Standout corner a real head-turner
Team brass raves about Clemson star delivering in ‘big-time moments’
Zach Orr was ready to fight for his man. He had told Nate Wiggins as much when the Clemson cornerback met with Ravens coaches on a predraft visit.
As it turned out, Orr did not have to convince general manager Eric DeCosta when pick No. 30 came up and Wiggins was still waiting for a team.
“You saw how fast the pick got turned in,” Orr, the Ravens’ new defensive coordinator, said Friday as the team introduced Wiggins to reporters.
Dressed in a white suit with a Ravens cap perched high on his head, Wiggins cracked up the room when he noted he was in the bathroom Thursday night at the moment the team called.
Every NFL staff showers its first-round pick with praise in the first 24 hours, but there was palpable eagerness from both sides regarding the Wiggins-Ravens union.
“Obviously, you can see the smiles on our faces,” Orr said. “What stood out to me the most is that in the big-time games, at the big-time moments — you’re talking about third down, fourth down, two-minute, end of half — whenever the ball came his way, he made the play.”
Defensive pass game coordinator Chris Hewitt needed just a few minutes of conversation with Wiggins to decide the 20-year-old has what it takes between the ears. His game footage was equally convincing.
“All I had to do was just go ahead and turn on the tape,” Hewitt said. “You’re just like,
‘Goddog, look at this guy go.’ Whenever it was time for a guy to make a play, this guy was making plays all over the field.”
He pointed to a pair of chase-down strips that showed off both Wiggins’ speed (4.28 seconds in the 40-yard dash) and his fire.
“Those are like game-changing plays,” Hewitt said. “And those are the kind of guys we look for.”
Wiggins, who will wear No. 2 for the Ravens, acknowledged the “up-and-down”
experience of waiting for his name to be called on a night when the first 14 picks were used on offensive players.
“They going to see that they passed up,” he said of the teams picking ahead of Baltimore.
But the Atlanta native seems convinced he’s in the right place, playing for a franchise built on great, attacking defense with
for several years.
The Ravens wanted to rebuild an offensive line that had been depleted through free agency with both starting guards, John Simpson and Kevin Zeitler, signing with the New York Jets and the Detroit Lions, respectively. The Ravens also traded starting right tackle Morgan Moses to the Jets in exchange for draft picks.
There was speculation that 10 offensive linemen would go in the first round, and nine were gone before the Ravens were on the clock.
The addition of Wiggins has to help, not only because of his ability but because he gives the team some options. One of the Ravens’ starting cornerbacks, Marlon Humphrey, is coming off an injury-hampered 2023 season in which he missed seven games. His best days might be behind him.
Another starting cornerback, Brandon Stephens, played well last year and turned
out to be one of the team’s top defensive players. But Stephens is in the final year of his rookie contract, and if he has another stellar season, he will command a huge payday.
So, Wiggins fits perfectly. He also gives the Ravens the luxury of moving Humphrey back inside near the line of scrimmage or over the slot receiver. That’s Humphrey’s best position, which became evident when he got beat outside several times last season.
Humphrey no longer has the speed to run with outside receivers, but Wiggins does. It’s impossible to teach.
The other things are coachable. Wiggins had 24 pass breakups and three interceptions, including two for touchdowns, in 34 career games at Clemson. According to several draft reports and his film, he has good closing and recovery speed and can change directions well. He played both cornerback and receiver at Westlake High School in Atlanta.
There are questions about Wiggins being strong in run support, but that reminds me of Hall of Fame cornerback Deion Sanders,
who once said, “show me a cornerback that can tackle and I’ll show you a corner who can’t cover.”
Wiggins’ size might be a problem to some, but the Ravens have had small cornerbacks who have played well before, such as Duane Starks and Samari Rolle. There have been Hall of Fame players who were “small” for their positions in their rookie seasons but filled out well after a year or two in the weight room. Besides Starks in 1998, the Ravens have had success with other cornerbacks taken in the first round, including Chris McAlister (1999), Jimmy Smith (2011) and Humphrey (2017).
The Ravens have been hit hard by injuries in the secondary over the past couple of years, but they were able to survive in 2023 with Ronald Darby and Arthur Maulet at cornerback. Now, they have Wiggins, a player they rated highly.
“We’re very, very excited to draft Nate Wiggins, in my opinion, the best cover corner in the draft,” Ravens general manager Eric DeCosta said.
He might be right.