The 2016 Draft prospect series comes to end with the safety prospects. There are few late 1st round or 2nd round safeties in this draft. Let’s take a look.
Vonn Bell: Free Safety Ohio State
Bell is 5’11 and 199 pounds from Ohio State. Bell was good in coverage and productive in passes defenses with the Buckeyes. He has good instincts but average speed and is a single high safety that needs some work in run defense. He is rarely out of position but must work on his tackling ability. Bell is a late first round or day 2 pick.
Darian Thompson: Safety Boise State
Thompson is 6’2 and 200 pounds from Boise State. He could play free safety but is more of a strong safety. He had a whopping 19 interceptions and was a good hitter in the run game. He must work on his instincts and hip tightness at the next level. The former Boise State Bronco compares to Morgan Burnett and should be a day 2 pick.
Karl Joseph: Safety West Virginia
Joseph is 5’10 and 205 pounds. He was a leader for the Mountaineers with good production and coverage skills. He is tough in the box but can play single high safety. Joseph had 9 career interceptions for the Mountaineers but had an ACL injury and some lateral ability limitations. Joseph should be day 2 pick due to the injury.
Jalen Mills: Free Safety LSU
Mills is 6’0 and 191 pound four year starter for the Tigers. He has good hips and footwork and good zone skills. Mills can blitz and has solid instincts but has a slight frame which could limit him to slot CB. Mills should be a day 2 pick.
Jeremey Cash: Strong Safety Duke
Cash is 6’0 and 212 pounds. He is a big physical safety that played a lot in the box for Duke. He has great tackle production but has some cover skills. Cash will struggle in space though and had surgery on a broken wrist. Cash is the classic in the box safety. Cash should be a day 2 pick in this draft.
Other Safeties
Keanu Neal (Florida), Jayron Kearse (Clemson), Deandre Houston-Carson (William & Mary), Miles Killebrew and KJ Dillon have some day 2 or early day 3 potential in this draft.
The safety class doesn’t have any sure fire first rounders. There is plenty of good talent for day 2 with a mix of free and strong safeties.
Overall Draft
There are many great prospects for the 2016 draft. The draft starts on Thursday April 28 with Round 1, April 29th for Round 2 and 3 and April 30th for Rounds 4-7. The North teams have some starting and many future needs. There is talent all over the positional groups to improve each roster. Enjoy the draft and I hope you enjoyed the draft prospect series (despite my poor grammar and sentence structure).