Before You Just Go BPA in the Draft

I'm gonna start calling it a 3rd corner and not a slot corner. Someone who can perform well in the slot is of tremendous value in the current game with how often a top receiver, really good TE, or really good receiving RB lines up there. Jalen Ramsey has taken a little less than half of his snaps covering the slot over the past two years. Does that make him the conventional 'slot' corner? No.

What you don't want to do is waste draft capital on your third best coverage guy who is only limited to the slot or covering someone who isn't as good.

If you're going to spend a high draft pick on a CB, you want to get one that can cover the #1/#2 WR anywhere he goes.

In Flores defense, you typically need at least one guy who's really good in man coverage. It doesn't matter if that guy happens to follow said WR to the slot.

That said, while Flores likes his blitzes and therefore cover 1 or 0, that's still only covers about 40% of the passing plays. Otherwise, his usual base defense is a cover-3 which means 2 of your 3 corner drop into 3rds on either side of your safety leaving 2 LBs, another safety, and that other corner to cover the middle of the field. This gives a bit more flexibility as to who covers the slot and you can even mix in some cover-2.

My overarching point is that with Flores at the helm, don't think conventionally about who goes where. Which essentially opens up the draft a bit.