how to pick defensive backs

2. I was happy to hear that about Bakh too. And there are a ton of OTs in this years draft. Might last all the way through round 2 with starters.

[RashanGary]

a lot of the things that draft writeups are saying about stokes were said about jaire

The most positive thing I can read about a corner is that he plays good man AND zone coverage. That’s the primary job description so when you get a guy who’s a 4.2 speed guy who’s good at coverage, that’s just a really good sign that he can play in the NFL. I think he’s a good bet to be solid and a pretty exciting upside guy to get so late in the first round.

[HarveyWallbangers]

Good article. To be fair, this guy is not Ahmad Carroll. He was actually the less grabby of the two Georgia CBs (Tyson Campbell being the other) in the film I watched.

Sounds a bit like Jaire. Good kid. Plays with an edge on the field. Too bad Kevin King got beat on a nine ball in the NFC Championship Game.

https://www.si.com/nfl/2021/04/23/eric-stokes-potential-nfl-draft-steal-hiding-plain-sight

Eric Stokes Is a Potential NFL Draft Steal Hiding in Plain Sight

The Georgia cornerback who ran a 4.25 40-yard dash and ably covered the likes of Jerry Jeudy, Justin Jefferson and Devonta Smith during college could soon be a star.

On his first day of practice at Georgia, Eric Stokes was approached by a future first-round pick, fellow cornerback DeAndre Baker, and let in on a secret.

Whatever you do, just don’t get beat on no nine balls.

Baker meant that, if in practice he happened to be facing a wideout running a straight go or fly roue, Stokes had better be behind the receiver to prevent the kind of touchdown that tends to leave emotional scars and swing games. There were few things head coach Kirby Smart hated more. Of course, Baker had no idea he was talking to the fastest man in Georgia—literally. If any prospect was losing a footrace, it wasn’t going to be Stokes.

Stokes had the tendency to sneak up on people, like the time he was just a gangly freshman competing in Georgia’s high school track championships. In a photo that would later become famous because of another participant, future Browns running back Nick Chubb, Stokes was getting his footing, head down, calm as a warm breeze, while the muscle-bound Chubb leapt so high in the air during his warmups that, because of the angle of the photo, it looked like he had cleared all his competitors’ heads. Stokes, who looked like he had stumbled into the adult race by accident, finished just 0.002 seconds behind Chubb that year, matching the future Pro Bowler stride for stride.

Baker wasn’t the only one. Few people knew about Stokes on the early morning car rides to school from the housing authority in Covington, Ga., where Stokes would tell his assistant football coach and track coach, Frankey Iverson, that he needed to figure out some way—any way—to get grandma out of this place (he plans on using his first paycheck to buy her a house).

A coach from Ole Miss recommended switching the kid from running back, where he’d been living out his juke-happy boyhood Reggie Bush fantasy, to cornerback. He went to Georgia Tech to watch the Yellow Jackets play Florida State and glued himself to Derwin James and Jalen Ramsey, selling himself on the position and the plan to make it out of Georgia. Stokes won statewide sprint races his sophomore and junior years, and took the 100-meter crown at the Adidas Dream Mile despite being invited as a last-minute filler. He begged Iverson to move him from his dominant space, the 400 meters, back to the 100 meters for the end of his high school career and was told that he could only do so if he ran faster than anyone else at the school. In his next race, Stokes smoked the field while pointing up at the press box, letting Iverson know it was time to pay up on the bet. On the football field, he was twitchy and dynamic.

Iverson said that, while no team has bothered to call and ask, in all of their time spent together, hundreds of hand- and computer-timed 40-yard dashes and 100-meter sprints, he has never seen Eric slip below the timed equivalent of a 4.3 second 40-yard dash. At Georgia’s pro day this year, he ran a 4.25.

“We’ve had some fast kids, but, he’s … lightyears ahead,” Iverson said. “We always feel like speed is speed. If you’re fast on a track, you’re fast on a football field. The difference with Eric is that he’s so competitive. Eric has a Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde personality. Off the football field, he’s the warmest and sweetest kid. When it’s competition time, I don’t even recognize him.”

When it comes to the 2021 class’s cornerback hierarchy, Stokes’s name is rarely mentioned, despite the fairly obvious pitch. As the NFL continues to find ways to put fast offensive weapons in space, why wouldn’t teams look a little closer at the draft’s fastest corner? Despite having spent just five years at the position, Stokes’s technique has refined to match his athletic skill, separating him from prospects who may look more like an Al Davis fever dream with immense bust potential. He picked off four passes in nine games in the shortened 2020 season. According to Sports Info Solutions, Stokes allowed an opposing quarterback completion rate of 38% in 2020. In the SEC. Against receivers like DeVonta Smith, Jaylen Waddle and Ja'Marr Chase, each of whom might come off the board before him. Teams throwing against him in 2020 experienced a negative expected points added rating of -16, higher than that of Alabama’s Patrick Surtain II. He was taking away more than half a point per target.

Over the last few weeks, according to a league source, his meeting schedule has ballooned. Stokes has had at least a third (but often a fourth or fifth) Zoom meeting with a dozen teams. There is a belief among teams that he will not drop any lower than the mid-30s.

“The film speaks for itself,” Stokes said. “Every year, historically, I’ve faced supposedly the best historical offense each year. In 2018, Alabama. Jerry Jeudy, Henry Ruggs, that was a nasty offense and I believe I did my thing. In 2019, [LSU]. Joe Burrow, Ja'Marr Chase, Justin Jefferson. I did my thing again.

“This year, I did decent against DeVonta Smith, Jaylen Waddle. I played my best against some of the best.”

According to Pro Football Focus' premium college stats, over three years when matched up against a horde of first-round picks from Alabama and LSU (Justin Jefferson, Ja'Marr Chase, Clyde Edwards-Helaire, Devonta Smith, Henry Ruggs and Jaylen Waddle) Stokes allowed a total of seven catches on 11 targets for two touchdowns. The longest completion against any of those players was 23 yards.

Those who know Stokes insist his game is different from other track converts, in that his speed is functional and not just cultivated for largely meaningless workout measurements. In high school, he was trained as a 400-meter runner with the theory that all runners decelerate at some point, so why not maximize the sprint volume? Why not be faster for longer? Why not break your new team’s GPS data? He’s also physical, grading out as one of the better press corners in this year’s draft. A spin through some of his college tape is surprisingly violent; a montage of interception returns showing him fighting off defenders, blowing up quarterbacks on corner blitzes and busting up middle-range passes hanging over the middle of the field.

Against Alabama in the 2018 national championship, with Alabama driving inside the 10-yard line, Stokes was lined up against Jeudy, later a first-round pick of the Broncos. After Stokes jammed him at the line, the Crimson Tide offense sent a tight end out into the flat to the same side, creating somewhat of a rub route meant to disadvantage the corner, slow him down and create separation for Jeudy. Stokes recovered in short space, unboxed his 6' frame and broke up the pass in the end zone, despite a perfect throw. He’d made a habit out of knifing through schemes designed to put him off pace.

Stokes also added: He never did get beat on the nine ball in a game, either. At Georgia he gave up just three total touchdowns in three years.

“I’m gonna give you everything I got. Games? I’m sorry. This is where they watch you. It’s the real deal. I’m not gonna get beat on a nine ball in a game,” he said.