NFL Betting: Top 5 Safety Prospects In 2022 NFL Draft

The NFL draft is approaching, and teams in need of help on their back line of defense will be keenly interested in the safeties on the draft board. Here are the top five, with the urgency mounting for the various NFL clubs in divisions with elite quarterbacks. Getting the right safety can mean everything in formulating a pass defense which is good enough to stand up to the league’s premier passers.

1 – Kyle Hamilton, Notre Dame

The super-smart Hamilton is always in the right position, ready to make a play. He carried Notre Dame within an eyelash of the College Football Playoff this past season. Notre Dame played great defense most of the year, and it missed the playoff only because the offense fell apart in a home-field loss to Cincinnati. The Bearcats got the fourth and final playoff slot, just ahead of Notre Dame. Hamilton took the Irish defense as far as he could carry it. Adept in both pass coverage and run stuffing, the sure-tackling Hamilton was the kind of player who locked down his own assignments so completely that his teammates didn’t have to provide help or wonder if they would need to drift to other areas of the field. Hamilton protects his territory so fully that he gives the cornerbacks in his secondary the assurance that they just need to tend to their man-to-man assignments on the boundary. Hamilton takes care of the middle third of the field and profoundly makes things simpler for the other players on his defense. He is very clearly the best safety in this class.

2 – Dax Hill, Michigan

The Michigan Wolverines made the College Football Playoff for the first time and won the Big Ten championship after a very long title drought. Hill played a big role in that process, and so it’s natural to put him near the very top of the list for safeties in this draft. One concern – and the reason he is behind Hamilton – is that Georgia handled Michigan fairly easily in the playoff semifinals. Michigan was physically superior to Ohio State this season, but that might be more a commentary on how weak the Buckeyes were than on the strength of the Wolverines. Some scouts might have some doubts about Hill, but his overall body of work from the start of the 2021 season to its conclusion is still impressive.

3 – Jaquan Brisker, Penn State

The Nittany Lions had a bad offense for most of last season. The defense had to play a lot of snaps at times in 2021 and stay on the field a lot longer than it would have liked to. Brisker had a heavy workload, and he had to go up against Ohio State’s elite receivers, but he held his own. He did not get outplayed in those matchups. He is physical and tough and is really good at reading what the offense is trying to do before the snap.

4 – Lewis Cline, Georgia

The Bulldogs have so many good draft prospects from a national championship-winning defense, and Cline fits the bill in the secondary. He was surrounded by so many good players that he might slip if he comes into a relatively weak NFL secondary. He needs a good team fit with enough complementary pieces in the secondary. He needs corners who can do well on an island in man coverage.

5 – Verone McKinley, Oregon

The Pac-12 did not have a lot of good passing teams last year, so McKinley’s quality might be hard to pin down. If he played in a league with better quarterbacks – the Big Ten or Big 12 – it might be a lot easier to assess just how good (or limited) McKinley is. He was a strong and dependable performer for Oregon last season, but there are still questions about his profile because the competition in the Pac-12 did not test him severely. That’s not his fault, but it’s a real concern heading into the draft.