Buffalo Bills NFL Draft prospects: Virginia Tech CB Caleb Farley and his medical risk
Cornerback is a position widely believed to be a Bills' priority in this year's NFL Draft. Even after re-signing second starter Levi Wallace to play opposite Tre'Davious White, they could well be looking for an upgrade, especially because they have three defensive backs on the field around 90 percent of their defensive snaps.
As far as first-round grades go, a deeper dive is needed into Virginia Tech's Caleb Farley to determine if he's worthy of taking at No. 30, should he fall that far due to medical questions.
Had Farley not suffered a back injury in 2019 and then opted out of the 2020 season because of COVID-19 concerns, he would not even be in the picture that far down in the draft. He still might not be because he's so talented.
But he could fall to the Bills because of the uncertainty of his condition and recent decision to have surgery, which also kept him from performing at his Pro Day on Friday.
Here's the skinny:
Farley had a microdiscectomy -- the same back procedure Tiger Woods has had five times -- last week, then tried to convince everyone it was no big deal and that he would be ready for training camp.
As college football analyst Lee Corso might say: "Not so fast, my friend."
Farley might have been the top cornerback on everyone's draft board before all this latest information surfaced.
Now?
He could well fall to the Bills at No. 30 and might even still be there by the time they pick in the second round at No. 61 overall.
Before we go any further into his medical condition, let's back up and see why he was ranked so high in the first place.
Farley is/was an outstanding cover corner. Prime Time Sports Talk's Christopher Gallagher, in his scouting report, calls him "one of the best man-to-man cover corners to enter the draft in recent memory."
Farley also has excellent size at 6 feet, 2 inches, 210 pounds.
In 23 career games over the 2018 and 2019 seasons, Farley had six interceptions and 19 passes defended.
More from Prime Time Sports Talk:
"At his best when he is up at the line of scrimmage, the Maiden, NC native is strong with his hands while displaying stellar technique to avoid grabbing his opponents and committing penalties. The 22-year-old also possesses the ability to remain in the receiver’s hip pocket down the field, placing him in a position to routinely make plays on the ball when he is targeted by opposing signal-callers.
"Once a quarterback in high school and a converted wide receiver, the defensive back has game-changing ball skills that will allow him to make plays routinely at the NFL level. With 19 passes defended and six interceptions over his last two years with the Hokies, he can quickly get his head around when the ball is in the air. His his six-foot-two-inch frame enables him to play aggressively."
Now let's fast-forward to the present and reality.
Because the NFL Scouting Combine was canceled this year, it further complicates his evaluation. At the Combine, extensive medical tests are done on prospects and made available to all teams. This year, it's every team for itself.
So the Bills have to consider his dubious timeline and would be prudent to question if COVID-19 concerns are actually why he sat out last season.
Farley injured his back doing a dead lift before the 2019 season began. But he did go on to play 10 games that season before sitting out the last two with back spasms.
"I had a procedure done Tuesday, a discectomy on the S1, which really is from my previous injury, which was a dead-lift when I herniated my L5 and bulged my S1," Farley explained Friday. "At the time, we chose to move forward and operate on the herniation in the L5 thinking that the S1 was not an issue. Which gave me immediate relief back and I was able to train. It wasn’t physically limitative for a year. But instead of operating on the S1 – gave it a chance to heal on its own, which it had a good chance to do – but unfortunately just a month ago I had flared it up, inflamed it, and I got advised to go ahead and fix it instead of trying to keep waiting and heal on its own, because at the end of the day being so active as an athlete and always training, your disc isn’t going to really going to have the time to heal and be reabsorbed back into the body like a normal person.
"I was advised to go ahead and get the procedure done on it. I’m glad it’s not a reoccurrence of the same thing. I’m checked out. My previous procedure done is intact. I’m excited to move forward."
Certainly, it's an explanation that raised more questions than it answered.
But he's not concerned about his draft stock seemingly plummeting by the second.
"That’s for the media," he said. "When the teams look at the imaging and get the real information, I don’t think it will be an issue. I accepted my draft invite, so I’ll be in Cleveland. If a team wants the best corner in the draft, they’ll come find me."
Nick Fierro is the publisher of Bills Central. Check out the latest Bills news at www.si.com/nfl/bills and follow Fierro on Twitter at @NickFierro.
