Cornell Powell Catching Teams' Draft Radar

The Clemson WR waited his turn before making an impact fifth season, and now could be in play as a Day Two selection

One of Daniel Jeremiah’s justifications for the Eagles conceivably taking Kyle Pitts over one of the top three receivers in the draft is that receivers can be found throughout the draft, in every round, whereas the tight end class isn’t as deep.

A receiver of every size, shape, and skillset can be found with just the slightest turn of the head.

One of them worked out at Clemson’s Pro Day on Thursday, and that was Cornell Powell.

The Eagles turned to Clemson last year when they selected safety K’Von Wallace, so they have a relationship with the Tigers’ program and maybe they find Powell to their liking in the third round.

Without a fourth-round pick at the moment, it would be unlikely that Powell is still on the board in the fifth round, where the Eagles have two selections.

Powell is 6-0, 205 pounds and on Thursday ran a 4.47 in his 40-yard dash. He has a wingspan of 79 inches and 10-inch hands.

The thing about Powell, though, is he had to wait his turn to show what he could do.

It took until his fifth and final year to finally pop, biding his time behind Clemson’s long line of talented receivers such as Mike Williams, Tee Higgins, Hunter Renfrow, Ray-Ray McLoud, Deon Cane, and Jordan Leggett.

“Being here five years, I’ve been in that wide receiver room, I’ve been around great talent, and it just makes me raise my level of play, raise my competitiveness and raise my intensity,” said Powell following his pro day workout. “Every day you have to go out there and compete, so it just brings out the best in me.”

In his final season with the Tigers, Powell had 53 catches for 882 yards and seven touchdowns. In his previous four years, he had 40 receptions for 329 yards and three scores.

He could be a diamond in the rough waiting to be polished by Eagles WR coach Aaron Moorehead, another weapon on the outside for Nick Sirianni and offensive coordinator Shane Steichen to develop.

“I’m just going to keep working, work on the little things, things I think will help separate me at the next level and studying the game by taking little notes and nuggets from great players in the league right now like Davante Adams Keenan Allen, DK (Metcalf),” said Powell. “Just trying to take things from them and put it in my tool belt. Every day is working, never being satisfied.

Powell could have taken the easy way out of Clemson, transferring to a school where he could have played sooner and a lot more.

That’s not his style, though, and that is something else that indicates the type of player he is beyond just the statistics.

“It shows I’m ready to compete and I’m a team-before-self guy,” he said. “It really goes back to how I was raised and how my mom raised me, never run away from anything, never try to take the easy way out. I just love to compete. I knew I belonged on this level, so trying to prove myself every day.

“It just goes back to trying to earn everything and not being entitled. A lot of guys come in four and five stars and they just want it handed to them, but when you get to this level, you start at the bottom of the barrel and go prove yourself each and every day.

“I just hope I can inspire people to stick with it and really earn it because it feels so much better to say, yeah, man, I did that. No one ever gave me anything. I worked for everything I got rather than saying I was given this and that. Just trying to be a light.”

Ed Kracz is the publisher of SI.com’s EagleMaven. Check out the latest Eagles news at www.SI.com/NFL/Eagles and please follow him on Twitter: @kracze.