2025 draft preview: Cornerbacks … As with pretty much the rest of the defence, the 2024 draft was something of a disappointment for the CBs. Three were selected in the opening round, but not until the very latter part of the round. In fact, it was the first draft since 2019 that a corner wasn’t selected with a top ten pick. In 2022, for example, 7 corners were selected in the opening round, including Derek Stingley and Sauce Gardner who were selected with the 3rd and 4th picks respectively. And while it is still early, the 2025 draft looks like it will be a whole lot closer to 2022 than 2024. Indeed, there are at least a couple of corners in Michigan’s Will Johnson and multi-talented Travis Hunter of Colorado with top 5-10 potential, while Ben Morrison of Notre Dame isn’t all that far behind. Same story for Arizona’s Tacario Davis, who isn’t necessarily as well known nationally, but who has created quite a buzz among scouts because of his length and athleticism, while there is a decent group of second-tier corners with late-first, early second potential including ball-hawking Jabbar Muhammad of Oregon, speedster Jason Marshall of Florida and Denzel Burke of Ohio State who was considered to be a top prospect at the position last year before he opted to return to school. In fact, Burke heads up what should be the most talented CB-room in college football next fall as he’ll be joined at the position by Jordan Hancock and Davison Igbinosun, both of whom are second day candidates. Meanwhile, other CBs to watch include Sebastian Castro of Iowa, who many compared favorably to Dejean Cooper, his more celebrated teammate who was selected early in this past April’s draft, Quincy Riley of Louisville, and Fentrell Cypress of Florida State. Here is our pre-season ranking of the 2025 CB class.
