2020 NFL Draft Prop Bets: First Cornerback To Be Selected
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In the 2020 NFL Draft, it seems pretty clear who the first quarterback and defensive lineman off the board will be. According to the odds, LSU quarterback Joe Burrow and Ohio State edge rusher Chase Young are expected to go first in their respective categories, but what about the cornerback position? The oddsmakers at 888sport seem to think that Ohio State’s Jeffrey Okudah is a virtual guarantee to be the top player drafted at his position, but is he the same type of lock? Here are all of our 2020 NFL Draft Prop Bets.
Let’s take a closer look at this prop.
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Jeffrey Okudah (-10000)
Ohio State corner Jeffrey Okudah has the same odds to be the first player drafted at his position as Burrow and Young. For the most part, that makes sense. The first two picks of the draft appear to be Burrow followed by Young, and then most mock drafts expect the Detroit Lions — who are third in line — to draft Okudah. Based on fit alone, that makes sense, as the Lions traded away Pro Bowl cornerback Darius Slay this offseason. They actually needed help at the position before they traded him away, and now they need it even more.
Okudah is the best cornerback in the draft, as he is coming off a solid season with the Buckeyes and a good combine performance to boot. Okudah ran a 4.48 40 time, had 11 reps on the bench press, reached 41.0 inches on the vertical jump, and made 135.0 inches with the broad jump. By most accounts, he’s nearly the perfect cornerback prospect.
If you’ve taken a look at any of the most recent mock drafts, whether they’re from CBS, Bleacher Report, or NFL.com, all of them have Okudah going no later than the sixth pick in the draft. He’s all but guaranteed to be the first cornerback taken in the 2020 NFL Draft, and that’s why he’s priced at -10000.
C.J. Henderson (+1000), Kristian Fulton (+2500)
There are only two other players who can even be remotely in the conversation, but even that seems like a stretch. Those guys are Florida’s C.J. Henderson and LSU’s Kristian Fulton. However, the opinions are all over the place with these two guys, as some people expect a guy like Henderson to go somewhere in the middle of the first round, while others estimate that they’ll go no earlier than the 20s.
It’s not that they’re bad prospects. Both are solid players who will either be first-round picks or excellent value second-rounders. At the same time, there’s really no scenario where either of them gets ahead of Okudah.
We could see some surprises in this NFL Draft, with quarterbacks like Justin Herbert, or maybe some of the wide receivers that one team rates higher than someone else. But for this specific prop, I can’t see any other scenario where anyone but Okudah is drafted first.
With a betting line of -10000, it’s understandable if you want to pass, as there really isn’t much of a payoff. At the same time, if you want to bet on the cornerback props, I’d rather look at some of the other player matchups or over-unders rather than taking a flier on Henderson or Fulton to be selected ahead of Okudah. I don’t see it happening.
Here are all of our 2020 NFL Draft Prop Bets.
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Dave Golokhov is a featured writer at BettingPros. For more from Dave, check out his archive and follow him @davegolokhov.