More than one day before the start of the NFL draft. On this occasion, Touchdownacte offers you a daily overview of the best players at each position, with the current projections concerning them. In the spotlight today, the best Safeties of the Draft NFL 2025.
1. Nick Emmanwori, South Carolina
Projection: 1st round.
1m91, 100 kilos.
Stats 2024: 88 tackles, including 3 for loss, 2 defended passes, 4 interceptions, including two pick-6.
In an era where safeties can occupy hybrid posts in NFL, it is not difficult to imagine the role that could fully satisfy Emmanwori and his staff in the pros. Incredibly lively for its fairly tanked template, the Gamecock is a real missile on a leg when it is launched in the box. But his speed is not only north-south appreciable, because he has already demonstrated a real ability to support his cornerbacks by sliding laterally with efficiency, all with good hands to potentially steal the ball. With such a size, its fluidity of movement remains relative despite everything and its reading can sometimes be suspect in the intermediate areas.
2. Malaki Starks, Georgia
Projection: 1st round.
1m84, 89 kilos.
Stats 2024: 77 tackles, including 4 for loss, 3 defended passes, interception.
Long expected in the top 10 of the draft, Starks has somewhat blew hot and cold during his 2024 campaign. His raw power can play tricks on the run Stop and his excess confidence can also break it on guilty anticipations in terms of coverage. The fact remains that in the light of its incredible athletic potential, its fluidity of movement and its IQ Foot well above the average, the bulldog enjoys a big experience and can play everywhere. Most mainly used in the slot in 2024, he could keep this role at first before perfecting his discipline in a role of Free Safety.
3. Xavier Watts, Notre Dame
Projection: 2nd round.
1m93, 93 kilos.
Stats 2024: 82 tackles, including 4 for loss, 10 defended passes, 6 interceptions, a pick-6.
A real flair on the pass cover, and hands capable of punishing any quarterback, but an athletic profile which can leave hungry. Intelligent leader and emeritus in one of the most dissuasive defenses of the first university division in 2024, Watts knows how to do a lot of things, but perhaps lacking explosivity and tackling to reassure all observers, which will inexorably descend into the boards of the latter.
4. Kevin Winston Jr., Penn State
Projection: 2nd round.
1m85, 97 kilos.
Stats 2023: 61 tackles, 3 for loss, 5 defended passes, interception.
In an aggressive defense and very focused on the Run Stop, the Nittany Lion should be like a fish in the water. Capable of quickly getting on the ball carrier, ensuring the continuation laterally or finishing the actions, Winston Jr. completely exploded in 2023, within the deemed defense of Penn State. The problem is that this weak sample does not play in its favor, because the franchises have not seen it in all situations. Quickly injured in 2024, at the cross ligaments, Winston Jr. lets a lot of gray areas over the long term form and on his ability to ensure decent coverage on the last curtain, given a certain naivety and a lack of anticipation noted in this register.
5. Andrew Mukuba, Texas
Projection: 2nd-3rd round.
1m80, 84 kilos.
Stats 2024: 69 tackles, including 4 for loss, 7 defended passes, 5 interceptions.
If Winston Jr. should above all rage on the floor game, Mukuba has the profile of a fighter plane, as he can be threatening on the cover. Already sparkling in Clemson, in its first years, but slowed down by injuries, the Safety made display of its permanent energy, its changes of direction and its impeccable reading to shine in the defense of Texas in 2024. Its lack of size can be paid in the air, as well as its lack of power on the Run Stop, but it can quickly become a lieutenant of coordinator and a turnovers machine.
6. Malachi Moore, Alabama
Projection: 3rd round.
1m80, 89 kilos.
Stats 2024: 70 tackles, including 3 for loss, a sack, 8 defended passes, an interception.
Called to take over from Brian Branch to Alabama, in a hybrid role of the defensive backfield, Moore has developed a needy and versatile side which should appeal to many franchises in the last reinforced curtains. But despite his correct intensity and reading, the defender composes with more limited athletic qualities which can often put him in bad shape, both on the pursuit and on the changes of support on the cover. A perfect Swiss knife despite everything.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=26bdexwjn9m
7. Billy Bowman, Oklahoma
Projection: 3rd round.
1m78, 87 kilos.
Stats 2023: 54 tackles, including 3 for loss, 3 defended passes, 2 interceptions.
Unlike Moore, it is Bowman's athletic ability that is likely to be selected before Saturday. Attacker by training, the one who was repositioned on the other side of the ball enjoys good hands, but also a amazing play reading and a fluidity of salutary movement to return to his vis-à-vis in the air. Its big black point: the Run Stop, with an angle socket and a tackle technique which is likely to put its future team in danger in this area.
8. Jonas Sanker, Virginia
Projection: 3rd round.
1m83, 93 kilos.
Stats 2024: 98 tackles, including 9 for loss, 2 sacks, 4 defended passes, interception, two futile covered for a touchdown.
A leader by example, capable of getting involved without fear on the Run Stop, but also on special teams, to stop any opposing hint. His profile is not without reassuring that of a Jessie Bates III when he leaves Wake Forest, even if Sanker will have to show more discipline and fluidity in the air field to succeed in a similar progression. Also able to play in the slot, it will be a permanent weapon to blur the tracks of the quarterback.
9. Lathan Ransom, Ohio State
Projection: 3rd-4e round.
1m83, 92 kilos.
Stats 2024: 76 tackles, including 9 for loss, 2 defended passes.
More massively used as Free Safety in 2024, Ransom is a player yet rather inclined to get closer to the box as soon as the need arises. On the model of a Talanoa Hufanga, his vision of the game and his sense of anticipation make him more versatile than it seems, with a crucial sense of the blitz and the prosecution. His technique and management changes are more questionable on the coverage, the latter having not been favored by injuries prior to the foot and the tibia.
10. Jaylen Reed, Penn State
Projection: 4th round.
1m82, 96 kilos.
Stats 2024: 98 tackles, including 7 for loss, 2 and a half sacks, 3 defended passes, 3 interceptions including a pick-6.
A solid luggage at its disposal, but very bad habits taken on the Penn State campus. Used in many circumstances, thanks to a dissuasive physique and an ability to quickly climb on the ball carrier, Reed ruins a lot of his talent with a more than appleper reading at times and above all a chronic indiscipline to finish the actions. It will be a precious asset on special teams, but its future staff will have to channel it to hope more defensively.
