We are now going to take a look at the 2016 cornerback class. Based on prior draft classes, the A2B™ groups cornerbacks into 5 Player Types based on their athletic profiles.
Huge Physical: This group consists of huge (~6’2” or taller), physical CBs – think Seattle CBs (Brandon Browner). Usually these CBs have lower overall athleticism, but there are a few exceptions to this rule (Nnamdi Asomugha).
Big Explosive: This group has CBs with good size (~6’1”-6’2”), explosion, and strength. There are several great CBs that fall in this group such as Patrick Peterson and Aqib Talib.
All Around: These CBs tend to have more average size (~5’11”), but show good athleticism and speed (Vontae Davis, Ronald Darby).
Small Nickelback: These are your small (~5’9”-5’10”), slightly less athletic CBs (Brandon Boykin).
Low Athleticism: These CBs tend to have limited athletic ability. Often times, they do not have success in the NFL.
Historically, the “Big Explosive”, “All Around”, and “Huge Physical” cornerbacks have had the best NFL outcomes.
Breaking Down the 2016 Class
- The 2016 class of cornerbacks consists largely of “All Around” and “Big Explosive” CB Types.
- There was only one “Huge Physical” CB (Jalen Ramsey).
Next, we’ll take a broad look at the 2016 CB class as a whole in terms of their A2B™ Potential Scores.
About half of this year’s prospects show above average NFL Potential, meaning 2016 is neither a great nor exceptionally poor year for CBs. This is in comparison to, say, our previous posts were we identified that 2016 is something of a subpar year for wide receivers. There is a relatively large number of mid-tier “Moderate Potential” CBs (37%) in this draft class that may represent good value in the mid-to-late rounds, but a limited number of top-tier “High Potential” CBs (13%).
Let’s take a closer look at some of those A2B™ “High Potential” prospects, some of whom may not be who you’re expecting. Here we present the 2016 draft class CBs with the 5 highest A2B™ NFL Potential scores.
The Player Type Confidence scores are something we’re recently added to the A2B™ player profile. They range from 0-100 and represent how confident we are in the player’s grouping. Ramsey’s Confidence score is lowered due to his exceptional athleticism, which is highly atypical in the Huge Physical A2B™ Player Type grouping, demonstrating that sometimes it’s good to be an odd-ball…
To give some context on the NFL Potential metric values, listed are some recent CBs with high A2B™ NFL Potential scores.
Looking at the high scorers for the 2016 CB class, a few things pop out.
- Jalen Ramsey clearly has the best athletic profile in the 2016 class. He is super athletic with great SEP and strength. This equates to exceptional NFL potential (around the top 5% of CBs historically).
- Although Brandon Williams and Anthony Brown both have lower overall athleticism, their unique speed elevates their NFL potential.
- Eli Apple had limited NFL Combine data (2 events), but his athleticism looks like it could transfer well to the NFL.
- Athletically, Jonathan Jones is great (above average athlete with exceptional unique speed). However, his lack of size could limit his NFL potential.
- Ramsey and Apple are highly ranked by scouting experts so their excellent A2B™ scores provide objective support.
- Williams, Brown, and Jones are not as high touted by experts so teams may want to explore these prospects more closely since they could represent good “value”.
That wraps up our discussion of the A2B™ with regards to the 2016 cornerbacks. Next time, we will highlight the running backs.