NFL Draft prospect Cooper DeJean is not afraid to speak the truth.
In a pre-draft interview with Yahoo, DeJean claimed that he could beat the #1 scorer in women’s college basketball history, fellow Hawkeye Caitlin Clark, in a game of one-on-one.
“I wouldn’t say it’s really weird but a lot of teams have asked me if I could beat Caitlin Clark one-on-one, just being from Iowa. I said I think I can,” DeJean told Yahoo Sports. “She’d probably score a few buckets on me, but I think I could pull it off.”
Iowa CB Cooper DeJean thinks he can beat Caitlin Clark one-on-one 😮 @IowaAwesome pic.twitter.com/U2qX8MoTKl
— Yahoo Sports (@YahooSports) April 24, 2024
You may be asking yourself, “Why would NFL teams be asking a football prospect if he could beat Caitlin Clark in a game of one-on-one?” Well, for those unaware, DeJean can flat-out hoop. Here are some of his high school highlights.
Iowa CB Cooper DeJean is going to be one of the first DB’s taken tomorrow in the NFL Draft.
But his high school basketball highlights are CRAZY 🔥
(via: @CourtsideFilms)
— Complex Sports (@ComplexSports) April 24, 2024
Here are the numbers: DeJean had a nearly 40-inch vertical in high school and scored 1,832 points. As a point of reference, that puts him 45 points ahead of fellow Iowan and former NBA first-round pick Harrison Barnes, the New York Post reports.
So, is DeJean confident? Yes, but he has very good reason to be.
It’s unclear how serious the NFL teams who asked DeJean about his hypothetical matchup against Clark were when they asked it. No disrespect to Clark – who is phenomenal – but DeJean is being modest here. He would convincingly beat Clark in basketball.
Even the high school version of Cooper DeJean would have beaten Clark. Does anyone remember the academy team of 15-year-old boys who dominated the World Cup-winning U.S. Women’s National Team by a score of 5-2?
Yes. There is no contest.
The same is true in basketball. Any city champion boys team from even a mid-sized city would crush a WNBA team. This is the thing that makes the left’s claim that trans athletes don’t have a physical advantage over women so absurd.
So, DeJean is not being bold by saying he can beat Clark.
Most pundits project DeJean to go in the second round, though some believe he might hear his name called in the latter half of the first. If either of those predictions pan out, DeJean will be the first white cornerback taken that high in the draft in a very long time.
