Dallas Cowboys Draft: 5 Best Players Heading into Day Three
Bryce Hall, CB, Virginia
Hall was once one of the top cornerbacks heading into the 2020 NFL draft. Unfortunately, a season-ending knee injury now leaves him currently undrafted. Hall already wasn’t the most athletic cornerback prospect, but with the teams’ medical staff unable to clear Hall his NFL future is currently a bit murky.
Hall is a really good zone coverage cornerback. The 6-foot-1, 202-pound cornerback has excellent length and strength for the position. He uses his long arms to mess with receivers releases and possesses excellent body control when dealing with contact mid-route. Unfortunately, because he has a bigger body, he doesn’t particularly great hip flexibility or lateral quickness.
However, even with some athletic deficiencies, he was extremely productive in his time with the Cavaliers. In 2018, the starting cornerback had 21 pass deflections. He was on pace for similar numbers in 2019 until his season-ending injury. With another year of film, his deficiencies were going to be more apparent, yet he managed to hold his ground. Now teams will have to take a chance on his athleticism and hope he is somewhere close to where he was at the beginning of the 2019 season.
Even with some inconsistencies as a tackler, Hall is still one of the best remaining prospects on the board. It is unfortunate how quickly he fell from grace.
Amik Robertson, CB, Louisiana Tech
This cornerback class projects to be one for the ages. Teams seem to agree as eleven have come off of the board. Surprisingly, one that has yet to do so is fellow Louisiana Tech Bulldog Amik Robertson. While Robertson has ridiculous production, his small frame has kept him from being selected in the earlier rounds of the draft.
The Cowboys already had Chidobe Awuzie as a starting outside cornerback. In the second round, they added Trevon Diggs. Next in line are Anthony Brown, Jourdan Lewis, Saivion Smith, and Maurice Canady. There now seems to be depth at the position but in the spirit of healthy competition, Robertson could be an interesting addition. He projects to play in the slot at the next level; he could provide necessary competition to the war between Anthony Brown and Jourdan Lewis, both of whom were underwhelming in the 2019 season.
Robertson is only 5-foot-8 with sub-31 inch arms, but he plays much bigger. Against some of the biggest receivers in the country, his physicality and body control didn’t allow receivers bigger than him to dominate at the line of scrimmage. This all led to 14 interceptions and 34 pass deflections in his three-year career in Ruston.
It wouldn’t be typical of the Cowboys to draft a cornerback without the desired length, but Robertson could be an exception to the rule. His ball production and physicality speak for themselves. It wasn’t that long ago that the Cowboys drafted another undersized defensive back with decent ball production and average athleticism. I think it has worked out pretty well.