School: Maryland

Position: CB

Year: Redshirt Junior

The Good: Deonte Banks was generally viewed as a third or fourth tier CB in this class until the Combine, where Banks put everyone on notice with one of the greatest jumping performances in the history of the event: 42” vert (97th percentile) and 12’4” broad (98th percentile). Oh, he also ran a 4.35 seconds 40. I hope Banks’ athletic display led to anyone who rushed his ranking to go back and watch his tape…because his tape is also really good! He plays to his traits and is extremely physical at nearly 200lbs. He’s a monster in press coverage, and even if he loses a step he’s nearly impossible to complete a deep ball against with his speed and explosiveness. I was fired up to discover that Banks is not only a freaky athlete but also an extremely heady player. On top of great discipline in zone coverage, Banks is constantly calling out pre-snap signals and alerting his teammates to things. As if that all isn’t enough, Banks is an awesome tackler too. 

The Bad: You know how some cornerbacks look like they could play both ways, or at least evidently have experience at wideout? Yeah…that’s not Banks. He definitely plays the ball like a defender, and he should be stronger at the catch point than he’s shown on tape. Banks also doesn’t read the eyes of the QB enough; he could stand to take more chances than he does. Banks’ feisty on-field demeanor is largely a good thing, but it does rear its head when Banks loses balance and stumbles or gets into hand fights in the run game when he really should just calmly contain on the edge. 

The Bottom Line: Banks does have areas of his game to work on, but the biggest things working against his Draft stock are largely outside of his control: a bad shoulder injury caused him to miss most of the 2021 season, and because of that and the COVID-shortened 2020 season (Maryland played 5 games) Banks hits the Draft with less experience than the majority of his peers who he’d like to hear his name announced before on April 27. Still, Banks is an extremely exciting prospect at a valuable position. I’ve been burnt by overlooking inexperience and injury history before with favorite prospects of mine, so I’m mildly tempering the fanfare of Banks, but I’d otherwise have a Top 10 Pick grade on him. He’s that explosive, quick, smart, and tough. I’ll slightly downgrade him though, but he’s still the CB2 for me and going to rank highly on my final Big Board. And all of those mock drafts pegging him in the mid-20s? Ignore those, he’s going earlier than that in actuality too.

Grade: Mid First Round

Pro Comp: Marshon Lattimore

Games Watched:

• West Virginia 2021
• Michigan 2022
• Purdue 2022
• Ohio State 2022

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