Chiefs: Three Draft Solutions for Safety – The Chiefs have a good crew for the Safety position. There is no dire need to draft a top player in the draft. Should the right player fall to them though, Brett Veach would swoop in and take that player in a heartbeat.
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Presently, the Chiefs field one of the best in the business, a leader and the captain of the back end of the defense: Tyrann Mathieu. I could write a whole article on all the ways Mathieu is perfect for the Chiefs. Two years ago, Veach drafted Juan Thornhill and I was exceedingly pleased with that selection as well. Juan suffered a season ending injury at the end of 2019 and came back to the fray in 2020. It took him a few games to get back to speed, but as the postseason closed down, Juan was back to normal with his game speed and closing ability and his burst was back. With Mathieu and Thornhill, the Chiefs are set at Safety. With Tyrann’s hybrid capabilities and skill, a single high is solid as well. Armani Watts is the 3rd safety who is a true safety and our hybrid safety/LB and soon to be Special Teams Captain, Daniel Sorensen is back for his 8th season.
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So why draft a Safety?
It is normal to plan ahead by a year or two to bring the next player aboard. Daniel Sorensen’s lack of coverage ability and closing speed, is reason enough, but his game moxie makes him a bargain for the hybrid roles. The Chiefs still will need a replacement, but need a Safety who has pass coverage skills, someone who is a tough tackler in run support and who also has that closing burst of speed. The player targeted does not need to be an immediate starter, but someone who can be trained up to assume the Sorensen or Watts role.
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Trevon Moehrig, TCU
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Moehrig’s ranking has fallen a bit in the past two weeks and he is mocking much later in the various mocks services as well, and he’s been available in Round 2 and sometimes 3. He’s not the top Safety by any means, but a good one. On the RGR Master Athletic Matrix, Trevon Ranked 10th and for SAQ (out of all Safeties) and he was 7th while on the Explosive Range he was listed 7th.
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Trevon lists at 6′ 1/2″ tall, 202 from Spring Branch, Texas(N. Houston). His Pro Day saw measurements of 9 3/4″ hands, a wingspan of 73 3/8″ with a 40 time of 4.50. Since this is measuring on dis-similar surfaces and not using the same timing clock, this may change that time. What more can be said of Moehrig. He won the Jim Thorpe Award as the NCAA’s top Defensive Back. So I like him but he rates as a 2nd round pick where he was a round 1 pick. I was able to mock him in the 3rd a couple of times. His ratings dropped out of the first round type ranking the past 2 weeks. I tried to ascertain why that occurred and don’t see an easy answer.Trevon is a very smooth player, transitions well and mirrors well on vertical routes by wide-outs. He rates as having outstanding range and the explosiveness is present so his closing burst is an asset. Trevon is a patient safety, plays best off-ball. He is a ball hawk with great football moxie — he reads the QB and his eyes well. He is not a thumper type run support tackler but does it well, wrapping up ball carriers or receivers well. He uses his arms and drives through the opponents when making tackles. This distinguishes him from other player. He is an experienced player in all position forms, single high, in the box, outside or in the slot and in tandem coverages.
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Weaknesses? I don’t know why it’s thought that a safety must be 210 pounds to be ideal but there it is. He is young, and still very lean which probably accounts for that assessment. Another critique indicated he needed to be more urgent or aggressive when reading the play and attacking. At 4.50-40, he doesn’t have the top tier speed but that was Pro Day, not Combine. I would say that Moehrig’s experience bodes him well in the NFL. He had 26 PD’s and 6 Int’s in his last 22 College games and possesses the ball hawk versatility that I like in a safety but played mostly Free Safety in tandem coverage at TCU. – Trevon Moehrig will be an immediate starter in the NFL. The fact that he has been rated in the first round and dropped to the second is telling us a story. Still, he is probably a 2nd round pick and not going to be a likely target for Brett Veach. AGAIN: He dropped out of a round 1 rating and that puzzles me.
