Beau Brade going undrafted is criminal. We understand that we were much higher on him than most, but you can’t tell us he didn’t deserve to be drafted. Zach made a great point in talking in that it felt like Brade was a top remaining name available for a long, long time. Also, even if we were higher on him, the NFL Combine/Draft Profile had him pinned as a Round 4 prospect. Not very often, if at all, do you see a Round 4 graded prospect go undrafted. 

ESPN did an article highlighting their Top 5 Picks of each round and threw in not five, but ONE UDFA. That one being Beau Brade:

ESPN says it perfectly, the amount of confidence a Defensive Coordinator has to have in his SAFETY to go man on man with the undisputed best receiver in college football is top tier. What doesn’t make sense is in Round 7(Pick 250 out of 257) the Ravens took Purdue Safety Sanoussi Kane. We didn’t watch Kane, but not one person should be shocked if and when Brade beats out Kane in summer camp. 

Let’s just cover who Beau Brade is as a prospect. We saw a player who mixed being a safety and a backer. He can play free and strong, he can play man and zone, deep, mid, and low. He can play near the line like a sub-package LB who understands run fits and gap filling. He shows patience while also overall being an aggressive player who loves coming barreling downhill and tackles well.

Overall though, his footwork could use improvements. He occasionally slips with change of direction stuff and his plant-and-drive isn’t super strong. His closing speed can be concerning, but surprisingly saw it more with bump-and-run man and not really when playing single high.

Brade’s Draft Process took a hit when he suffered an Abdominal Oblique injury, although we don’t really know where it came from. Brade’s draft process is unfortunately highlighted by getting cooked by McConkey at the Senior Bowl. We assume it was something about how his draft process went that turned teams off, but he’s a UDFA that should make the 31 other teams pay. As noted in the Wiggins/Tampa/Brade article, we think Brade could take over for Geno Stone in their 3 safety sets.