Rashaan Gaulden, Tennessee
There is always going to be a certain amount of projection when you look to move a player to a new position, and that will likely be true for Gaulden, who the Panthers expect to make the transition from nickel to free safety at the NFL level. This transition doesn’t come as a huge shock – his timed speed is on the slower side for what is acceptable for a corner. While Gaulden did sometimes struggle for speed against faster corners in college, he did show a decent ability in man coverage in college:
It would be surprising if the Panthers regularly lined him up to cover NFL receivers, but he seems more than capable of covering tight ends and running backs in this way. As with Jackson, he didn’t play a huge amount of zone coverage in college, and didn’t show great awareness when he was asked to play in this way:
It is still very unclear how the Panthers plan to use their safeties this year, but it’s likely that Gaulden will be asked to play a reasonable amount of zone coverage at the next level and this is something that will need improvement. Further to this, having not played safety before, Gaulden is completely inexperienced in terms of deep zone and his ability to master deep zone coverages will most likely be the determining factor when it comes to his ability to see the field early on.
What Gaulden did show in terms of transitioning to safety was a willingness and effectiveness against the run. On the following play, he shows the understanding to pursue to the outside of the play in order to force the running back back inside:
He also shows the ability to shoot a gap:
He can sometimes get caught out by sealing blocks, as he looks to shoot a gap, but gets caught out by a kick-out block:
What is also encouraging is how he dealt with play action, as on plays like the following, he showed an awareness of receivers in his area and he pulls out of the blitz to take away the easy completion:
He also showed a remarkable enthusiasm for the running game; when asked to pursue to the ball, he was extremely effective at chasing down ball carriers, either as a blitzer or when chasing down ball receivers after the catch:
While not a major part of safety play in the NFL, Gaulden did also show an ability to be somewhat effective as a pass rusher, which is something the Panthers have asked defensive backs to do in the past.
Gaulden will be something of a project at safety, even if he does get forced into a significant role early on. He flashes an encouraging skill set, and I actually think this is a good pick, but there will undoubtedly be something of a learning curve for him early on, something which could well extend into his rookie season. This is a typical Marty Hurney pick in that in three years time, this will likely either be seen as a steal or a bust; either Josh Norman or Joe Adams.
