After losing Bryce Callahan in free agency and with two of their three starting cornerbacks entering their age-30 seasons, we figured the Chicago Bears would be in the market to pick a player who could help in the secondary at some point over the weekend. What we didn’t know is that it would be Kansas State’s Duke Shelley.
College accomplishments: First-team All-Big 12 (Pro Football Focus, 2018), Second-team All-Big 12 (Coaches, 2018), Honorable mention All-Big 12 (Coaches, 2017), Third-team All-Big 12 (Phil Steele, 2017), two-time Big 12 Defensive Player of the Week (2018 vs. Oklahoma St., 2017 vs. Texas Tech), four-year starter (37 games).
HIGHLIGHTS
PRO DAY RESULTS
40-yard dash: 4.46 seconds
Bench press: N/A
Vertical: 34 inches
Broad jump: N/A
3-cone drill: 7.10 seconds
20-yard shuttle: 4.23 seconds
THREE STRENGTHS
Positional flexibility. Shelley figures to make his hay in the pros as a slot cornerback, but played his career at Kansas State outside. If he can master the techniques of a nickel corner, simply having a player who can play inside and out could be valuable to the Bears’ defense moving forward.
Top-notch coverage skills. Shelley finished his college career with 8 interceptions and a pair of pick-sixes. Last season, Shelley earned a 90.0 coverage grade from Pro Football Focus. That number was the best in a pass-happy Big 12, which says a lot about Shelley’s coverage skills.
Unique prospect pedigree. Shelley was a four-star recruit coming out of high school, with Rivals.com ranking him as the 22nd best cornerback of his high school and 22nd best prospect in Georgia. The Peach State has a ton of football talent, so that’s high praise.
THREE WEAKNESSES
Size. At 5-foot-9 and 173 pounds, Shelley is small for a cornerback. Bigger receivers could give him problems at the next level. Then again, it’s not as if Shelley didn’t hold his own against perceived mismatches while patrolling the Wildcats secondary.
Injuries. Shelley missed the second half of the 2018 season with a toe injury, which probably dinged his draft stock. It’s possible that Shelley wasn’t invited to the NFL Scouting Combine in Indianapolis because he missed the final half of his senior season. Those two things might have ultimately kept Shelley’s stock low enough to where he was a value player for the Bears in Round 6.
Fit. Shelley has no experience as a slot corner, so we don’t know exactly how smoothly the transition will go as he enters the NFL. A player with Shelley’s talent could make it look easy, but he’ll have to prove it.
(Photo by Tim Warner/Getty Images)
PFF SCOUTING REPORT
The #Bears add Kansas State cornerback Duke Shelley in the sixth round.
Luis C. Medina, who you can find on Twitter at lcm1986, has been covering the Chicago Bears at Bleacher Nation since 2017. Since then, he has written about 3 head coaches, 5 play-callers, and 11 starting quarterbacks. Previously, Luis wrote about the Cubs and MLB at BN (2015-16) and worked in the Chicago Tribune sports department (2011-16). He also co-hosted a Cubs postgame show, Outside the Ivy, in 2019.
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NEWSLETTER
