The Big Board
| Ranking | Name | College | Height | Weight | Athletic Traits | Coverage Ability | Run Defense | Biggest Concern | Summary | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Chauncey Gardner-Johnson | Florida | 6'0 | 207 | Good straight line speed with good agility, quickness and balance. | Can get a bit flat footed at the head of routes, but breaks to the ball well and has the movement skills to cover receivers in space. Shows good awareness of receivers in zone and flashes good ball skills. | Much improved tackler with solid tackling form, but tendency to go low does lead to some misses. Can get caught on blocks at times but gap discipline is decent. | How will he adjust to being asked to play in centerfield in the NFL? | Fast, flashy defensive back with the potential to be a game-changer in the deep middle. | High 2nd Round |
| 2 | Nasir Adderley | Delaware | 5'11 | 200 | Decent speed with good quickness, agility and balance. | Has the movement skills to mirror most receivers in space, shows good awareness in zone and has good ball skills. | Good tackler with the ability to shed blocks and maintains good gap discipline. | Where is the best fit for him in the NFL, having been allowed to freelance somewhat in the FCS? | Very well rounded player who dominated at FCS level but whose NFL role isn't totally clear. | High 2nd Round |
| 3 | Taylor Rapp | Washington | 6'0 | 207 | Decent speed with good quickness, balance and agility. | Decent ball skills and moves well in space, but tends to be quite cautious minimizing mistakes but leaving plays on the field. | Decent tackler who takes good angles but who wasn't really asked to work off blocks. | Is his somewhat cautious playing style going to leave him a step behind at the NFL level? | Well rounded and pro-ready deep field safety who could do with being more aggressive in coverage. | Late 2nd Round |
| 4 | Darnell Savage | Maryland | 5'11 | 199 | Excellent speed and quickness with decent agility and balance. | Has the ability to run with anybody but movement skills will be tested against better receivers. Ball skills are decent but awareness in zone could be better. | Tackling form is decent but often gives up yards after contact with highly aggressive angles leading to mixed results. | Does he have the processing ability to go with his quickness? | Excellent athlete who needs to tie down his tackling and show he can process effectively in order to maximize his value. | High 3rd Round |
| 5 | Lukas Denis | Boston College | 5'11 | 188 | Decent speed, quickness and balance with good agility. | Has the ability to play against receivers down at the line with most receivers with good ball skills and awareness in zone but size and speed will be tested in certain match-up in man coverage. | Tackling is decent but can get caught on blocks and doesn't go looking for contact. | Is his athleticism going to limit his value in the NFL? | Versatile safety who can play deep or in the slot but whose athleticism will limit his ceiling. | High 4th Round |
| 6 | Deionte Thompson | Alabama | 6'2 | 196 | Good speed and quickness with decent agility and balance. | Has some ability to catch the ball with decent movement skills but processing ability is a concern. | Takes decent angles but is a legitimately terrible tackler. | Is he going to find a role that maximizes his value while hiding his issues? | Good athlete with some nice coverage traits but is a very poor run defender and mental errors in coverage are a concern. | Late 4th Round |
| 7 | Jaquan Johnson | Miami | 5'11 | 190 | Ok speed with decent agility, quickness and balance. | Decent ball skills with good ability to process in zone and ok movement skills though struggles for size against bigger receivers. | Good tackler who takes decent angles. | Will he be able to old up athletically? | Good run defender whose coverage ability will be limited by athleticism. | High 5th Round |
| 8 | Ugo Amadi | Oregon | 5'10 | 201 | Decent deep speed with good agility, balance and burst. | Decent ball skills with good movement skills but instigates a lot of contact through routes and wasn't really asked to play in deep zones. | Questionable tackler who shies away from contact at times. | Can he turn his coverage potential into on-field value? | Good athlete in space who needs to adjust to playing deep and whose run defense needs work. | High 5th Round |
| 9 | Marquise Blair | Utah | 6'2 | 195 | Decent speed and balance but agility and quickness aren't amazing. | Some ball skills with decent movement skills but awareness is a concern and likely is zone-limited. | Decent tackler but takes some poor angles to the ball. | Can he improve in zone to the point where he can find a role as a coverage specialist? | Decent athlete with some nice traits but whose game is in need of significant development. | Late 5th Round |
| 10 | Jah'Shawn Johnson | Texas Tech. | 5'10 | 185 | Excellent speed and quickness with decent agility and balance. | Some ball skills with decent movement skills but processing isn't amazing and wasn't asked to play man. | Decent tackler but gets caught on blocks at times. | Can he turn his decent athletic traits into actual coverage ability? | Good athlete who was essentially just asked to run to the ball, will effectively need to relearn the position. | High 6th Round |
| 11 | Evan Worthington | Colorado | 6'2 | 210 | Decent speed, quickness and balance with ok agility. | Some flashes of movement skills with ok ball skills but processing ability isn't amazing. | Struggles to shed blocks and while tackling is decent his tendency to dive in leads to misses. | Can he turn his decent athleticism into solid coverage? | Decent athlete but hasn't really shown the ability to turn this into consistent coverage. | Late 6th Round |
