Run Defense
Savage makes a lot of plays in the run game which impress on tape, as he uses his speed well to get into the backfield and his tackling is at least decent:
However, his tendency to go low does lead to some misses when he isn’t able to line up the tackle:
This could become more of an issue if he was moved to deep safety; in that role, a higher proportion of his tackles would come at higher speed where timing a dive runs a greater risk of going wrong. However, Savage certainly isn’t a terrible tackler, even if this is something he could do with getting better at.
The bigger concern, however, with his run defense, is his gap control. Savage consistently broke gap discipline in order to generate quick penetration. When this works, it looks really good:
But there were times where he got caught looking inside and allowed the ball carrier to get outside:
It is unclear whether Maryland encouraged him to break inside when there was a chance to do so, but this is something that NFL teams will probably want to eliminate from his game – while these big plays are useful, he needs to trust his inside help and chase to the outside gap when that is his responsibility.
In summation, there is a lot to like about Savage and his ceiling is about as high as any safety in this class, but there are more flaws to his game than with the very top echelon of safety prospects. For the Panthers, he would make a lot of sense in the third round, but would probably be quite a risky pick at 47.
Grade: High Third Round
Best Case NFL Comparison: Karl Joseph
