NFL Draft 2021 Scouting Report: CB Greg Newsome, Northwestern

*CB grades can and will change as more information comes in from Pro Day workouts, Wonderlic test results leaked, etc. We will update info as it becomes available. 

Greg Newsome is a 1st-round pick athlete and cover corner for the 2021 NFL Draft…it’s that simple. We can and will debate ‘how good?’ but he is a 1st-round prospect for sure…a likely rookie season starter talent. We really don’t need to get too sappy about it otherwise.

Newsome tested higher-end at his Pro Day – 4.39 40-time (so, 4.4s with Pro Day cheat bump) and a nice 1.50 10-yard dash, a sweet 40” vertical, and a 6.90 three-cone highlight his measurables at 6’0”/192. Everything about Newsome is ‘just right’.

Now, the question turns towards – is he better than the Farley-Surtain-Samuel-Horn (the consensus top CBs)?

My short answer would be – he’s as good/promising…so, why pay big draft capital for the other guys when you could just wait and nab Newsome later? You shouldn’t. And Central Florida’s Aaron Robinson is better than all of them (in my book). You can have your choice of Farley-Surtain-Samuel-Horn, and I’ll take Robinson-Newsome after them, and have better corners at a lower draft/salary price.

Watching Newsome on tape is fine. He’s not the best college corner in coverage I’ve ever seen, but he’s good/solid, a player…an NFL starter. I don’t know that I would classify him as a shutdown corner…although he might be. I’m on the fence between seeing him as ‘a good CB’ versus good/great ‘shutdown corner’.

On the positive side – the size and speed are there. The instincts and cover skills are solid. You get a lot things to work with here.

On the negative side – his reach is shorter than you’d like, but not terrible. (73.75” wingspan, 31.1” arms). There’s not enough tape of him facing elite WRs to get a better feel for his shutdown skills…or to uncover hidden issues. But these are nitpicky items.

I’m not going to bore you with ‘loose hips’ and any of the other cover corner scouting words that make scouts/writers sound like they know something special, like they are scouting scientists. It’s this simple, for me – Newsome looks fine/solid in coverage compared to all the other top CB prospect options. He didn’t jump off the screen (like Aaron Robinson, and some others I will cover as we go) but he didn’t make me worry either. He’s an ‘A’ grade athlete and a ‘B’ grade, with upside, cover man….and that makes him a 1st-round talent.

Off the field, everything is mostly fine. Good student. The one downside being he missed a few games in 2018 and 2019 and 2020 with minor injuries. The ‘frail’ label is not fully appropriate but it’s worth doing a great medical check before drafting. On the field he looks like a sound athlete and not an injury/frail concern. Newsome may not turn out to be legendary, but he is also likely not to burn his draft team or be a wasted pick.

Greg Newsome, Through the Lens of Our CB Scouting Algorithm:

 -- 17 career college games and 20 PDs…that’s one of the best career PDs per game numbers we’ve seen in the system. The downside of that is – that number has not been a leading indicator of success for the NFL.

 -- Newsome’s cover grades from PFF were high end. My cover grades were worse than PFF’s but still good (my internal ones are different from PFFs).

 -- Newsome also draws a lot of pass interferences. I lean more sloppy than ‘too aggressive’…which is a mild concern, but which can be corrected.

2021 Pro Day:

6’0.2”/192, 8.8” hands, 31.1” arms

4.39 40-time, 1.50 10-yard, 4.26 shuttle/6.90 three-cone

18 bench reps, 40” vertical, 10’3” broad

The Historical CB Prospects to Whom Greg Newsome Most Compares Within Our System:

If Newsome has a career like Shaq Griffin or William Jackson – he’ll be a solid NFL hand, and a fairly rich man. 

*The ratings are based on a 1–10 rating scale, but a prospect can score over 10.0+ and less than 0.0

OVERALL RATING -- We merge the data from physical measurables, skill times/counts from the NFL Combine/Pro Days, with college performance data available on pass coverage/tackles, etc. and grade it compared to our database history of all college CBs, with a focus on which CBs went on to be good-great-elite in the NFL. We found characteristics/data points that the successful NFL CBs had in common in college, that most other CB prospects could not match/achieve.

Scoring with a rating over a 7.00+ in our system is where we start to take a CB prospect more seriously. Most of the future NFL successful college CBs scored 8.00+, and most of the NFL superior CBs pushed scores more in the 9.00+ levels...and future NFL busts will sneak in there from time to time. 10.00+ is where most of the elite NFL CBs tend to score in our system analysis.

COVERAGE -- A combination of on-field data/performance and physical profile data

SPEED -- Measurables from a perspective of straight-line speed, burst, etc.

AGILITY -- Measurables for lateral movements, quick cuts, body type, speed, etc. 

POWER -- A look at physical size, tackling productivity in college, other physical measurables. One of the side benefits/intentions here, is to see which CBs may be more of a model for a conversion to playing safety successfully in the NFL. Also denotes CBs who are more physical/will have higher tackle totals...over pure speed/coverage CBs.

2021 NFL Draft Outlook:

Several people have moved Newsome into their 1st-round mocks, including our own Xavier Cromartie – Newsome’s Pro Day has given him a push. I think Newsome will go 1st-round. And if Asante Samuel goes ahead of Newsome…then an NFL team made a mistake, I think.

If I were an NFL GM, and if I needed a CB from this draft…I’d be loving life because there are 4-5-6+ legit corners in this draft, and some of them are not going in the 1st-round. Considering the inflated 2021 CB economy in this draft – I’d wait on pushing/reaching for Newsome. I know he’s good, but I see better values after he’s likely to go. 

NFL Outlook:   

Should be a starter sooner-rather-than-later, and then be a long-time starter and maybe fringe Pro Bowl player…or maybe never quite reaches those highs, but is always starting/respected. 

3/22/2021