Denver Broncos: 10 players to avoid in the 2021 NFL Draft
3. Caleb Farley, CB, Virginia Tech
The inclusion of Caleb Farley in this list will come as quite a surprise given the number of times he’s been projected to land with the Denver Broncos in 2021 NFL mock draft scenarios.
Let’s qualify this one a bit — the Denver Broncos should avoid Caleb Farley in the early portion of the first round of this particular draft class.
Does this mean they should avoid him altogether?
I don’t think so.
If Farley by some stroke of luck falls to the Denver Broncos’ second round pick at number 40 overall? They should pounce.
The good news for Farley is, he has two very productive seasons at Virginia Tech, a freakish frame for the cornerback position at 6-foot-2, 197 pounds. He also combines freakish athleticism with that freakish frame, reportedly cracking the 4.4 barrier at some point in time during his years with the Hokies.
Unfortunately, there are a variety of reasons why taking Farley in the first-round of the 2021 NFL Draft may not make sense for the Denver Broncos or any other team.
First and foremost, you have to consider this guy’s lengthy injury history. In 2017, Farley suffered a torn ACL causing him to miss his freshman season. He came onto the scene at cornerback in 2018 and picked off a pair of passes, but those came in the first two games and he didn’t have any more after that.
In 2019, Farley picked off four passes, showing off how much he had progressed from year one of his transition at cornerback to year two, but again, injury concerns popped up with a back injury that caused him to miss a pair of games.
That back injury has lingered on.
Not only did Farley opt out of the 2020 season citing COVID as a primary concern, but he will not be able to work out for NFL teams prior to the 2021 NFL Draft due to a procedure on his back. He may not be ready for training camp at this rate.
Given how new he is to his position, injury concerns, and the fact that the next time he takes a football field it will be over 600 days since he last did so (November 2019), there are a variety of reasons to potentially avoid using a really high pick on Farley.