From now until the 2023 NFL Draft, we will scout and create profiles for as many prospects as possible, examining their strengths, weaknesses, and what they can bring to an NFL franchise. These players could be potential top-10 picks, all the way down to Day 3 selections and priority undrafted free agents. Today, I’ll be profiling Purdue CB Cory Trice.
#23 Cory Trice/CB Purdue – 6033, 206 lbs. (Senior)
MEASUREMENTS
| Player | Ht/Wt | Hand Size | Arm Length | Wingspan |
| Cory Trice | 6033, 206 | 9 3/4 | 32 3/8 | N/A |
| 40-Yard Dash | 10-Yard Dash | Short Shuttle | 3-Cone | |
| 4.47 | 1.56 | 4.06 | 6.70 | |
| Broad Jump | Vertical | Bench Press | ||
| 11’0″ | 35.5 | 17 |
THE GOOD
— Has long frame with good length
— Uses length well to press, jam, and disrupt at the line of scrimmage, comfortable aligning inside leverage and forcing outside release
— Physical downhill player with quick click/close out of his pedal, numbers shown up in his broad and vert
— Can deliver impactful hits when driving downhill, good pop and a reliable wrap-up tackler though he doesn’t deliver devastating blows
— Experience in press and off, mix of zone and man
— Aggressive with the ball in the air, wants to attack it
— Can play catch point and use length to bat passes away
— Hasn’t played a ton of football and best football may be ahead of him
— Regarded as a hard-worker with maturity and discipline
The Bad
— Lean frame, high-cut and could add some weight and muscle
— Stiffer when asked to flip hips and cover in-breaking routes, though perhaps impacted by knee brace/injury
— Eyes can get glued to QB in zone coverage and allow routes behind him
— Needs to get hands on at the line or looks more uncomfortable and will get beat
— Plays a tick slower than his 4.47 time
— Gets grabby at top of routes and feels compelled to get and keep hands on receivers at all times, will lead to penalties
— Plays run tough but prone to getting stuck on stalk blocks
— Will need to get more comfortable playing in space, primarily boundary CB in college
— Lacks top-end production and lacks great starting experience, even rotated out in 2022
— Some medical concerns
Bio
— Turns 23 in May
— 26 career starts for the Boilermakers
— Career: 106 tackles (4 TFL), 15 PDs 5 INTs across five seasons
— 2022: 34 tackles (2 TFL), 10 PDs, 2 INTs
— Consistently on the All-Academic team
— Tore ACL in October of 2021 during practice, suffered high ankle injury earlier in 2021 season
— Wore knee brace early in 2022 season before being ditching it in early October
— Three-star recruit from Hopkinsville, Kentucky, chose Purdue over Bowling Green, Cincinnati, and Miami (OH) along with a handful of small schools, weighed 190 pounds
— Played safety in high school, moved to CB in 2019 due to injuries in Purdue’s secondary, until that point hadn’t played CB since 8th grade
— Had three KR touchdowns senior year of high school
— Broke his ankle senior year of high school, missing the final four games
— Father, Cory Sr., was shot and killed in 2010
Tape Breakdown
Consider Purdue’s Cory Trice something of a sleeper in this deep and loaded cornerback class. Like Penn State’s Joey Porter Jr. and Kansas State’s Julius Brents, Trice is a height/weight/speed type who is most comfortable pressing and re-routing receivers off the line of scrimmage.
While Trice’s length isn’t quite as elite as others, he uses his levers well with a hard punch off the line. Purdue often aligned him with inside leverage to force receivers outside, allowing Trice to ride and push his man to the sideline. In true press, you see him deliver some heavy blows and get his hands on guys.
He uses his length well closing on underneath routes, able to click/close and drive on the football.
A former safety, he plays the run like one, too. He can come up and hit you downhill, showing explosiveness out of his pedal. He isn’t an overwhelming hitter, but he gets the job done and is above average in this area.
Trice is high-cut and a little tight, like a lot of other corners with his build. Some of that can be attributed to the torn ACL he suffered in 2021 and the knee brace he wore the first month of 2022, along with getting over the mental hurdle of the injury. I took a brief look at his 2020 tape, and he looked better and moved around the defense a bit more. Still, he’s going to have an issue sticking to in-breaking routes while his top end speed looks more like low 4.5s as opposed to high 4.4s.
He also needs to work on his eyes and can get them caught in the backfield. Here, he gets stuck and loses #2 becoming the new #1, running vertical and past him along with Trice unable to leave blades of grass on the field to prevent the touchdown.
If he can’t get hands on receivers at the line of scrimmage, he struggles. Beat twice here against Michigan, bottom of the screen, the latter giving up a touchdown.
Off the field, Trice is regarded as high character guy. His father was an old-school disciplinarian who would even iron his socks before he was tragically shot and killed in 2010. His dad had a major influence and in this 2019 tweet, you can see Trice’s “goal board” that remembers his father.
Conclusion
Trice is forgotten about among corners with his body type but more experience and production than he does. Still, Trice has a lot of the tools for which teams look. I’d love him in a Cover 2-heavy scheme that allows him to jam and erase throws in the flat. Teams will need to utilize his press-man ability to maximize his talents. It also wouldn’t be a shock to see him return to safety given he’s a little tight. It’s a deep class but he could go higher than people think. My NFL comp is Jalen Mills.
Projection: Late Day Two
Depot Draft Scale: 7.7MED – Potential Starter/Good Backup (3rd Round)
Games Watched: vs Minnesota (2020), at Maryland (2022), vs Michigan (2022), vs Penn State (2022)