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Tyree Gillespie, Missouri
Ranked 9th by Dane Brugler
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GIllespie is not the top length you like to see for players in the secondary, standing at just over 5’11, weighing in a 207. His and size is 9/12″ and wingspan 75 1/4″. However, he does have speed and this makes him attractive to me. His posted Pro Day time in the 40 was 4.42.
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What I like and what I see on tape is a player who has great range and is also aggressive with proper reads and angles. Tyree exhibits the football intellect that you want in a Safety and is quick to react to the nature of a play, flying to the outside to cover the edge. He’s a good tackler and has great stopping power when attacking the ball carrier. He hits and drives through with leverage on his tackles and is adept at creating fumbles. He has, among the three players I am covering, the best back-pedal ability and can then drive off those mechanics. He was a 3 season starter at Mizzou.
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Weaknesses
He needs more work on coverages, but one Scout indicated it wasn’t instinctive. Sometimes he gets caught flat footed and though he has a closing burst, he gets caught out position on occasion and then he can’t use that speed. He was banged up as a Senior so that affects the ratings and he couldn’t show his growth, presuming he had it.
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The Chiefs staff will be able to help him to make the adjustments at the NFL level. Then what you see on the Athletic Matrices of Ryan Tracy fits, as Gillespie as the necessary Explosion to play at the NFL level (see #10 above). That tells me a good coaching staff could turn him into a later round gem and he fits my 4-7 round outlook (see his overall Athletic ranking below).
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Jacoby Stevens, LSU
SS/Box S, Uncut Diamond?
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Stevens has been undervalued by far, among all the pundits I frequently use, so let’s turn to the measurement tools of RGR Football and Rogue Analytics.
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Jacoby Stevens is ranked 3rd on the Athletic Matrix, an Index of their overall talents by Rogue Analytics:
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What really caught my attention was his Explosiveness Range rating (see below).
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This shows Jacoby Stevens ranked near the top, and has the burst needed to narrow a gap and make plays on throws down field where a safety must often use his closing speed to make a play on the ball.
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Looking at various analysts all have him ranked way down the list and I suffered to understand why until I saw the notes by and analyst on his up and down play and a temperament issues. So, I must include that in a summary of the type of content that an analysts used, but still offer the Athletic Matrix of Rogue Analytics as a guide to his physical potential.
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Stevens played 4 seasons at LSU, and was a a 5-star recruit out of Murfreesboro, Tennessee. In 2019 Stevens was 2nd team, All-SEC and in 2020 led the Tigers in tackles and received an invitation to the 2021 Senior Bowl. He was also on the Wuerffel Trophy Watch List (The Wuerffel Trophy is an award given annually to the college football player who –> best combines exemplary community service with athletic and academic achievement.).
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At his pro Day, he measured well: 6-foot-1, 212 lbs., 9 1/8″ hand size, 76 1/2 inches wingspan, and a 10’10” broad jump.
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Here is where the kicker is: His 40 time was a paltry 4.58-40. There is no question in my mind that he is faster than that and looking at film it shows up.
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He is a very physical and aggressive player, and blasts into run support with a fervor. One critique about him is that his aggressiveness made him jump into play too soon and needs to read the play first before over-committing. His pass coverage and mirror ability at the line of scrimmage is very good and he can cover Tight Ends in the middle of the field. He snatches the ball with his hands.
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Stevens could be a replacement for Daniel Sorensen because he’d fit the box safety and special teams play very well. While taming his aggressiveness may be related to his overall temperament, this is where Tyrann Mathieu would be important for Stevens. Also, I am discounting the uneven timing and lack of uniform surface for testing on the recorded 40-time.
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That’s it for the three players I focused on with the last one being a very plausible, diamond in the rough. I do see other possible players such as Tariq Thompson, as another example. I tried to choose 3 safeties within the range of potential draft selection by the Chiefs, but the latter two look to me to be late Round 4 to Round 6 type potential draft selections.
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David Bell — ArrowheadOne
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