Name: Jason Verrett

Position: Cornerback

College: TCU

Jason Verrett was one of the best cornerbacks in the country this past year. Verrett transferred to TCU after playing at Santa Rosa Junior College and despite a rocky start was an All-American in 2012. In 2013 he battled some injuries, but still played well enough to earn Co-Big 12 Defensive Player of the year honors. Verrett shut down some of the top wide receivers in the conference this year and teams started throwing to the opposite side of the field.

Despite playing so well, Verrett will probably won’t be drafted until the mid to late 20’s. Verrett has one of the best skillsets at cornerback in the country, but his size is holding him back. He is below average in size for a corner and that will cause teams to drop him down their boards a little bit.

How Verrett Fits Bengals Needs

The Bengals are definitely in need of another cornerback and Verrett does fit what the Bengals like in a corner. The Bengals don’t have to have size in their corners, but they do like players who can play the ball and Verrett does that extremely well. Verrett is a good athlete who can play physical and plays bigger than he is. The Bengals corner backs are either aging, coming off a major injury or just hasn’t shown the growth they hoped they would see. Verrett would provide depth and a future starter.

Potential Impact as a Rookie

Jason Verrett would not make a huge impact for the Bengals without some injuries to the players ahead of him on the depth chart. Leon Hall, Terence Newman, Adam Jones and Dre Kirkpatrick would all be ahead of him on the depth chart entering the season and Verrett would only provide depth and special teams play.

What Verrett Does Well

Verrett has possibly the best ball skills of any cornerback in the draft. He can read, react and pick a ball off as well as anyone. Verrett has very fluid hips and has shown the ability to flip his hips, turn and run to mirror a receiver. He shows a good short area burst allowing him to be aggressive when playing the ball and undercut routes. Verrett is very good at finishing with an interception when he gets his hands on the ball.

What He Struggles With

The biggest knock on Verrett is something that he can’t control and that is his size. At 5’9” he will struggle with bigger receivers who have six to eight inches on him. He has some trouble shedding blocks in the run game and will at times hit too high causing him to miss a tackle. He needs to work on making too many mental mistakes. He gets called for to many holding and offsides penalties.