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Rival Views: Which 2018 CB has most NFL potential?

Rivals.com National Recruiting Director Mike Farrell and National Recruiting Analyst Adam Gorney don’t always see eye to eye. In this edition of Rival Views, the two debate which cornerback has the best NFL upside in the 2018 class.

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CLASS OF '18 RANKINGS: Rivals250 | Team | State | Position | JUCO

FARRELL'S VIEW

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Patrick Surtain is the highest-ranked cornerback, but I’m going to go with Tyson Campbell, his teammate, when it comes to potential NFL talent. Why? Because Surtain is much closer to his ceiling than Campbell is and I’ll roll the dice with Campbell with his quick-twitch ability and gambling style of play. He’s either going to be a superstar in college or a guy who gets victimized once every few games and frustrates fans, but I think he’ll be the former.

He’s a high-risk, high-reward pick at this position over safer bets like Surtain, Olajiah Griffin or even smaller guys like Asante Samuel. If I’m picking the safest bet to have a great college career it’s Oklahoma’s Brendan Radley-Hiles, but his lack of size will keep him below Campbell and some others down the line in the draft.

GORNEY'S VIEW

The tall, athletic, long cornerbacks certainly make sense for this question and so Patrick Surtain, Tyson Campbell, Isaac Taylor-Stuart and Jalen Green all make sense, but I'm going out on a limb and picking Brendan Radley-Hiles for a few reasons.

First, there is not a cornerback in this class that plays with such fearlessness and toughness. He loves playing on an island and most importantly he hits really, really hard. The Oklahoma commit lowers his shoulder and can really knock receivers around despite being a tad undersized at 5-foot-10, 187 pounds..

The other thing that sticks out to me about Radley-Hiles is if cornerback is not his long-term position, he could be a Jamal Adams-type at safety, undersized but physical and aggressive and ready to make plays anywhere on the field. This is a kid who loves football, loves proving he's one of the best and he goes out on the field every single time to make a statement.

I don't know if he's going to run the fastest at the NFL Combine or if any pro executives will be wowed by his size, but NFL teams will love his production at the college level and fall in love with his want-to when it comes to competition. There are a lot of better-looking cornerbacks on the hoof in this class. I'm not sure there is a single one who wants it more than Radley-Hiles though.

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