Dallas Cowboys: The Curious Case of Nahshon Wright (a film breakdown)
How does he compare with his fellow draft mates?
The beaver was the second cornerback the Cowboys selected and the twelfth cornerback out of 38 selected in the 2021 NFL draft. Wright was the fourth cornerback chosen in the third round, a round that had eight selected. (The most of any round this year) The Cowboys had three selections in the third round opting to bolster their defensive line before attacking cornerback once more.
Here were all the cornerbacks selected in the third round this year:
Rd 3, Pick 7: Aaron Robinson, UCF, NYG
Rd 3, Pick 10: Benjamin St. Juste, Minnesota, WFT
Rd 3, Pick 12: Paulson Adebo, Stanford, NO
Rd 3, Pick 36: Nahshon Wright, Oregon State, DAL
Rd 3, Pick 37: Elijah Molden, Washington, TEN
Rd 3, Pick 38: Ifeatu Melifonwu, Syracuse, DET
Rd 3, Pick 39: Ambry Thomas, Michigan, SF
Rd 3, Pick 41: Brandon Stephens, SMU, BAL
Dallas had picks 11, 21, and 36 in the third round, so as it relates to the third round, let’s say the Cowboys didn’t have a chance grabbing Robinson or St. Juste. At pick 11, Dallas went with UCLA DT Osa Odighizuwa over Stanford cornerback Paul Adebo. It’s obviously unclear how the rest of the league felt about the Bruin, but it is clear the rest of the league liked Adebo enough to make him a priority day 2 pick.
How would the Cowboys have viewed Adebo? Probably fairly high. Adebo has the length at 31.5-inch arms and tested off the charts at his pro day. Even though he hadn’t played in a year, the Cowboys likely would have been in contact with him as they were in contact with his teammate Simi Fehoko.
The obvious issue with Adebo is that he hasn’t played the game in over a year and in his last season, he struggled in bigger games in man coverage. Considering my previous remarks on Wright and the Cowboys’ tendency to play man coverage, this might not have mattered too much in the player evaluation but with too many variables in his game, Adebo might not have been high on the board even with an ideal skill set after it was all said and done.
After a small early run on cornerbacks at the beginning of the third round, the end of the third round ended with five cornerbacks being selected in the final six picks of day two. To most analysts, Wright was seen as a worse prospect than Washington CB Elijah Molden, Syracuse CB Ifeatu Melifonwu, and Michigan CB Ambry Thomas. Let us consider their scheme fit with the Cowboys’ current defensive scheme.
Scheme fit
Elijah Molden: Bad Scheme Fit
Ifeatu Melifonwu: Solid Scheme Fit
Ambry Thomas: Solid Scheme Fit
Molden’s measurables combined with his mediocre foot speed is a bad fit in a defense that prioritizes length and good range. It’s impossible to deny that the intellect of Molden would bring a positive impact to the Cowboys’ defense, but positionally his only fit on this defense was as a nickel cornerback and the Cowboys have Anthony Brown, Jourdan Lewis, and now Kelvin Joseph to fill that role. Molden was never an option purely from a saturation standpoint especially at this point in the draft.
Next is Melifonwu. Much like his brother Obi, Ifeatu is tall and an incredible athlete. Even though his 40 yard dash time was average, his jumps highlighted his natural explosiveness. The Cowboys were very interested in Obi, so why was there not as much interest in his brother? Likely because Melifonwu isn’t really a press coverage cornerback…
Having watched Melifonwu and Wright extensively, I can’t help but wonder how two players of similar stature have such different games. Melifonwu was good in off coverage at Syracuse showing good instincts to read and react to the WR and then break on the ball. If you asked Wright to do the same it likely doesn’t end well.
But when you factor in Melifonwu and Wright’s press coverage ability, you could make the case that Wright is a better player in press coverage. Both players have struggled with jamming at the line of scrimmage but Melifonwu struggles more often because of how he deals with contact compared to Wright. The Syracuse cornerback looks out of place either because he isn’t striking correctly or because he doesn’t have the strength to play through receivers.
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When factoring in scheme fit Wright is the obvious choice, but front offices and coaching staffs constantly talk about the need for players to be versatile and Melifonwu quite literally defines versatility. The success of both these players will always be linked for Cowboys fans; fantastic news considering how Trysten Hill and Juan Thornhill’s careers have progressed so far.
As for Ambry Thomas, his downfall is he’s barely 6-feet tall. With Wright being 6-feet-4 inches, Thomas just doesn’t have the same frame and looks closer to Kelvin Joseph than Nahshon Wright. He doesn’t have the transition quickness and he panics when he feels he’s starting to lose leverage on the receiver. Hailing from Michigan, he has plenty of practice playing press coverage, but obviously, the Cowboys didn’t feel the tape stood out enough.
No conclusions can be made about any of these players without them stepping onto the football field, but the Cowboys didn’t get a bad cornerback in Nahshon Wright, and compared to the other players selected around him, he fits well for the Cowboys.
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Pegging a player into a hole in the name of scheme fit is usually a losing formula, but sometimes it provides the player an extra confidence boost and that’s all he needs in order to make an NFL All-Pro team. Hopefully, that’s the story we can tell with the former Laney College prospect when it’s all said and done.