Cornerback

TCU

5-10 183

40 time (projected): 4.43

Draft board overall prospect rank: #111

Draft board cornerback rank: #15

Overall rating: 67*

 3/15/10: Didn’t run because of his foot injury. He’s still a favorite sleeper of mine, but I was expecting his foot to be healed by now.

            There are very few things I can guarantee you, but one of them is this. The Football Fan Spot is probably the only place that has this guy listed as a 3^rd round prospect. He did an excellent job as a shutdown #1 corner for TCU. He played in 11 games and had 6 pass deflections, but only had 18 tackles. There are two ways you could possibly explain how he played that many games and had that few tackles, one, he let every receiver he guarded go for a touchdown, or two, quarterbacks rarely completed passes on him. Two is the most logical answer and it is the correct one. He didn’t have the toughest competition, but he shutdown everyone he faced. There are some concerns, how will he adjust to more athletic NFL receiver, especially since Priest’s athleticism doesn’t exactly jump off the page. He’s also small and not good against the run, but you can definitely see the upside here. He reminds me a lot of Quincy Butler, a former TCU cornerback, now of the St. Louis Rams. In his first season in the NFL, after bouncing around practice squads for years, Butler was a very good shutdown corner for the Rams this year, though in limited playing time, as opposing quarterbacks went 11 for 25 for 145 yards and a touchdown against him this year. Butler was underrated coming out of TCU and still is, and Priest should be that way too. He could get drafted in the 5^th round, but any earlier would be surprisingly. He’s definitely a risk and I’m not sure how he’ll respond to tougher competition, but he’s handled decent competition brilliantly thus far in his football career so some upside is there. I wouldn’t call him a future #1 shutdown guy and I wouldn’t even call him a lock to be a future #2 starting cornerback, but the potential is there for him to convert nicely to the NFL game and become a good corner and possibly even a Pro Bowler. Possibly.

NFL Comparison: Quincy Butler

*= For a breakdown of what this means, click here