Illinois football cornerback Devon Witherspoon, one of the top NFL Draft prospects at the Scouting Combine, received some tough news on Friday. Witherspoon won't participate in on-field work at the Scouting Combine on Friday due to a hamstring injury, sources told Tom Pelissero of NFL Network.
Fortunately for Devon Witherspoon, the injury isn't expected to be serious. The star cornerback had an MRI, revealing the ailment to be a minor one.
As such, it seems like Witherspoon, rated as the top NFL Draft cornerback prospect by some experts, avoided the worst-case scenario with his hamstring injury.
Given the strong season that Witherspoon had for the Fighting Illini in 2022, it's not likely that he would have needed on-field NFL Scouting Combine work to prove anything else to general managers and executives.
Witherspoon became the first defensive back in Illinois history to earn Consensus All-American status while also being named the Big Ten's Tatum-Woodson Defensive Back of the Year.
The 6-foot, 170-pound corner appeared in 12 games for the Fighting Illini, tallying 41 tackles, 2.5 for loss, three interceptions and 14 passes defended.
Clearly, NFL scouts and general managers can take one look at Devon Witherspoon's tape and numbers and judge for themselves what kind of defensive back he is.
But the Illinois football star also helped his case when speaking to the media on Thursday.
He was asked if there was a certain receiver he was looking forward to lining up against.
Witherspoon's response?
“All of them.”
Now, that's the mindset of an elite NFL cover corner.
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