DENVER — Take away all the first-round caliber quarterbacks in this year's NFL Draft, and a case can be made that no prospect has generated more buzz than Qwan'Tez Stiggers.
The cornerback who didn't play college ball has "top 30" visits with 13 NFL teams this spring with his tour stopping by Dove Valley on Friday to meet with the Broncos.
Sources also tell 9NEWS the Broncos visited with Nebraska safety Omar Brown and cornerback Quinton Newsome this week and are meeting Friday with South Carolina cornerback Marcellas Dial.
Stiggers, 22, has drawn intrigue throughout the NFL because of, A, his extraordinary skills, and B, his even more extraordinary story.
A stellar three-sport athlete at B.E.S.T. Academy in Atlanta, Stiggers accepted a football scholarship to Lane College, a private historically Black college in Jackson, Tenn. It was 2020, the year of the COVID-19 pandemic. The football program’s season was canceled in July. Two months later, Stiggers’ father died from injuries suffered in a car accident.
Stiggers gave up college football before it began.
He was both grieving the loss his father and taking on the responsibility of helping provide for his mom, Kwanna Stiggers, and his two young brothers, who were 10 and 8 at the time. He worked several jobs and to this day he works at a truck wash in Atlanta.
His mom had signed up Qwan'Tez for a Fan-Controlled Football League in Atlanta, and it was there he was discovered by the Toronto Argonauts of the Canadian Football League. He wound up not only making the team, and not only became a starter, he wound as the CFL's defensive rookie of the year.
The Broncos were interested in signing Stiggers as a free agent after the CFL's season, but the NFL determined he must enter the draft, where he's projected as an early Day 3 pick – although his upside potential could move a team to strike in the compensatory section of the third round.
“Wherever it is, I’m going to show all the haters that just because the story sounds good, I can back the story up,” Stiggers said in a January interview with 9NEWS.
Brown is a 6-foot, 205-pound safety who has also played the slot corner position. He ran a 4.5-second 40 at his Pro Day. He played three seasons at Northern Iowa before finishing with two seasons for the Cornhuskers.
One of his secondary teammates the past two years was Quinton Newsome, a 6-1, 185-pound corner who can play outside and in. Dial is a 6-0, 190-pound corner who ran a 4.46/40.
The Broncos are expected to have Riley Moss and Damarri Mathis compete at the cornerback spot opposite Pat Surtain II with Ja'Quan McMillian returning as the slot corner. But the Broncos are apparently looking in the later rounds for depth at those positions.
NFL Draft will conduct its first round on Thursday, April 25, second and third rounds on Friday, April 26, and fourth through seventh rounds on Saturday, April 27. The Broncos have the No. 12 overall selection in the first round, no picks in the second, and one each in the third and fourth rounds. The Broncos then have three picks in the fifth round, two in the sixth and none in the seventh.
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