Virginia Tech’s Caleb Farley is arguably the best cornerback in this year’s draft class. He is a consensus top-three corner with Alabama’s Patrick Surtain and South Carolina’s Jaycee Horn. However, he recently had a minor procedure on his back, which has many projecting he could slide in the draft a little. Instead of being a top-10 pick, some feel he could drop to the bottom third of the first round or at least to where the Arizona Cardinals select at No. 16.
Some raise red flags because it is his second procedure.
Back injuries can be tricky. He explained the situation when he spoke with the media at his pro day, and it makes things seem a lot less of an issue.
Farley’s issue was not a football injury. It happened from working out.
“It’s an original deadlift injury that had herniated my L5 disc and bulged my S1. I chose to move forward and do the discectomy on the L5 herniation, which gave me immediate relief after,” he explained.
The plan was to let the S1 heal on its own.
“I did a great job managing over a year but that bulge is still in my S1 and, unfortunately, I irritated it a month ago,” he explained.
That caused him to cut down on his training and still planned on doing all the drills at his pro day and “put up some crazy numbers.”
However, he was advised to take care of it now so he could be ready for training camp and the regular season.
“It was not a reoccurring disk or anything like that,” he said. “What I had previously worked on is still intact. It was great news. I’m actually excited about this.”
He probably should have had both taken care of the first time. The fact that his first procedure was still good should be viewed as good news.
Considering his injury didn’t come from the football field and the most recent procedure was to remedy something that just wasn’t taken care of initially, teams like the Cardinals should feel more comfortable about his potential to be fine and productive in 2021.
It sounds like, if he is on the board when the Cardinals make their selection at No. 16, they shouldn’t hesitate to pull the trigger.
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