What to Know: Packers host Miami CB Tyrique Stevenson for pre-draft visit
By Paul Bretl
The Green Bay Packers have already had in Miami cornerback Tyrique Stevenson for a pre-draft visit, according to Ian Rapoport. Stevenson is one of 30 official visits the Packers will have as part of the pre-draft process.
Stevenson measures in at 6’0″ – 198 pounds and posted a Relative Athletic Score of 8.9 out of 10. He tested well across the board but did register an individual RAS on the shuttle of 2.02 and 4.24 on the 3-cone drills.
Stevenson began his college career at Georgia but transferred to Miami prior to the 2021 season, with the bulk of his playing time coming over the last two seasons, where he primarily lined up on the boundary.
During that span, Stevenson made 75 of his 90 tackle attempts while logging 27 stops–or plays that constitute a “loss” for the offense. In coverage, he gave up just 42 completions on 89 targets (47%) and allowed 13.8 yards per catch with three interceptions and nine pass breakups.
Stevenson is PFF’s seventh-ranked cornerback in what is a very deep and talented class. For a closer look at his game, Lance Zierlein of NFL.com had this to say in his pre-draft scouting report:
"“Big cornerback with the size and play strength to help match up with bigger receivers in the league. Stevenson is patient but physical in press-man and has good recovery speed when he falls behind. He struggles as a pattern matcher in off-man and had issues with busts in zone, so he might be scheme-dependent. Stevenson is talented when attacking the catch point and has the ball skills to make plays on 50/50 throws. He needs to become more consistent in run support but has the physical attributes to become a starter in a press-man scheme.”"
Zierlein mentions that Stevenson will be best in a press-man scheme, which for the most part, is not what the Packers run under Joe Barry. Early last season, Barry made it clear that they were a zone coverage team, although we saw more flexibility during the latter portion of the season.
Cornerback isn’t exactly a huge need for the Packers. Recently, Matt LaFleur gave us some insight into what the secondary was going to look like with Rasul Douglas and Jaire Alexander on the boundary, Keisean Nixon in the slot, and Darnell Savage at one of the two safety positions. At some point, Eric Stokes will be added to that mix as well.
But with that said, cornerback is a premier position, and as already mentioned, it’s a very talented and athletic draft class. Chances are that when the Packers are on the clock, one of the best players available will be a cornerback, and for the reasons just mentioned, I imagine that Brian Gutekunst will be tempted to make that pick, given his history in the draft.
If the Packers did add another cornerback to the mix, that would give them added flexibility to move Douglas to safety, where there is still a need, but unfortunately, this isn’t a strong draft class at the position.