Indianapolis — With all due respect to Amani Oruwariye’s six-interception season in 2021, it’s been a minute since the Detroit Lions have had a consistent, playmaking cornerback on the roster.
Since trading Darius Slay to the Philadelphia Eagles following the 2019 season, the team hasn’t been able to find a guy at that position capable of steadily racking up pass breakups and interceptions.
So, with the team perceived to be on the hunt for an upgrade at the position this offseason, it’s easy to imagine finding a corner capable of generating turnovers being a priority. After all, the Lions haven’t finished in the top half of the league in interceptions since 2017, when Slay paced the NFL with eight picks.
At the NFL Scouting Combine this week, two of the best playmakers from this draft class, Mississippi State’s Emmanuel Forbes and Utah’s Clark Phillips III fielded media questions from side-by-side podiums. Between them, they intercepted a dozen passes last season, both crediting their film-study habits as a key component to their success.
Neither is being mentioned among the top three or four at the position, but each could sneak into the back end of the first round come April, particularly if they test well at the Combine and/or their pro day. But realistically, largely due to concerns with their size, both are likely Day-2 prospects.
Even before Forbes listed him as a mentor and the player he modeled his game after, the mind drifts to Slay when looking at Forbes. They’re around the same height, both long, played at the same college and projected to come off the board in the same range during their respective drafts. The Lions snagged Slay in the early stages of the second round in 2013.
A common football cliché is cornerbacks are former receivers who couldn’t catch, but that doesn’t apply to Forbes. He intercepted 14 passes across three seasons for the Bulldogs. According to him, his transition from offense to defense was centered around a desire to get away from taking hits to being the one delivering them. The downside, and probably one of the key factors anchoring the 6-foot-1 Forbes’ stock, is he weighed just 166 pounds at the Combine.
If Forbes gives off vibes of Slay, it’s not a stretch to suggest Phillips could remind Lions fans of Quandre Diggs, another playmaking defensive back the team traded away during coach Matt Patricia’s time with the franchise.
Admittedly, that loose comparison is based more on the two players’ size, and chip-on-the-shoulder demeanor, than their playing style. Phillips is listed at 5-foot-10, but that measurement hardly impacted his ability to get his hands on throws. Stanford quarterback Tanner McKee called him one of the best cornerbacks he faced in college.
“He flipped his hips,” McKee said. “Felt like he was able to disguise what he was going to do, and what the defense was doing, very well.”
Phillips also brings versatility. Primarily an outside corner, he’d line up a full game in the slot for some matchups. He said he’d have no reservations about being a nickel back at the next level, if that’s what the team that drafts him feels is his best fit.
Lions defensive coordinator Aaron Glenn, who played cornerback for more than a decade in the NFL, said he’s yet to study this year’s group of prospects, preferring to save the position for last. But, he laid out the initial thing he’s looking for in a young corner.
“The first thing is personality. Like, how do they come in? How confident are they?” Glenn said. “I can tell right off the top if this is one of the guys that’s going to get after it, because of just the way he operates. There is a certain aura about him.
“…That shows up,” Glenn said. “And they can’t help themselves. Speaking from experience, they can’t hide it. And I think that’s one thing sometimes people miss on, they don’t look at that.”
jdrogers@detroitnews.com
Twitter: @Justin_Rogers