Even though they traded for one, the Pittsburgh Steelers are showing an interest in adding another starting-caliber cornerback, having brought in draft prospects like Nate Wiggins and Cooper DeJean for pre-draft visits.
While nobody questions the former about cornerback being his position, DeJean is another matter. He has good size at 6-foot or better and just over 200 pounds. His tape on the whole looks good as an outside cornerback, though he’s played other roles as well. Is he a victim of his own versatility when it comes to those questioning is ability to play outside?
Perhaps that factors into it, but CBS Sports analyst Emory Hunt sees another reason. “I’ll say what everybody’s thinking. If he wasn’t a white cornerback, there would be no question”, he told Brian Batko on the Chipped Ham and Football podcast. “Here’s why, and you see people skating around it”.
White cornerbacks are virtually non-existent in the NFL, and scarcity always breeds preconceptions. Hunt likened the perception of white cornerbacks to black quarterbacks, historically, though the ground has shifted for the latter.
“They don’t have the luxury of getting beat”, Hunt, who is Black, said of white cornerbacks. “If they get beat once, ‘See, I told you he’s a safety’. Meanwhile, the Black corner can get beat all day”. He added that, “It’s no different than the Black quarterback. A white quarterback throws an incompletion, it’s, ‘Oh, he threw it away, live to play another down’. Black dude makes the same throw and it’s, ‘He’s inaccurate’”.
DeJean is a popular pick in the first round, though some view him more as a safety. He has good but not elite speed, and he lacks some quickness. As with all draft prospects, he’s not a finished product. It doesn’t help that he’s coming off a broken leg, either. But the tape is what tells Hunt he can stick on the outside at cornerback.
“When you’re watching Cooper DeJean and you’re watching him against Power 5 wide receivers that are gonna be drafted at the NFL level, you’re watching him hold his own”, he insisted. “So why is there a question? And he has the ball skills, and he has the football IQ, and he has the ability to play both off and press coverage. He is checking all of those boxes”.
While the Steelers brought DeJean in for a pre-draft visit, nearly everyone expects them to address the offensive line with their first-round pick. Roughly a third of their total pre-draft visitors have been tackles or centers, to nobody’s surprise.
In other words, chances are good that some other team is going to have to figure out where to stick Cooper DeJean. Will they trust him to play on the outside, or do they prefer to lean into his versatility? As Hunt mentioned, the Steelers do some of that with S Minkah Fitzpatrick, who can play all over the field. But he suggests that you watch DeJean’s college tape color blind so as not to bias yourself against him.