| 12 | Marvell Tell | USC | 6'2 | 195 | Decent speed and quickness but balance and agility aren't great. | Struggles for movement skills at times but processing is decent and has some ball skills. | Can be quite hesitant but tackling is decent. | Are his movement skills going to prohibit him from seeing the field? | Solid run defender but athleticism is a concern in coverage. | Mid 7th Round |
| 13 | Malik Gant | Marshall | 6'2 | 205 | Ok speed and decent agility but quickness and balance are a concern. | Some ball skills and decent backpedal in zone but struggles for movement skills and ball skills aren't amazing. | Decent tackler who is generally in the right place. | Is he a good enough athlete to play at the NFL level? | Decent run defender but struggles athletically in coverage. | Late 7th Round |
| 14 | Delvon Randall | Temple | 6'1 | 215 | Ok deep but struggles for quickness, balance and agility. | Struggles for movement skills, lacks awareness in coverage but ball skills are good. | Ok tackler but struggles to get off blocks. | Can he find a role on special teams? | Does some nice things, but issues are abundant. | Undrafted |
For me, there are four free safeties who are a cut above the rest, and the order in which you have them is largely a matter of how you balance ceiling and floor, as well as how the scheme that you run asks the free safety to play – though for this big board, I have tried to evaluate them for their ability to fit with what the Panthers do from a defensive scheme standpoint.
Gardner-Johnson entered the 2018 season with a couple of concerns, the first being his tackling and the second being his role, with Florida largely asking him to play in the slot. He largely answered the tackling concern – he is now at least decent in this regard – but the biggest thing stopping me from giving him a first-round grade is the uncertainty about how he will adjust to being asked to play in centerfield. He has excellent speed and movement skills and shows a good awareness of where receivers are, as well as the ball skills to make plays on the ball, but there is likely going to be an adjustment period for any team that looks to ask him to play outside of the slot. With that said, it is hard to find flaws with him in terms of his skillset and if teams are happy with his ability to adjust to the change in role, he could well work his way into the back end of the first round.
Nasir Adderley is one of harder players to tie down in this class as he doesn’t have many noticeable flaws – but NFL receivers will likely push his athletic limits more than FCS receivers did. Additionally, he was allowed to freelance a bit at Delaware in order to maximize his impact and as such, NFL teams are likely to have quite different views about how he would be best used. He probably doesn’t have the absolute ceiling that CGJ does, but he could possibly be the most impactful player in this class as a week one starter.
Taylor Rapp is the other extreme from CGJ, in that he makes very few mistakes and the way in which he was used in college should directly translate to playing the deep middle in the NFL – but his athleticism is good rather than great and his cautious playing style limits his upside. He is probably the safest safety in this class, both in terms of his pro readiness and the way in which his playing style minimizes mistakes, but he is unlikely to ever be a core piece of a defensive unit outside of how his playing style works as part of a scheme.
The other top prospect is Darnell Savage, who is a great athlete in terms of his quickness and speed, but his movement skills are going to prevent him from matching up against better route-running receivers and his inexperience playing in deep coverage is something that teams will need to probe in workouts and is likely to lead to an adjustment period. His ceiling is about as high as any safety in this class apart from CGJ, but there is probably more work to do in the short term than the three players above him.
Behind these four, there are two more who I think have a chance of being impactful players in the NFL. Lukas Denis has the movement skills to cover receivers at the line and the awareness and ball skills to be a threat in the deep middle – but his athleticism is decent, not amazing. This limits him in terms of who he is able to match up with in the slot in terms of both size and speed and he is likely going to run some risks against stronger-armed quarterbacks who’ll think they can beat him to the outside thirds.
By contrast, Deionte Thompson has the range to be a factor all over the field – likely why other scouts have him rated higher than I do – but his movement skills are going to limit how much he is going to play in the slot and his lack of noticeable ball skills and occasional mental errors in coverage limit how enthusiastic evaluators should be about his ability to play the deep middle. Not helping this is the fact that he is possibly the worst tackler in the draft class; if he can improve as a tackler and work on his mental errors, he can be an impactful deep field safety, but at the moment there are too many issues to rate him higher.
There are some other players that teams might look at later on day three, but if the Panthers want to find either a immediate or future starter at free safety from this class, it is likely going to have to be one from the top six, with the top four being legitimate options on the second day of the draft.
