Now that it is unlikely we take a safety early it might be fun to look at those safeties that could be had in rds 3 or 4. Especially with our 3rd rd comp pick late in rd 3 or our 4th rd pick. Because we will probably get a comp pick in rd 5 we could use our regular 5th rd pick to trade up in rd 4 to get a guy we want. This is a very deep draft for safeties with size. S Williams, Georgia 6'0 213, 4.46 40. True SS type with nice speed. Also ran a decent cone 7.01. Ball skills mediocre at best.Tough hard nosed player. R Lester, Bama 6'1 220, 4.66. Despite size he played FS most of the three years he started at Alabama. Solid tackler he has excellent ball skills and got a lot of ints. Size gives you some versatility in 4-2-5 packages where he could come down in the box like a will linebacker. DJ Swearinger, SC, 5'10 208 4.67 Poor man's Elam. Physical SS type. Any other names or thoughts. Tony Jefferson, anybody else? Again i'm thinking of late 3rd or 4th rd players.
Shawn Williams in the top of the 3rd seems too soon, maybe that 3rd round comp pick in the back end of the 3rd gets him for us.
this is pasted from the GBN website... 4: Patience at safety will pay dividends <>There is no Mark Barron in this class. Nor do I see a Sean Taylor. There may only be one or two first round safeties in this class. Names like Matt Elam and Kenny Vaccaro will end up in the top 32 slots on my board. But when looking at the grades and where some scouts project these guys to go, it may be in teams’ best interest to wait until rounds 3-5 to grab a difference maker. A guy that rivals Elam across the entire grading sheet is Syracuse’s Shamarko Thomas. At 5’9/213 pounds, Thomas is arguably the most powerful defensive back in this class. He displayed the speed he showed on tape, running a 4.42 forty. He also cleared 11 feet on the broad jump and benched, a safety best, 28 reps at 225 pounds. Put the tape on and you’ll find a player reminiscent of Bob Sanders. If a team is looking for a more traditionally sized safety with mid round value, look at Josh Evans from Florida. He jumped out at me when watching Elam on tape all year. He showed tremendous agility for such a long legged athlete with explosive jumps. These guys are not far away from Elam And Vaccaro on my grade sheet, yet they could likely be had 2-3 rounds later.</><></>5: Four Opinions =
That line of thinking is what lead me to not want Elam in the 1st, we could simply hold off and get one nearly as good later, but we need to be careful as I think we'll see safety's come off all at once.
If Vaccarro or Elam slip to the 2nd, which is possible (but unlikely), they'd be a steal with our #2.