Qwan’tez Stiggers already was one of the most improbable stories of this year’s draft, and his career narrative could be getting even better.
Robert Saleh said Saturday that he has seen enough of the 2024 fifth-round pick in training camp to believe that Stiggers — who was discovered out of the CFL after not even playing college football — is “definitely” an NFL-caliber cornerback, and “now we’re trying to figure out whether or not he’s a starting NFL corner.”
The Jets’ defense, of course, already boasts perhaps the top starting cornerback tandem in the league with two-time All-Pro Sauce Gardner and D.J. Reed, who many believe also should have been named to the Pro Bowl last season.
But there is plenty of playing time available in the secondary in nickel and dime packages and on special teams, and the 22-year-old Stiggers has opened some eyes in the first 10 days of training camp in Florham Park.
“We’re pleased with him, for sure,” Saleh said “I think he’s just got great patience at the line of scrimmage. He’s very smart. Not book-smart, but just so instinctive ahead of his years with regards to route recognition and understanding concepts.
“He’s another one that we’re all looking forward to seeing against other opponents because we think he’s got a chance to be pretty damn good.”
The notion that the Georgia native will get opportunities to show more to the coaching staff in preseason games — beginning Saturday against the Commanders — wouldn’t have seemed possible a couple of years ago.
Stiggers was slated to attend Division II Lane College in Tennessee in 2020, but his freshman season was canceled due to COVID.
When his father Rayves Harrison died in September of that year — after being in a coma for seven months following a car accident — Stiggers put school and football on hold to work various jobs to help his family and his mother, Kwanna.
A subsequent stint playing in the seven-on-seven Fan Controlled Football semi-pro league, however, eventually led to a deal in Canada.
Stiggers’ five interceptions as a CFL rookie for the Toronto Argonauts last season earned him an invite to the East-West game and put him on the Jets’ radar for draft day.
He clicked in interviews with cornerbacks coach Tony Oden, and the team spent its third fifth-round selection (176th overall) on him, making Stiggers only the third player selected in the common draft era (since 1967) without attending college.
He noted that his hometown Falcons were “not really” interested in drafting him, “but they gonna pay.”
“The crazy part about it is April 15, Coach T.O. [Oden] sent me a [photoshopped] picture of me getting drafted by the Jets,” Stiggers said Saturday. “Just to be able to get that picture on the 15th and get drafted a couple of weeks later [on April 28], it was meant to be. A fairy tale.”
Stiggers, listed as 6-foot and 197 pounds, spoke mostly in superlatives when discussing his first NFL experience.
He called Saleh’s coaching staff “one of the best in the league” and the training staff “one of the greatest in the world.”
He also dubbed Garrett Wilson “the best receiver in the league” and described working with Gardner and Reed and the rest of the defensive backs as “the greatest room in the world.”
“Honestly, those guys are just like our teachers,” Stiggers said of Gardner and Reed. “Like D.J. sits right here [on my left], Sauce sits right here [on my right]. I sit right in the middle. Whatever they ask, I’m writing down, and I’m asking [them] questions.”
Stiggers appeared to be called for pass interference on one play during Saturday’s green-and-white scrimmage, but he said his teammates already are helping him with that mentality.
“Whatever they call, it’s ‘next play,’ ” Stiggers said. “Pass interference, next play. You can’t really think about it, the play that happened before, because [if] you think like that, then you are always going to think like that.
“And that’s what D.J. taught me because, like, D.J. is one of the best corners in the league, if not the best. I see him give up a couple plays in practice, but he’s right back to it. I’m just developing that from him and maturing more by being around him and Sauce.”
And Stiggers, who has made plays while being moved around the secondary throughout camp, talked as if he plans to stick around alongside his new mentors.
“Right here, this is probably one of the best teams in the NFL,” Stiggers added. “And we’re building something special.”
