Alabama podcast criticizes Auburn podcast over take on DJ James vs Kool Aid McKinstry
A little in-state podcast debate has been occuring over the past 48 hours.
Zac Blackerby and Lindsay Crosby of the Locked On Auburn podcast recently released an episode explaining why they believe Tigers' cornerback DJ James could be better than Alabama's Kool Aid McKinstry - both very talented corners in their own right.
Blackerby and Crosby dove into the numbers and explained their position. Earlier today, the Locked On Bama podcast decided to release a retaliation episode, explaining why they disagreed with the take.
Hosts Luke and Jimmy noted that while the initially thought the take was crazy, once they began to break it down it became more of a realistic opinion - although they still "vehemently disagreed."
The guys decided to take a look at Pro Football Focus and their grades for both cornerbacks. PFF generally provides solid commentary and statistics on both college and NFL players/teams, but can be extremely subjective in their analytics at times.
According to PFF, DJ James has an 82.3 defensive grade and an 85.7 coverage grade. Both were team-best for James.
McKinstry has a PFF grade of 82.5, with a coverage grade of 81.2. Both very comparable in terms of what Pro Football Focus thinks of them analytically.
However, if you ask Pro Football Focus who the best cornerbacks in the nation are, DJ James is nowhere to be found.
PFF recently released a list of the top 10 cornerbacks that are returning to college football, and McKinstry was listed at No. 1. "That lines up with a lot of things preseason wise and NFL Draft wise," Jimmy said. "What's interesting to me is that they (PFF) did not have DJ James in the top 10 [...] I will say this, he's (DJ James) a really good player. It might be fair to say that DJ James might be the best player on Auburn's team, I think that's something reasonable or something that's possible. Auburn's other corner Nehemiah Pritchett is a really good player too. It may be the best or one of the best cornerback duos in college football [...] but I don't buy DJ James as good as Kool Aid. I think Kool Aid is the best corner in all of college football."
"We are not saying DJ James isn't good, in fact, I like him a lot," Luke said. "But I don't think it's really all that close - I will say this, I was shocked at the stats. The physical attributes are eerily similar."
James has 38 tackles, McKinstry had 36. Both had one interception. James had an NFL grade of 61.9, McKinstry a grade of 57.9. James also has a lower reception percentage (40.7% to 46.3%) and less yards allowed (299 to 352). McKinstry has significantly more pass breakups (16 to 6) and a lower missed tackle rate (10.0% to 11.6%).
Statistically, both corners are very similar.
Luke and Jimmy also addressed LOA's opinion that DJ James is a better cornerback because he was surrounded by less talent last year.
"That is certainly true, but I would counter that with the fact that Alabama also had to play teams like Tennessee last year," Luke said. "If Auburn had played Tennessee all of their cornerback stats would have looked worse."
Alabama's FBS opponents averaged 255.7 passing yards per game last season. Auburn's opponents averaged 267.4 yards per contest.
Jimmy noted that the thing about cornerback statistics that are deceiving is that the good ones don't rack up numbers because they don't get challenged often. "Teams don't go after (McKinstry) because they know how good he is," Jimmy said. "DJ James is going to suffer that to some degree as well, because he's a good player."
He was correct, DJ James didn't get targeted much relative to the other cornerbacks on Auburn's roster - James and Pritchett had 59 targets apiece, which led the team.
Kool Aid McKinstry had 80 targets last season. The next closest player on Alabama's roster had 57 (Brian Branch).
Now, McKinstry did make the most of his moments being targeted - again, he had 16 pass break ups - but he also gave up a higher completion percentage.
The numbers say both corners are two of the best not just in their conference, but in the entire country.
Both should be respected and regarded as top 10 at their position heading into 2023.
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