2017 NFL Mock Draft: First-round projections after Week 14

One player on Michigan’s defense gets all the love and respect and his name is Jabrill Peppers, but the guy who might just be the best player on that unit who doesn’t get the attention he deserves is Jourdan Lewis. The local prospect from nearby Detroit really molded into one of the best cornerbacks in the nation despite being undersized.

Lewis stands 5-foot-11 and weighs just 186 pounds, but he’s as frustrating a cornerback as there is at the collegiate level. If he was about 6-foot-1 and weighed closer to 200 pounds and did the same things he has done at Michigan, he’d be my top cornerback in this class.

There’s still a good chance he could have the most successful career out of any of the cornerbacks in this deep class, but he could very well drop to Pittsburgh at No. 19. The Steelers picked Artie Burns in the first round last year out of Miami, but adding another cornerback to complement him would be a major step toward the future.

Pittsburgh’s defense ranks 23rd in the NFL in passing yards allowed per game and Burns has shown signs of being a future star, but another piece to the puzzle could be Lewis. His ball skills are elite and he’s one of the best open-field tacklers there is.

If you don’t hear his name at all during a game, that’s a good thing because he’s locking down his receiver — and that happens more often than not.