Dallas Cowboys Draft: 7 different cornerbacks in 7 different rounds

Kelvin Joseph, Kentucky

Value: Fair with caution

In the mock draft I shamelessly plugged a few moments before, Joseph ends up being the selection in the third round. Here’s the situation!

Joseph is a good cornerback prospect. He displays good athletic ability to match up in press coverage against big receivers and displays good body control to jam receivers at the line of scrimmage, albeit with some inconsistency. He has good foot speed to mirror receivers in their stem and displays good instincts to read receiver’s hips to follow out of breaks.

The ability to match your lower body with receivers is important, but displaying ball skills and your upper body to out leverage wide receivers are equally important especially in the stem of the route. Joseph struggles here specifically in man coverage. (All his interceptions came when playing in zone coverage.)

Now for the reason I added “with caution”. The former Wildcat and LSU transfer has had some off-field issue that essentially caused him to transfer from Baton Rouge to Lexington. In this draft cycle. In another offseason where meetings with prospects are limited, it is harder for teams to grasp whether a certain player is the right fit for the culture they’re trying to build.

Joseph displays a lot of similar traits to Horn; he comes with better ball skills tied to some baggage. Dan Quinn would be dying at the opportunity to use all these draft picks on defensive players, but more importantly, on good press coverage cornerbacks with good athletic ability and good football IQ.