Preliminary 2024 CB preview: Question marks … The cornerback position has been on kind of a nice little role in the past few years. Indeed, in 4 of the past 6 drafts, at least one CB was taken with a top 5 selection. That includes Devon Witherspoon, whom Seattle nabbed with the 5th pick this past April, as well as Derek Stingley and Sauce Gardner who were chosen with the 3rd and 4th picks respectively by Houston and the NY Jets at the 2022 draft. However, it may be a tad problematic for that trend to continue this year as it could be something of a down year at the position. In fact, its not clear that any corners will necessarily get a call within the first ten picks next April. Alabama’s Kool-Aid McKinstry, for example, is the only corner considered to have top ten potential, at least at this time, and while s very good prospect, he’s now lock. Meanwhile, there are a couple of other Big Ten CBs with later first-round potential in Ohio State’s Denzel Burke and Kalen King Penn State.
What makes the 2024 CB class a little more interesting, though, is a rather intriguing second-tier group that features several good players with upside including Kamari Lassiter of Georgia, Florida’s underrated Jason Mitchell, Max Melton of Rutgers, A&M’s Tony Grimes, Fentrell Cypress of Florida State and Storm Duck of Louisville. The latter three, for example, were considered to be solid candidates for the 2023 draft, but opted to return for another year in college, although all three also transferred: Grimes and Duck from North Carolina and Cypress from Virginia. For now, here is our preliminary ranking of the 2024 draft CB class.
