2024 Safety Prospect Rankings
The Gridiron Review’s 2024 NFL Draft Safety Rankings.
*Click on the player names to see our full prospect profiles of each player.
| Rank | Rank Movement | Player | School | Height | Weight | Grade | Comp | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  Stayed | Beau Brade |  |  | 6'0" | 203 | 75% | Harrison Smith | Beau Brade is the best safety prospect no one is talking about. According to Mock Draft Database, Brade is projected in the 4th, but we have him as a first rounder. If someone can get him on Day 3 it may be the steal of the draft. He can play free or in the box. He’s a really alert, really smart zone player, but man coverage is average. His footwork could use improvement, he slips with change of direction stuff here and there. He’s a sound tackler, and understands run fits and gap filling like a linebacker. |
| 2 | Stayed | Javon Bullard |  |  | 5'10.5" | 198 | 72% | Dax Hill | Javon Bullard is one of the most interesting DB prospects we’ve ever watched. We don’t know which position to classify Bullard with. We are going to classify him with the Safeties, but we truly believe that Bullard could play sound, high level football at Safety, Nickel, and Cornerback. He’s a complete DB prospect from his tackling to his coverage skills, any team would be extremely lucky to land him in this year’s draft. |
| 3 | Stayed | Mike Sainristil |  |  | 5'9" | 182 | 69% with upside | Quandre Diggs with Adoree Jackson’s athleticism | Mike Sainristil could end up being one of the best Day 2/3 finds of this year’s draft class. He may be small in stature, but you can’t tell by the way he plays. The biggest thing about Sainristil is that he’s only a second year defender. He transitioned into a DB in 2022. By this season he transitioned from a primary nickel to a guy who could play CB, Nickel, and Safety. Based on the tape, and where we thought he excelled, we believe that Sainristil will actually be a better safety than CB. Similar career path to Quandre Diggs. |
| 4 |  5 | Calen Bullock |  |  | 6'2" | 188 | 55% with upside | Ceiling: Jessie Bates; Floor: Tre Flowers | Updated 4/20/24: Upon a rescout, Bullock’s tape is wildly inconsistent. It is truly hard to give him a starter grade. His lows are pretty damn low. In coverage, sometimes he drops so deep that he makes himself a non-factor and in run support you can watch him try to avoid tackling and contact in general at times. Not to mention his pursuit can be lackluster at times. However, there’s also games where he flashes the ability to be a top safety not just in the class, but in the league. As we noted above, USC’s defense was absolutely awful, so it’s entirely possible that their scheme just didn’t allow him to consistently flourish and he could pop off in the NFL. If you told us he ended up like Tre Flowers where he barely hangs onto a role in the NFL we wouldn’t be surprised and if you told us he developed into a top safety in the league like Bates we wouldn’t be surprised. There’s a low floor and a high ceiling for what most people are considering one of the top safeties in the class. |
| 5 |  1 | Evan Williams |  |  | 5'11" | 200 | 67% | Jordan Poyer | Evan Williams is a very underrated safety in this year's class. Williams mixes good coverage skill with a set of pretty disciplined eyes. He plays with an extremely high motor and great demeanor. His tackling can be inconsistent and will need to be improved/polished by the team that drafts him, but he’s ready to go on day one if you need him. |
| 6 | 1 | Tyler Nubin |  |  | 6'1" | 199 | 62% | Ji'Ayir Brown | Updated 4/23/24: Everything in our original summary of Nubin remains the same, his run support stuff needs to be cleaned up. As for being a coverage safety, he doesn’t feel as rangy as some people make him out to be… or at least not consistently. He has and can make plays from single high, but it’s more so his ability to trigger down hill and jump the route rather than run sideline to sideline. We watched a quick highlight video, it looks like a good chunk of his INTs came from Cover 2. Nubin’s grade is indicative of what we believe he would be if he was drafted to any of the 32 NFL teams, but could end up being better than grade in the right system. |
| 7 | 2 | Sione Vaki |  |  | 5'11" | 210 | 54% with upside | Geno Stone | Sione Vaki may be the most versatile player in this draft. Not only can he play every spot in the secondary(and even some sub package LB), he plays offense. He has over 50 total touches, 500 total yards, and 5 total TDs. Vaki has the traits you can’t necessarily teach. He’s patient with good reaction time, and pairs that with intelligence, awareness, and instincts. The negatives are headlined by his strength that’s in question, and inconsistent tackling, but we think there’s a lot here to like. He may not be a 3 down player immediately, but he’s going to make someone very happy. |
| 8 | NR | Kalen King |  |  | 5'11" | 191 | 45% with upside | Julian love | Updated 3/21/24: Okay, so upon a quick rescout. King is about as rough as we thought he was last time. Upon months of thought and consideration we truly believe he’s going to have to move to safety. He’ll get cooked in the NFL as a CB. You can already see that safety mentality in the way that he comes screaming down hill and his aggression. We don’t put too much stock into athletic testing, but if you look at King’s 4.61 40, that’s pretty eye-raising in a bad way for corners, but not that bad for safeties. We like the Julian Love comp because we feel he could take a similar career path: get converted to safety, develop and learn the position, start a few games here and there, but build a role for himself, and then in a few years become a full starter and be an extremely solid football player. In the early years though, expect him to be a ST Ace. |