Ennis
Rakestraw Jr..
Ennis
Rakestraw Jr..
Missouri· 5'11"· 183 lb· 4.51s 40
"A 183-pound boundary corner who played every rep like a fistfight, and whose entire NFL case rests on whether that frame can survive the schedule long enough to prove the coverage was real."Pre-draft read
Rakestraw is a boundary press-man cornerback who played the position like a fistfight. He aligns tight, lands a patient two-hand jam to stall the release, and stays hip-to-hip through the stem because his feet reset faster than the route can break. The mirror technique is clean: no wasted motion out of the pedal, no panic at the top of the stem.
The second trait is competitiveness against the run. He takes on stalk blocks, sheds, and tackles in space at a weight he has no business doing it at. Zone reps are functional rather than instinctive, with late eyes on crossers. At 4.51 speed the recovery gear is adequate, not elite, so the ceiling rides on technique. What separates him is that he plays every snap like the ball is coming.
Press-man secondary with single-high or two-high shells that ask corners to travel and play the boundary without help
Year 1: fourth corner and core special teamer who spot-starts in man-heavy packages. Ceiling: full-time outside starter who takes the opponent's primary perimeter receiver in press-man.
A pattern-match zone system that keeps corners in off alignment reading the quarterback, or a defense that asks its boundary corner to tackle bigger slot and tight-end bodies in the run fits every week.
Value spikes when he is allowed to put hands on receivers at the line; asking him to catch and read from seven yards off removes his best trait.
Ennis Rakestraw Jr. Highlights | 2024 NFL Draft
Official team draft reel of his Missouri boundary tape, heavy on press reps and perimeter tackling.
Ennis Rakestraw Jr. Ultimate Missouri Highlights
Full career compilation showing the two-hand jam, trail technique and catch-point contest against SEC receivers.
Ennis Rakestraw Jr Missouri Highlights
Game-cut package including his 2023 work against LSU on the boundary.
A four-year Missouri boundary corner who built his tape on contact rather than production. Rakestraw is a man-coverage specialist first: press alignment, disruptive hands, tight trail leverage, and the willingness to live on an island without safety help. He is not a center-field ballhawk and never pretended to be one.
The production line is thin, and it should be read in context. Four seasons on the boundary produced 106 tackles, one interception and 24 pass breakups, the low interception number reflecting both a lack of targets and hands that finish the play rather than steal it. Injuries carved out chunks of his career, including a four-game 2021 and a nine-game 2023. The signature tape came against SEC volume receivers, where he traveled and held up. The flags were obvious: a lean 183-pound frame, inconsistent tackling, and a combine week that landed flat.
The board had him late-first, early-second through the fall, then softened after Indianapolis. Detroit had already traded up for Terrion Arnold; taking Rakestraw at 61 was Brad Holmes doubling down on a secondary that finished 27th against the pass. At that price the pick was defensible: a starting-caliber cover trait with durability risk attached.
- 01
Press mechanics
patient two-hand jam and disciplined feet at the line let him stall releases without opening the gate or lunging into a whiff.
- 02
Mirror ability
flips and matches breaks with clean footwork, staying hip-to-hip through double moves instead of guessing at the stem.
- 03
Man-coverage temperament
comfortable traveling with a No. 1 receiver on an island and playing the boundary with no safety help over the top.
- 04
Run-game willingness
attacks stalk blocks, sheds and closes on perimeter runs at a weight where most corners look for the sideline instead.
- 05
Competitive stamina
plays the catch point the same way in a blowout as in a one-score game, and rarely concedes a rep after losing one.
- 01
Frame and play strength
a lean 183-pound build gets moved by bigger receivers on contested throws and at the top of back-shoulder routes.
- 02
Ball production
one career interception and hands that knock the ball down rather than take it away limit the splash-play upside.
- 03
Zone eyes
reads the quarterback late from off alignments and passes off crossers a beat behind, which shows up in match coverage rules.
- 04
Durability
injury-shortened 2021 and 2023 seasons plus a flat combine week left real questions about holding up over a 17-game workload.
— — — positional median (p50)
- 40 yd
- 4.51sp50
- Vertical
- —in
- Broad jump
- 120inp50
- Three-cone
- —s
- Shuttle
- —s
- Bench
- —rep
| Yr | Team | G | Tkl | Sk | Int | PD | FF |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2020 | Missouri | 10 | 24 | 1 | 0 | 6 | 0 |
| 2021 | Missouri | 4 | 13 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 |
| 2022 | Missouri | 13 | 34 | 0 | 1 | 12 | 2 |
| 2023 | Missouri | 9 | 35 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 1 |
| Career | — | 36 | 106 | 1 | 1 | 24 | 3 |
Official cfbstats.com Missouri tables (2020-2023). Categories cfbstats did not publish for a given season are left null rather than zero-filled: interceptions outside 2022, sacks outside 2020, and 2021 tackles-for-loss. cfbstats publishes no fumble-recovery table for him in any season. Career TFL (7.0) is the sum of the three published seasons.
A dash means the figure is not published by a source we trust — never a zero we invented.
Physical man-coverage boundary corner who wins with hands and leverage rather than ball production or timed speed.
Undersized corner who turned relentless competitiveness and clean technique into a long, reliable starting career.
Highly drafted press corner whose career stalled behind injuries and depth-chart traffic before he ever got a real runway.
Everything above is the pre-draft evaluation. This section is what actually happened — updated year over year.
Detroit drafted him into a crowded room and never got a clean look. As a rookie in 2024 he was the fourth or fifth corner behind Terrion Arnold, Carlton Davis and Amik Robertson, played eight games mostly on special teams, and finished with six total tackles before a hamstring injury put him on injured reserve in November. The 2025 season was worse: a shoulder injury in early August required surgery and cost him the entire year before it started. Two seasons into his career he had zero starts, zero defensive impact, and a body of NFL work smaller than a single college season. He entered the 2026 offseason healthy and bulked up, and Detroit's camp reporting had him with a genuinely open path to an outside starting job.
In hindsight, this is not a bust evaluation — it is an incomplete one, and the reasons are the exact ones the board flagged. The pre-draft concern was never the coverage trait; it was whether a 183-pound corner with two injury-shortened college seasons could survive an NFL schedule. That risk has been the whole story. The cover skill that got him picked at 61 has barely been on the field long enough to be judged, and the verdict on the pick still depends on whether year three finally gives him one full season.
Data note: Official cfbstats.com Missouri tables (2020-2023). Categories cfbstats did not publish for a given season are left null rather than zero-filled: interceptions outside 2022, sacks outside 2020, and 2021 tackles-for-loss. cfbstats publishes no fumble-recovery table for him in any season. Career TFL (7.0) is the sum of the three published seasons.