New York Giants Draft Prospect Profile: CB Devon Witherspoon

Devon Witherspoon is considered one of the top cornerback prospects in this draft. Let's find out why.

Author:
Nick Falato
Publish date:
Apr 2, 2023 8:00 AM EDT

In this story:

New York Giants

Illinois Fighting Illini

Devon Witherspoon, CB

Height: 5-foot-11½
Weight: 181 lbs.
Class: Senior
School: Illinois
Age: 22 (12/11/2000)

Combine Measurements

Arm length: 31 ¼”
Hand size: 8 ⅞”

Devon Witherspoon attended Pine Forest High School in Pensacola, Florida. He did not start playing football until his junior year of high school. Despite local reverence and acknowledgment, Witherspoon was vastly underrecruited - due to grades and lack of tape - and initially planned to attend Hutchinson Community College. Witherspoon was able to become academically eligible and attended the Fighting Illini. Witherspoon was named Pensacola News Journal Male Athlete of the Year in 2018 for his football, basketball, and track production.

Notables

Witherspoon earned 389 snaps as a true freshman, despite missing off-season workouts. His talent shined, and his career ascended. Witherspoon had elite coverage stats during his senior season; according to PFF, he was the highest-graded coverage corner in the class and the second-highest-graded overall corner. He allowed an impressive 33.5% catch rate with three interceptions and 14 passes defended in 2022.

He finished his career with 22 passes defended, and five interceptions, with five touchdowns surrendered - 4 in 2020. He is a true-man coverage cornerback that was frequently left on an island. One thousand nine hundred sixty-eight of his snaps came as an outside cornerback, with 229 snaps at slot; 109 were in 2022.

Outside of his second game against Indiana in 2022, he only allowed one catch over 10 yards of YAC in the entire season. He was in phase often and ready to tackle if he didn’t break the pass up. A hamstring injury held him out of the 2023 NFL Scouting Combine.

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Strengths

Solid height with adequate arm length
Excellent smooth athlete with elite burst and short-area quickness
Elite explosiveness coming downhill - shot out of cannon
Good vertical speed to carry with elite acceleration when working horizontally
Hips open and shut effortlessly, and he rarely loses momentum when flipping
Solid feet, hips, and press technique at the LOS
Physical jam up WRs stem and at the LOS
Does a good job steering & controlling inside releases
Squeezes outside releases toward the sideline - physical player who toes the line
Very instinctive player - elite reactive quickness
A true GLUE man coverage defender - Excellent in man coverage
Played man coverage on 75% of his reps in 2022 - frequently left on an island
Good discipline in slightly off-man-square to break; explodes out of stance
Does an elite job working over the top or through traffic vs. man beaters
Excellent pursuit & positioning when tasked to follow motioning defender
Good zone instincts in high-low situations
Good eye discipline and awareness when passing routes to safeties
Solid recognition of backside routes
A nuisance for wide receivers at the catch point - excellent ball skills
Does a solid job getting his head around to locate and disrupt the catch point
Ferocious in run support - flies downhill
A violent ball of energy
Few cornerbacks hit with Witherspoons’ impact on routes in front of him
Absolutely looks to annihilate offensive players when tackling
Elite competitor - first team all-chirp

Weaknesses

Sub-optimal weight for a starting CB (181-pounds)
Has speed but allowed WR Chimere Dike (Wisconsin) to get behind him a few times

Also allowed Northwestern WRs to create vertical leverage on an island

Gets grabby - was penalized 11 times over the last two seasons
Love his aggressive nature, but it will lead to unnecessary penalties at the next level
One season of elite production - one-year wonder?

Summary

Devon Witherspoon is a true-man coverage player with wildly impressive movement skills, reactive quickness, and overall coverage ability. Witherspoon is elite at maintaining body presence on receivers in man coverage and is rarely out of phase. He’s excellent in pursuit, takes good angles of attack, and is zone conscious. He is a savage on the football field.

Few players in this draft are better fits for Wink Martindale’s system. Witherspoon’s elite man coverage ability and dominating presence in run support will endear him to the Giants' coaching staff. He is underweight, gets grabby, and only had one year of first-round production. Still, if a team is looking for a high upside, low-floor type of selection with elite starting man coverage potential, then Devon Witherspoon is their guy.

GRADE: 6.79