With The First Pick
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Ohio State Football home to CB1 and CB2 in 2020 NFL Draft

By Cory Kinnan

INDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA - DECEMBER 07: Jeff Okudah #01 of the Ohio State Buckeyes on the post game stage after winning the Big Ten Championship game over the Wisconsin Badgers at Lucas Oil Stadium on December 07, 2019 in Indianapolis, Indiana. (Photo by Justin Casterline/Getty Images)
INDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA - DECEMBER 07: Jeff Okudah #01 of the Ohio State Buckeyes on the post game stage after winning the Big Ten Championship game over the Wisconsin Badgers at Lucas Oil Stadium on December 07, 2019 in Indianapolis, Indiana. (Photo by Justin Casterline/Getty Images) /
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The 2020 NFL Draft features a deep class of cornerbacks, but Ohio State Football has the top-two in Jeffrey Okudah and Damon Arnette.

The discussion has been open, but narrowed down to two schools about who is DBU? Is it housed in Columbus, Ohio with the Ohio State Football program, or is down in the Bayou with LSU? Both universities can make a pretty good argument, however this year’s top rated cornerback and second best are both Buckeyes as Jeffrey Okudah and Damon Arnette have risen to the top of the crop in the 2020 NFL Draft.

Jeffrey Okudah has been the top rated cornerback since practically day-one, his counterpart Damon Arnette has gathered steam as the season has gone along. While names like Florida’s C.J. Henderson, LSU’s Kristian Fulton, TCU’s Jeff Gladney, and Clemson’s A.J. Terrell can all stake a claim as the runner-up to Okudah, Arnette’s physicality has separated him from the pack.

Hip fluidity is the name of the game for Okudah, whose change of direction is top of the line, and maybe makes him the best cornerback prospect over the past decade. However, Arnette’s feet aren’t a weakness to his game either as he has plenty of agility to mirror his opponents off the line of scrimmage.

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What makes Arnette different from Okudah is his physicality; with Arnette, you could be getting a player who needs a bit of molding to his technique, but you are getting a gritty guy who will punch his opponent in his mouth off the line of scrimmage every play. Both Okudah and Arnette are excellent press man cornerbacks, like the likes of Lattimore and Ward in the past; this is the Ohio State way (outside of 2018): play close to the line of scrimmage and suffocate your opponent.

Both Okudah and Arnette are great open field tacklers, even if Okudah still has a bit of work to do, and two NFL teams are going to get day-one, physical starting cornerbacks outside of the numbers. It took a review and finalization of Arnette’s film, but Okudah and Arnette are the top-two cornerbacks of the 2020 NFL Draft class.

With a new defensive coordinator, Arnette bet on himself by heading back to school in 2019, and has seen his draft stock soar into day-one consideration. Despite being almost 24 years old, he should not be lost in the shuffle in a deep cornerback class.

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Antoine Winfield, Chris Gamble in the past, and Eli Apple, Marshone Lattimore, Gareon Conley, and Denzel Ward over the past three years. The Buckeyes are no strangers to seeing their cornerbacks flying off the board in the first round, and the 2020 NFL Draft will be no different as Okudah is a lock to land in the top-ten, and now Arnette is inching closer to solidifying himself as a top-32 pick as well as Ohio State Football continues to stake their claim as DBU.

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