The Minnesota Vikings selected Texas Christian cornerback Jeff Gladney with the 31st overall pick in the first round of the 2020 NFL Draft on Thursday evening.
Gladney (5-10, 191 pounds) ran a 40-yard dash in 4.48 seconds and bench-pressed 225 pounds 17 times at the combine earlier this offseason. NFL.com’s Lance Zierlein has compared Gladney to Sidney Jones, who was a second-round pick in the 2017 NFL Draft.
“He’s slender so teams will need to decide whether to play him outside or in sub-packages, but no matter where he plays, this ball-hawking alpha has the talent to help his team on all three downs if needed,” Zierlein wrote of Gladney on NFL.com before the draft.
During his four seasons with the Horned Frogs, Gladney totaled 146 tackles, 1.5 sacks, five interceptions, 37 pass breakups and one forced fumble.
Gladney was the fourth-best cornerback in this year’s class, according to Luke Easterling’s rankings for Draft Wire. Ohio State’s Jeff Okudah, Florida’s CJ Henderson and LSU’s Kristian Fulton were the only cornerbacks that Draft Wire had ranked higher than Gladney.
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