Chicago Bears 2023 NFL Draft: Bears address the trenches and trade down in full mock

Chicago Bears Draft Pick No. 61: DJ Turner

The next five on the board:
Drew Sanders
Keeanu Benton
Jordan Battle
Noah Sewell
Blake Freeland

The Chicago Bears need and want a cornerback. Luckily for them, again, this draft class is loaded with them. A player needing more talk is Michigans star cornerback DJ Turner. Turner is the zone-based version of Denzel Ward. If Michigan stopped asking him to blank people in man coverage, they could have seen him shine. Yes, Turner is small at 179 pounds, but he makes up for it with his 4.29 speed.

The best use for Turner is to have him back peddle and break on routes underneath him. He can mirror and match with the best of them, but he isn't the most physical corner in coverage. That allowed him to get beat for over 400 yards in coverage. If you put on the tape, you can see he does a great job staying over the top of routes and breaking downhill for a (sigh) Kyle Fuller-like tackle. He doesn't bring the boom.

If the Chicago Bears could grab Turner, their secondary on paper would be scary. Zone coverage, sure tacklers, and players that fly around the field would be fun to watch. Also, keep him from having the ball in his hands in the open field. You won't catch him. He has two career touchdowns, but they were long scores. You can't teach that kind of speed.