With the 12th pick, your Minnesota Vikings select...

12. Minnesota Vikings: Derek Stingley Jr., CB, LSU

Chad Graff: The idea of trading up for Gardner was enticing, and if he slipped a few more picks perhaps it would have been more manageable. Instead, the Vikings land the second-best cornerback in the draft, filling a major need. The new regime of Kwesi Adofo-Mensah and Kevin O’Connell has re-made the front seven of the defense, but the secondary remains a significant issue. The Vikings only have one outside cornerback on the roster with meaningful starting experience, and that’s Cam Dantzler, who has started 17 games in two years and was occasionally benched under previous coach Mike Zimmer. So Stingley Jr. has a chance to start right away.

Brugler: Adofo-Mensah was in Cleveland at this time last year when the Browns drafted a sometimes injured but really talented cornerback in the first round. And he does the same with his first draft pick as an NFL general manager in this scenario. Greg Newsome looks like a future Pro Bowler, and Stingley also has that ability as long as he stays on the field. In an ideal world, the Vikings bring back Patrick Peterson for another season to serve as a mentor to his fellow LSU alum.

12. MINNESOTA VIKINGS: CB DEREK STINGLEY JR., LSU
Big Board Rank: 3
Profile: 6’0”, 190 | Age: 20 (June 20, 2001)

Stingley would have been a No. 1 overall pick candidate if he was draft-eligible after his true freshman season in 2019. Injuries derailed a lot of his progress since leading all FBS cornerbacks in PFF grade that season, but it’s very likely we’ll never see as successful a campaign from any true freshman cornerback again. He allowed just 608 yards and five touchdowns across 589 coverage snaps while facing a slate of multiple NFL talents at receiver in DeVonta Smith, CeeDee Lamb, Van Jefferson and more. He played just 289 injury-plagued coverage snaps in the two seasons following his famed 2019.

Even though Minnesota signed former Green Bay Packers cornerback Chandon Sullivan in free agency, the team’s cornerback room is still in desperate need of upgrades. Sullivan, Kris Boyd and Cameron Dantzler project as the team’s top three cornerbacks right now.

CB DEREK STINGLEY JR. LSU

Where he wins: Athleticism
Uber athleticism, acceleration, agility, speed, change of direction — you name it, he has it. That's the skill set you want to play man coverage in the NFL.

What his role is: Island
Put Stingley in press-man on the outside and worry about the rest of your defense. He can be that island corner that doesn't require safety help to go toe-to-toe with the game's best.

CORNERBACK

Derek Stingley Jr., LSU Tigers
Ahmad Gardner, Cincinnati Bearcats
Trent McDuffie, Washington Huskies
Andrew Booth Jr., Clemson Tigers
Kaiir Elam, Florida Gators

The top three cornerbacks listed above are top-10 prospects overall in this class.

Stingley is nearing the end of his recovery process from Lisfranc surgery, causing him to miss all the on-field drills at the combine. Despite the medical clearance, teams have become concerned with Stingley’s medical issues over the past couple of seasons. Between illness, a leg injury and the recent foot injury, Stingley played just 10 games in his final two years at LSU. Now, there's chatter he could slide close to Pick No. 20. If that's the case, one team is getting a major steal, as Stingley is a top-five talent in the 2022 NFL Draft.

He is in the conversation for the best all-around athlete in this class. At “The Opening” event in high school, the 6-foot-1, 195-pound cornerback posted a 4.3-second 40-yard dash and a 42.0-inch vertical. His rare traits showed up consistently on the field. Back in 2019, Stingley produced the best true freshman season PFF College has ever seen, earning a 91.7 PFF grade while allowing a 38% catch rate combined with 21 interceptions plus pass breakups.




Gardner is looking like a top-10, or maybe even a top-five, pick in the 2022 NFL Draft, and understandably so. The 6-foot-3, 190-pounder produced what will forever be known as one of the best seasons — and careers — from a college defensive back, allowing 131 yards across 14 games and 482 coverage snaps in 2021. Impressively, he did that while playing mostly on an island in press-man coverage. Gardner closed out his three years without a touchdown allowed despite playing over 1,100 coverage snaps.

McDuffie earned an 80.0-plus PFF grade each as a true freshman, sophomore and junior. The Washington product allowed just 111 yards across 296 coverage snaps this year. He is a fantastic zone cover corner, and his awareness, athleticism, physicality and tackling ability make him an issue for any underneath passing offense.

CB: DEREK STINGLEY JR., LSU
This one doesn’t need much of an explanation. Stingley was the highest-graded corner in the country as a true freshman in 2019. His practice film vs. Ja’Marr Chase would make NFL corners jealous. Between injury and effort concerns, Stingley flat out was not that same guy the past two seasons. So, which Stingley is a team going to get in the first round?

PROS:

Stingley has first-class speed. He has no fear of getting beaten deep.

He also has a press-man pedigree. He lined up in press-man on 49% of his career coverage snaps.

