INDIANAPOLIS — Devon Witherspoon knows which NFL wide receiver he wants to line up against.
“All of them,” he said Thursday.
The Illinois cornerback will get his chance soon enough. He could be the top player at his position taken in the first round of next month’s draft.
“I’m confident, I’m physical, I love the game of football,” he said. “I’m smart. I love to study. Just try to get an edge on my opponent. I’m energetic. I’m very passionate about what I do.”
He’s one of three Illini defensive backs at the NFL Scouting Combine, alongside Sydney Brown and Jartavius Martin.
“I don’t think any of us saw it coming,” Brown said. ‘We knew he was a great player, but all of us were just playing football. Nobody really looked what the draft stock was. Nobody really cared.”
He’s become one of the most buzzed-about players at the Combine.
“He sees things before they develop,” NFL Network analyst Daniel Jeremiah said. “Sometimes you can see guys that have the athletic ability, and sometimes you see guys that really have studied film and they know how to play.
“It’s not common when you see guys that have all that wrapped up together. He does. He is a complete package that way.”
Praise for Jaylon
Utah cornerback Clark Phillips wanted to be on the Jaylon Johnson Plan after he committed to the alma mater of the Bears’ standout cornerback.
“Three years and out,” he said. “And here I am today.”
Phillips left school after three years and is expected to be drafted on Day 2. Along the way, he developed a rapport with Johnson, who went to Salt Lake City last offseason. They watched film with Utah cornerbacks coach Sharrieff Shah.
“I got to show him some of the things I watched in his film when he was at Utah — practice, in games,” he said. “He’s a good dude … Super-focused. Great technique.
“He’s somebody that is almost a mentor for me when I went to Utah.”
This and that
• Ohio State cornerback Cam Brown is pretty sure where his former teammate Justin Fields — who he called a “great player” — will play next year.
“I don’t think they’re going to [trade him],” he said. I think that they believe in Justin and I believe he’s a great player. So that would be I would say a mistake, but I just don’t believe that they will do that.”
• Northwestern’s Adetomiwa Adebawore ran a blazing 4.49-second 40-yard dash, a remarkable speed for someone who shuttled between defensive end and defensive tackle last season. He later recorded a broad jump of 10 feet, 5 inches, the longest of any defensive tackle in Combine history.
“When I’m in there at [tackle], my mindset is ‘Go, go, be low, be explosive and be violent with my hands,’” he said. “As a defensive end there’s times where you have to be, make sure you have contain, you can’t be as reckless as you are inside.”
