With the draft finished, which teams have created a dynamic duo with an incoming rookie and an established veteran? Here are five standout combos.
Cleveland Browns: Denzel Ward and Greedy Williams
The Cleveland Browns got a steal by drafting Greedy Williams with the 46th overall pick. In Williams, they got a player who was widely viewed as the best coverage cornerback in the draft. Pairing him alongside Denzel Ward is a tandem that should terrify offensive coordinators around the NFL.
Ward and Williams were both incredible athletes and playmakers in college. Ward earned First-Team All-American honors in 2017 and Williams earned second-team All-American honors in 2018. On top of that, both of these players come from colleges known for pumping out high-quality Defensive Backs. In the past few years, Ohio State has given us Marshon Lattimore and Malik Hooker. While LSU has produced Tre’davious White and Jamal Adams.
Outside of the fact that both come from a crop of incredibly talented playmakers in the secondary, they both possess phenomenal ball-hawking skills. In his first game of the regular season last year, Ward picked off Ben Roethlisberger twice and defended three passes. He quickly followed it up in Week 3 with what Pro Football Focus ranked as one of the top single-game performances by a rookie last season. While his production slowed slightly throughout the year, he still played well the entire season.
In terms of Cornerback duos, that opposing teams wouldn’t want to face this is one of the best out there. I would put them behind the Jaguars Pairing of Jalen Ramsey and AJ Bouye, The Patriots duo of Stephon Gilmore and Devin McCourty, the Chargers with Desmond King and Casey Hayward Jr. and finally the Bears dominant group of Kyle Fuller, Prince Amukamara. And while most of those players are on big contracts, or due for paydays soon, the Browns have Ward and Williams under rookie contracts until at least 2021. This should be a fun pairing to watch for years to come.