Biggest risers from the 2022 college all-star events:

Washington State cornerback Jaylen Watson

CB Jaylen Watson, Washington State

This former top-100 JUCO recruit established himself as a starter for Wazzu in a COVID-shortened 2020 campaign and put together a nice senior season, intercepting two passes, breaking up another three and recovering four(!) fumbles. Yet, I wasn’t too familiar with him before Jim Nagy and his group invited him to the Senior Bowl, probably because the Cougars haven’t been as interesting in the Pac-12 since head coach Mike Leach moved on to Mississippi State.

After seeing Watson come out in prototype boundary corner measurements at 6’1”½ , 200 pounds, the first thing that really stood out about him on the field was how fluid an athlete and how snappy his hips were, in order to recover after initially opening up the wrong way. He did so beautifully on an in-breaker by North Dakota WR Christian Watson, which I described a little bit earlier, where he was there for the outside release, but then nearly flipped 180 degree in one step and kind of pinned the inside arm against the receiver, before swiping upwards, to get the ball out. He also had a very impressive rep against Ole Miss’ Braylen Sanders later on a fade route, kind of arm-barring the receiver to stay basically hip-to-hip, tracking the ball with his eyes and seeing it land a couple of yards beyond the two, because there was no window to throw it into for the quarterback.

What I appreciated most about watching Watson, however, was that ability to decipher who was lined up across from him and the different ways he approached them. On day two, for example, he went up against Cincinnati’s big wideout Alex Pierce, who ran a dig route on him, and after trying to get the inside release off a jab-step to the outside, Watson nearly mugged the receiver as he tried to straighten up, so he could maintain that contact through the break. I’m not 100 percent sure he would have gotten away with that in an NFL game, but there was no flag thrown for it during practice. And yet, his most impressive rep probably came when those squared off the second time on Wednesday, when Pierce took a wide release and ran a stutter fade, which was well-done, because most corners would have taken the approach as a sign for a hard break back towards the QB, but Watson put a hand on Pierce’s back, felt him re-accelerate and got back in phase, before ripping perfectly through the receiver’s reach.

Pierce’s former Bearcat teammate Coby Bryant was voted National CB of the week, and it could have also easily been Penn State’s Tariq Castro-Fields, who had an excellent showing himself, but I don’t think anybody had a better week of coverage all-around than this young man out of Wazzu – and I’m ready to really dive into his tape now. In a loaded corner class, a good showing at the combine might ultimately get him sneaking inside the top-100.