The former Tiger has the kind of feet and hips you don't see every day for a tall corner.

CONS:

He has an extensive injury history. He missed time with leg (2020) and foot (2021) injuries.

His tackling is an afterthought to his game. He missed 17.9% of his career tackle attempts.

Too often, he lost when passing receivers off into zone coverage.

Stop. Overthinking. Derek Stingley Jr.

The minute that the former LSU cornerback falls beyond, say, the fifth overall pick in the 2022 NFL Draft, his value becomes oversized to whichever team ends up selecting him. One could make the argument that he’s — regardless of position — the best player in the draft. Yet, Stingley’s stock continues to plummet to points where he's not only thought of as a non-top-five pick but also not even as the top cornerback on draft boards.

Reports about his character coming out of the NFL Scouting Combine this month in Indianapolis won’t be dignified here. There’s too much smoke from NFL teams and personnel to give those types of rumors any credence. Some teams want his value to fall so they can snap him up later. There are too many factors to get into a game of broken telephone.

Still, Stingley’s stock is dropping. His average draft position in the PFF Mock Draft Simulator has fallen from third to seventh on average. Cincinnati's Ahmad Gardner has seen his stock soar in the opposite direction.





Gardner deserves all the praise he is getting. He’s a great player, and his rise doesn’t quite explain Stingley’s fall. There is an idea that Stingley was not the same player between 2020 and 2021 that he was as a true freshman during LSU’s title-winning 2019 season. That could not be more wrong. However, injuries did lower his snap counts over those two seasons.

Stingley played 1,166 snaps in 2019 and then combined to play just 672 over the next two years. Even considering the pandemic-shortened 2020 season, that is just not a sizable workload. He missed games for various reasons, but his LSU career ended with a Lisfranc injury that cut short his 2021 campaign after the first three games. If he’s available to run at LSU’s pro day on April 6, it will ease concerns about the injury.

His production also crashed down after that magical 2019 season. Never mind just cornerbacks, Stingley generated the best Wins Above Average figure among all defensive players that season (0.94). The next highest player was at 0.60. That season, he forced an incompletion on 19% of all balls thrown his way while also nabbing six interceptions. He also allowed a lowly 37% completion rate. And that was all as a true freshman.

The next two seasons were not quite the same for Stingley from a numbers perspective. His allowed completion rate jumped to 45%, his forced incompletion rate fell to 17% and he didn’t record an interception. Yet, his technique was on par and even better than it was in 2019. Stingley grew up as a cornerback in his last two years of college football but didn’t get to showcase himself as much. He missed games and played on a bad defense for two seasons.

Offenses continually targeted the middle of the field against LSU's 2020 defense as opposed to Stingley or cornerback Elias Ricks. That unit finished 82nd in expected points added allowed per play.

Even though the numbers were down, Stingley was just as good as he was in 2019, if not better. He played with better tempo to routes, and his recovery after receivers broke him off was even better. He didn’t make as many plays on the ball, but given what he did in 2019…

…there's reason to believe he will be the same ball-hawking player in the NFL. When you see only 36 targets in two seasons, there aren't many chances to make plays on the ball. Comparatively, he saw 94 targets in 2019 alone. Stingley allowed 50 catches in his college career, but what routes those receptions came on tells us more about what type of player he is.

Stingley snagged more interceptions than completions allowed on go routes into his coverage. He forced three incompletions and gave up just four catches on back-shoulder go routes.

Press cornerbacks — he played over half of his career snaps in press — are going to get tested down the sideline. And Stingley held up.

Where he improved on these routes is with his tempo. The hardest part for a cornerback is being able to play both the over-the-top pass and the back-shoulder throw. Stingley improved his ability to not play too far in front or too far behind when a receiver released for those routes.

As a result, he did not allow a catch on a go route in either 2020 or 2021.

On routes that broke underneath him, he showed better footwork as his college career went on. He was able to control himself and take fewer steps when the receiver broke his route off.

He’s also an elite player against slant routes. He allowed one catch on a slant and none on in-breaking routes after 2019. Those same catches allowed on those routes in 2019 were to future NFL players Van Jefferson, Kyle Pitts, DeVonta Smith and George Pickens.

However, the talent level of the receivers he faced in the next couple of years presents a bit of an issue. He did play against Smith again and had a great day against him — even if Smith made a spectacular catch on him when Stingley was trying to pass the route off to the safety.

No team drafting in the top 10 can really afford to miss out on a cornerback like this. If you’re drafting in the top 10, you at most have one good cornerback — and likely not even that. Stingley is a building block at a position of need for most teams.

Injuries and down numbers have not helped Stingley's cause to be one of the highest-drafted players this April, but the tape is just as good as it was in 2019 — and potentially even better. The idea that an NFL team is drafting him based on film from two years ago is simply not true. He’s just as good as he was, if not better.

sky4it: They shouldnt trade it, The Ravens at 14 will take Jordan Davis, I think the Vikings should pick him up if he is still there. Gardner will be gone. Trevon Walker is my second choice.