Notre Dame football: Predicting Troy Pride Jr.’s NFL Draft

Former Notre Dame cornerback Troy Pride Jr. is expected to be a valued corner in the upcoming NFL Draft due to his elite speed, we predict where he goes.

With the 2020 NFL Draft less than a month away, NFL teams who are looking for a solid cornerback option to fill a need on their roster are likely taking a look at former Notre Dame cornerback Troy Pride Jr.

Elite speed is what a lot of Troy Pride Jr.’s game is predicated upon. Anyone who has watched a Notre Dame football game over the past couple of seasons has witnessed the game-changing speed the Pride possesses.

Many experts anticipated that the speedy former Notre Dame corner would post an elite time when running the 40-yard dash at the NFL Combine. Some felt that Pride Jr. may post a time in the mid-4.2-second range.

Unfortunately for Pride, he underperformed in the event, despite still running a blazing fast official time of 4.40 seconds in the 40-yard dash. The time would be good enough for fourth-best among qualifying cornerbacks but would be disappointing versus the expectations that many had for Pride Jr.

The expectation was that Pride Jr. would look to boost his draft status by posting a time more in line with the lofty projections while participating in the Notre Dame Pro Day in March. However, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the event was canceled and Pride Jr. will head to the NFL Draft with only his combine time.

Outside of his performance in the 40-yard dash, which undoubtedly garnered the most attention, Pride Jr. performed mediocre to poor in many of the other combine events. The results on some of his events such as the vertical leap and broad jump were surprising given that he has a strong track background and he underperformed.

The lack of a Pro Day is likely to hurt Pride Jr.’s draft stock, which was boosted by an excellent showing in the Reeses Senior Bowl, but then slipped due to him failing to meet lofty expectations in some of the more athletic events. In all likelihood, Pride Jr. just had an off performance at the NFL Combine, as his game tape shows the elite athleticism that teams expect, so greater stock should be taken in his film than his performance at the combine due to the larger sample size.

Most draft experts have Pride Jr. going between the third and fifth rounds of the draft, with some having him being selected as high as the second round of the draft. His incredible athleticism and solid game film have him going higher in some drafts, while his failure to meet expectations in the combine has him going lower in others. These are the factors that are leading to the large discrepancy in his draft projections.

I predict that Troy Pride Jr. is selected in the third round of the 2020 NFL Draft by the Minnesota Vikings with the 89th overall pick. The Vikings are extremely hard up for cornerback help after losing Trae Waynes and Mackensie Alexander to free agency and releasing Xavier Rhodes.

Given that Minnesota has lost their three top cornerbacks from last season and that the majority of the top free-agent corners have signed or are likely priced outside of what the Vikings have remaining for cap space, I expect them to target a number of cornerbacks in the draft. This is especially true since the Vikings added three draft picks via their trade of Stefon Diggs to the Buffalo Bills and were awarded three compensatory picks by the league.

By adding Troy Pride Jr., the Vikings are able to secure a cornerback prospect with elite athleticism and a high ceiling. If Pride Jr. works out for Minnesota, he would join another former Fighting Irish player, Harrison Smith, in the Vikings secondary.

With the NFL game trending more towards the heavy usage of more and more defensive backs on the field on a higher percentage of plays, expect Troy Pride Jr. and many of the other cornerbacks to be in high demand in the upcoming draft.