Philadelphia Eagles: 3 veteran cornerbacks worth signing in 2022
. Cornerback. Cincinnati Bengals. Trae Waynes. 2. player. 56
If Kyle Fuller is your textbook example of a former star looking to rehab his career after two down years, Trae Waynes is the athletic marvel who never quite put it together on an NFL field.
Like Fuller, Waynes is a former first-round pick who turned in a combine for the ages after a successful run at Michigan State, but those testing numbers, headlined by a 4.31 40, haven’t translated to on-field production. Even Waynes’ best season as a pro, which came in 2017 as a member of the Minnesota Vikings, was relatively average, and when his contract came up in 2021, Mike Zimmer and company opted against retaining his services, allowing the collegiate Spartan to sign a three-year, $42 million contract with the Cincinnati Bengals.
Unfortunately, Waynes never quite lived up to that deal, and after only appearing in five games with four starts, he was placed in season-ending IR and then released in March of this year.
Is Waynes as good a player as Fuller? No, give me the latter any time, but he does have experience playing in the Zimmer scheme Jonathan Gannon came up under, and he was even coached by the Philadelphia Eagles’ defensive coordinator from 2015-17, so there is a logical connection between the two parties.