It’s no secret that Mansoor Delane is having a very good true freshman season for Virginia Tech. David Cunningham had an excellent article on Delane on Wednesday, which I would encourage everyone to read. Today, I want to put Delane’s true freshman season into perspective by comparing him to other true freshman cornerbacks around the country who have had a lot of playing time in 2022.

Cornerback is a position that isn’t as physically brutal as some other positions, such as offensive line, defensive line or linebacker, so you might expect more true freshman corners to carve out a niche for themselves. However, so far in 2022, only 16 have played 200+ snaps for Power 5 schools. Delane is one of them, and he’s outperformed the other 15 with the exception of one player.

Here’s a list of the 16 and their overall PFF grades for the 2022 season…

1: Will Johnson, Michigan, 84.1
2: Mansoor Delane, Virginia Tech, 74.9
3: Denver Harris, 71.9
4: Jeremiah Earby, Cal, 68.7
5: Jacob Parrish, Kansas State, 66.4
6: Simeon Harris, Colorado, 65.9
7: Davison Igbinosun, Ole Miss, 65.4
8: Jaylon Gilbeau, Texas, 64.5
9: Chandler Rivers, Duke, 63.4
10: Toriano Pride Jr., Clemson, 63.2
11: Azareye’h Thomas, FSU, 62.6
12: DQ Smith, South Carolina, 58.7
13: Jacolby Spells, West Virginia, 57.5
14: Malcolm Hartzog, Nebraska, 54.1
15: Amari Jackson, Boston College, 51.7
16: Jeremiah Cooper, Iowa State, 49.6

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