The 2024 NFL Draft cornerback class is well stocked with potential sleepers, and Deantre Prince is near the top of the list of Day 3 CBs who could exceed their draft billing. What makes Prince’s scouting report so intriguing, and where does his ceiling lie?
Deantre Prince’s Draft Profile and Measurements
- Height: 6’0″
- Weight: 183 pounds
- Length: 30 3/4″
- Wingspan: 75 7/8″
- Hand: 8 1/2″
- Position: Cornerback
- School: Ole Miss
- Current Year: Redshirt Senior
If you look at Prince’s college stats, you’ll see a lot of production.
He saw the field right away as a true freshman in 2019, notching two interceptions in an emergent season. In 2022, he led the team with 11 pass breakups, and in 2023, he added a pick and five PBUs while also logging five tackles for loss and a sack.
Production is what you’ll see with Prince — but you’ll also see a year-long gap between 2019 and 2021. That gap — more than any production on the field — might’ve been Prince’s catalyst toward becoming an NFL player.
Ole Miss cornerback DeAntre Prince is an intriguing potential late round option in the 2024 NFL Draft. He has completed 30-visits with the Indianapolis Colts and Jacksonville Jaguars.
Prince put together a tremendous performance at the 2024 NFL Scouting Combine. He ran 4.38 in… pic.twitter.com/WSYvrOEa17
— Ryan Roberts (@RiseNDraft) April 19, 2024
Prince was productive on the field in 2019, but off it, he was still finding himself, and he needed a chance to reset. A year at Northeast Community College gave him that chance. When he returned to Ole Miss, the former four-star chose to re-earn his place as a walk-on.
It didn’t take long for him to become a starter once again, and a defensive leader.
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Prince’s production is impressive, and it’s one element of his profile that helped him earn a spot on the East-West Shrine Bowl roster. And athleticism is by no means a question mark — he logged a 4.38-second 40-yard dash and a 10’5″ broad jump at the NFL Combine.
It all matters in Prince’s evaluation, but the journey is what will help him carve out a path at the professional level.
Prince’s Scouting Report
Strengths
- Sports a well-proportioned, wiry frame with decent length.
- Elite athlete with searing explosiveness and closing speed once he triggers on plays.
- Has the high-end recovery speed to quickly erase gaps after initial losses at stems.
- Malleable vertical athlete with great throttle freedom, corrective twitch, and gliding sink.
- Has crisp, springy agility, which he uses to reset his alignment in coverage and support.
- Natural mover in side-saddle who can freely throttle up to maintain hip leverage.
- Has good blind-spot awareness in side-saddle and can feel WRs’ throttle modulations.
- Able to gather WRs with successive jams in press and squeeze them against the sideline.
- Flashes patience and discipline in press-man and can use his corrective twitch to match.
- Active pre-snap communicator who can execute rotations and ID vertical threats early.
- Can read the QB’s eyes in zone and undercut lofted throws with his speed and instincts.
- Flashes great ball skills and has the ability to lift and high-point as a disruptor.
- Gritty support player who plays with urgency and can dart behind the LOS for tackles.
- Knows how to set up blockers to overrun angles and has the speed to capitalize.
- Voracious blitzing threat who attacks blocks and channels his burst into power.
Weaknesses
- Frame is relatively lean and lacks high-end proportional length.
- Visibly lacks elite hip sink when attempting to decelerate and reduce on in-breakers.
- Sometimes idles his feet in press coverage, which can quickly erode his balance on jams.
- At times, over-extends in press, putting balance and redirection freedom at risk.
- Pedal footwork can be a bit too staggered at times, impacting pad level and transitions.
- Plant-and-drive technique out of pedals in off-man can be cleaner and more efficient.
- Can be baited into opening his hips to the boundary by vertically tracking WRs.
- Desire to get depth and inconsistent plant-and-drive can result in easy completions.
- Sometimes overruns vertical-pressing comeback routes and is late to mirror breaks.
- At times, commits prematurely to vertical routes in zone, leaving flat options open.
- Sometimes passes off routes too early, putting safeties in non-optimal 2-on-1 situations.
- Can be more efficient in recovery when hinging out to close off boundary threats.
- Middling length and mass can impact his ability to make solo tackles at times.
- Lacking length can make it difficult to deconstruct open-field blocks.
Current Draft Projection and Summary
Prince grades out as a mid-Day 3 prospect in the 2024 NFL Draft. He’s worth consideration in the early-to-mid Day 3 range, especially for teams that run an excess of zone and Cover-3 coverage looks.
Prince checks a lot of the desired boxes for a developmental CB in the NFL. He’s an exceptional athlete with elite speed and explosiveness, superb twitch and agility, and enough fluidity to stack direction changes and transition in space.
Expanding past his athletic foundation, Prince is a solid processor in zone coverage with good instincts, read-and-react ability, and feel in side-saddle. He flashes upside in press-man and off-man, and he’s shown he can make plays on the ball when it comes his way.
Ultimately, the top selling point for Prince, past his athleticism, might be his run-support ability. If he were a better tackler, there’d be a case to make for him as one of the best support CBs in the class.
Prince brings a lightning-quick trigger and rapid closing speed downhill — but he also knows how to off-set blocks, establish half-man relationships, and close paths upfield, and his motor will never be in question.
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All this being said, a few factors dilute Prince’s stock. Even as a redshirt senior, he still has a lot of room to improve technically, particularly as an off-man coverage defender with his plant-and-drive footwork. And while his physical upside is an obvious selling point, he’s lighter than average, with only middling length — both issues that affect his play strength.
Ultimately, Prince may never become a full-time starter, but his best bet would be in Cover-3 heavy or zone-heavy schemes. If he can keep working on his pedal and his plant-and-drive, he has a starting upside, and right away, he’s a solid rotational presence with special-teams translatability.
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