Booker says to teams: ‘Use me like a Swiss Army knife’

Defensive lineman’s overall versatility might get him to NFL

Defensive lineman Thomas Booker went to Stanford because he wanted a better understanding of the game and more versatility as a player, characteristics that could lead him to the NFL.

The 6-foot-3, 303-pound Booker isn’t listed as one of the premier defensive linemen in college football alongside Michigan’s Aidan Hutchinson, Oregon’s Kayvon Thibodeaux, Florida State’s Jermaine Johnson II or Georgia’s Jordan Davis, but he is generally considered in the top-10-to-20 range at the position. It means the Gilman graduate is likely on an NFL roster by the end of the threeday draft, which begins Thursday night in Las Vegas.

Will he get selected as an end or tackle? Booker doesn’t know and doesn’t care. The versatility is his strength.

“It’s good to have a guy who can play multiple roles at a high level,” said Booker, an Ellicott City resident. “I didn’t play inside or outside occasionally at Stanford but did both evenly, especially in the last two years.

“You don’t have to take me off the field.

You can put me inside on pass rush downs or outside on run downs. Use me like a Swiss Army knife.”

There was a time when defenses, especially the dominant ones, stayed in one basic look with only slight variations. But with offenses starting to pass more, defenses went into attack mode by changing alignments and trying to create mismatches.

Booker can play nose guard, tackle or end in any scheme, regardless whether it’s a 4-3 or a 3-4. Even more important, he is hard to block.

“I can thrive in both those positions [tackle and end], and hopefully that versatility helps me to get into a rotation where I will be able to contribute,” Booker said. “Whatever franchise takes a chance on me, regardless if I’m a starter or on special teams, I want to contribute to winning football. Individually, I want to challenge for a starting spot.”

Booker started for three seasons at Stanford. The former two-time All-Metro firstteam player had a career-high 59 tackles

behind Humphrey and Peters.

“I think we’re definitely concerned,” general manager Eric DeCosta said at the team’s predraft news conference earlier this month. “If you guys know us, we always want to have a strong secondary and have as many corners as possible. We’ve referred to those guys as race cars in the past. This year, we got decimated at that position across the board. We have outstanding players coming back, but again, until they come back, it’s question marks.”

In other words, the Ravens will be in the market for cornerbacks when the draft kicks off Thursday night. Will that hunt begin with pick No. 14?

Cincinnati’s Ahmad “Sauce” Gardner, the consensus top cornerback in the class, will probably be long gone by the time the Ravens pick. That might not be the case for LSU’s Derek Stingley Jr., who looked like the next prodigy at the position as a true freshman starter for the Tigers’ 2019 national championship team. He did not play at the same level in 2020 or 2021, as injuries and occasional lapses in effort raised questions for some scouts. Will those questions keep Stingley, who possesses rare gifts for shadowing wide receivers one-on-one on the outside, on the board until the middle of the first round?

His former LSU teammate, Ravens linebacker Patrick Queen, hopes so. “Derek was different the day he came in,” Queen recalled. “He came in early, while we were practicing for the bowl game my sophomore year, and he came in and practiced, and he was going up against Ja’Marr [Chase] and those guys, and he was balling then. So, when he got there freshman year, truly, you could see it.”

Many Ravens fans would also be thrilled if a cornerback with such a high ceiling was available at pick No. 14. But this might not be the most realistic scenario for Thursday night. Instead, the Ravens might take a long look at a less glamorous cornerback who outplayed Stingley in 2021.

Trent McDuffie is 5-foot-11 with relatively short arms, and he did not intercept a single pass for Washington last season. With those caveats on the table, it’s possible he would be the perfect candidate to round out the Ravens’ secondary and allow every other player to occupy his ideal role.

The case for Trent McDuffie: The Ravens covet versatility in their top defenders, and that’s McDuffie’s calling card. He’s capable of blanketing a receiver on the outside but perhaps even more comfortable in zone coverage, which he played often and well at Washington. He’s plenty fast, powerfully built and Pro Football Focus described him as the best tackling corner in the class, meaning he could thrive in the slot or even at safety in some scenarios.

He started for three years in a program known as a factory for NFL defensive backs (including Peters) and earned rave reviews for his maturity and football acumen on top of his obvious athletic ability.

“We used to do a thing in Baltimore, and they still do it today, with red-star players,” said NFL Network draft analyst and former Ravens scout Daniel Jeremiah. “You put the red star on the guy that you just want in the building. Might not be the best player in the draft at his position, might not be the best player at his school, but he’s somebody that fits the culture. He’s tough. He’s intelligent. He’s competitive. To me, Trent McDuffie is a red star. He’s a red-star guy. Just everything about him, the way he plays, everything I hear about him from an intangibles standpoint. I would think he would be a good match. They’ve got bigger corners that they’ve had over the years, but I think he’s kind of a DNA match for how they play.”

It’s easy to envision McDuffie’s fit. He could play beside Humphrey and Peters and would give defensive coordinator Mike Macdonald more flexibility to move safeties Brandon Stephens and Chuck Clark around the field.

“McDuffie gives them versatility and depth at a position that was injury-hit last season,” ESPN analyst Mel Kiper wrote as he sent McDuffie to the Ravens in a recent three-round mock draft with his colleague, Todd McShay.

So why wouldn’t the Ravens draft this guy if he’s there at No. 14? Well, it comes back to McDuffie’s arms, measured at 29 ¾ inches at the NFL scouting combine. He ranked in the bottom 10% at his position. Gardner’s arms measured almost four inches longer. Because of McDuffie’s stature, scouts aren’t confident he’ll win battles for contested balls.

Here are some other cornerbacks the Ravens might consider later in the draft:

Second round: Florida’s Kaiir Elam: Elam’s uncle, Matt, was one of the least successful first-round picks in Ravens history, but that would not dissuade the team’s interest in this long, aggressive cornerback who held up well against SEC competition and ran the 40-yard dash in 4.39 seconds at the combine. He’s penalty-prone, and his production slipped last season, but there are only so many players who combine his all-around athleticism and zeal for press coverage.

Third round: Nebraska’s Cam Taylor-Britt: Like McDuffie, Taylor-Britt is a powerfully built hitting machine who could play in the slot or at safety. He has a longer frame and ran the 40-yard dash in 4.38 seconds at the combine, meaning he might be gone by the time the Ravens pick at 76th overall. Unlike McDuffie, Taylor-Britt frequently let his aggression get the better of him, leading to penalties, missed tackles and coverage lapses.

Alabama’s Jalyn

Fourth round:

Armour-Davis: We know how much the Ravens prize Crimson Tide defensive backs. Armour-Davis tore a knee ligament before his freshman season and did not start until last year, but when his opportunity arrived, he made All-SEC. He checks all the size and speed boxes and has no trouble sticking with receivers downfield. His lack of durability — he missed four games in 2021 because of a hip injury — is the factor that will scare teams off.