Josh Wallace 2024 NFL Draft Profile
Michigan cornerback Josh Wallace was a starting piece in an elite defense. Is Wallace being overlooked heading into the 2024 NFL Draft or is his lack of hype understandable? Let’s discuss this in his 2024 NFL Draft Profile.
Wallace played five seasons of college football. That experience largely occurred at Massachusetts where he spent four seasons before transferring to Michigan for his final season. In his career, he logged three interceptions and 28 pass breakups.
Wallace is slightly undersized at 5-foot-11, 185 pounds. It is manageable, but not ideal.
The standout trait for Wallace is his tackling. At Michigan, Wallace punished teams that attempted to work the boundary. If he has zone responsibility in the flat, he gets downhill and breaks up plays.
In pass defense, Wallace has some issues. The most noticeable is that he gets handsy. In the NFL, he will need to greatly patch up that aspect of his game or he will be hit with penalties.
Wallace can also give up yards on intermediate routes. That is mainly because he will aggressively back-peddle to avoid giving up deep shots. The issue is that he will get beat on comeback routes. That will likely be exposed in the NFL.
The elephant in the room is that Wallace is concerningly slow. The aforementioned topics may be non-factors as he is simply too slow for the NFL. At the 2024 NFL Combine, he looked slow in the drills.
Wallace did not run the 40-yard dash at the combine; however, there are reports that he ran a 4.68 at Michigan’s Pro Day. What’s interesting is that Michigan’s official results do not mention Wallace running the 40-yard dash. It does not even state that Wallace did not compete as it did for players who skipped the drill.
Wallace’s NFL stock is poor despite being a starting corner on an elite defense. Instead of being the reason for an elite defense, Wallace benefited from a strong scheme, great playcalling, and elite teammates.
Wallace doesn’t seem to have the pure speed to hang with NFL-level receivers. That is paired with slightly below-average length for the position. It is difficult to find a reason to draft him. I would not be thrilled to bring him in as an undrafted free agent either.
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