Safety first for defensive backs in NFL draft?

IN THE BEST cornerback draft anyone can remember, the first defensive back off the board just might be a safety.

Jamal Adams of LSU, the guy who was thrilled to introduce himself to Brian Dawkins at the NFL Scouting Combine, is said to be that level of player - a man who can control the secondary from the safety position, stop the run while shutting down the middle of the field through the air.

"I've admired everything about him, and that was the highlight of my week," Adams said in Indianapolis. "Just knowing that he already knew about me, saying how passionate I was and how I play the game the right way. That was huge, to hear that from a legend like him," Adams said.

"I saw him talking to a player. I was leaving, and he was sitting by himself. Something just spoke, like, that's who I admire, my game - he's so passionate about the game, and I had to go seek wisdom, see what he sees. The fact that I went up to him and he already knew who I was, he's already seen some film on me and watched some games, I was honored, I was blown away."

Dawkins, of course, was a second-round Eagles pick in 1996, 61st overall. He didn't have as high a profile coming out of college as Adams (6-feet, 214), or even Ohio State's Malik Hooker (6-1, 206), the other safety coming out this year who could be drafted in the top 10. But it's also true that once he got to the NFL, Dawkins helped redefine the safety position, paving the way for players such as Adams and Hooker to be viewed through a different prism - no longer are safeties just guys who aren't fast enough to play corner or big enough to play linebacker.

Gil Brandt, the NFL Network analyst and former Cowboys vice president, recently voiced the notion that both Adams and Hooker could go in the top five overall, which would be extraordinary.

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"Adams is a guy that a lot of people feel can play corner," Brandt said on a conference call with reporters. Brandt noted that Adams' father, George Adams, was a running back drafted in the first round by the Giants in 1985. "He did play nickel his first year there, in 2014 ... He was targeted 36 times and burned only 12 times."

Brandt, like many evaluators, likes Adams' physicality and leadership, but said he feels that Hooker, a one-year starter who intercepted seven passes in 2016, "probably has a chance to eventually be a better player."

Hooker is recovering from surgery to fix a torn hip labrum and a sports hernia; he was injured Nov. 26 vs. Michigan, but he played with the injuries and waited until after the season to address them, though they interfered with his draft prep.

"I put too much work in with those guys, and it would've been like I was letting them down, you know," Hooker said at the combine. "We went through the offseason, the grind; I feel like everything that I worked for in the offseason and that we worked for as a team, that would've been thrown away if I didn't go out there and compete with those guys."

Phil Savage, the Senior Bowl director and former Browns general manager who once served as an Eagles personnel adviser, said he thinks one factor propelling safeties higher in the draft than in previous eras is that evaluators are seeing them do more.

"The evolution of the college game is what is sort of driving this," Savage said. "As the college game has gone to more three and four wide receiver sets, you have to have safeties that can cover and play in space . . . Historically, safeties don't go in the top 10 because they don't have as much of an impact as a corner or maybe a pass rusher . . . But in this case, and in this era, not only is it wideouts these guys have to cover, but they're having to cover these outstanding tight ends (such as Alabama's O.J. Howard).

"The evolution of it is that you have a player like Hooker, you have a player like Adams, that now emerges as a potential top-five, certainly top-10 choice for an NFL team."

Savage said watching SEC games each week, he has no doubt that "Adams is going to figure it out as an NFL player . . . free safety, strong safety, wherever he ends up, he's going to add an element to your team as well in leadership, competitiveness."

LSU corner Tre'Davious White endorsed Savage's view of Adams.

"I feel like he is the top safety. He's very fast, he can change direction, he's a hard hitter, and has great ball skills," White said. "He possesses a lot of things that safeties don't possess. I feel like his change of direction, at his size, is tremendous. I feel like he can be moved around, wherever you need him to play. Obviously, he's a free safety, but I feel like he can play cornerback and whatever else. He's that good."

If there's a knock on Adams, it's that his physicality causes some evaluators to see him as mainly a box safety, good in coverage only against tight ends. That's something not currently in vogue in the NFL - everybody wants a guy who can hit but can roam the back end with anticipation and suddenness, the way Dawkins did. As Eagles player personnel vice president Joe Douglas noted last week, "strong safety has kind of been phased out of the league."

Opinions vary on how good Adams is in deep coverage. He ran a 4.56 40.

"I get classified as a box safety, which is not something that I like, but I understand, because I like being around the ball," Adams said at the combine. "I like making plays on the ball. I like making impact plays for the team.

"I can play everything in the back end, whether that's covering in the slot, whether that's playing man-free, whether that's being in the A and B gap, filling that hole, or locking down tight ends. I feel like I'm versatile to play everything in the back end."

Adams said he and Hooker know they are competing to be the first safety picked - "we talk about it all the time."

Hooker, who hasn't run the 40 because of his Jan. 16 surgery, said he got through the Buckeyes' 31-0 Fiesta Bowl loss to eventual national champion Clemson, in which he intercepted a pass, on "a lot of ibuprofen." How many ibuprofen is a lot?

"About six," he said.

Hooker's ball skills excite scouts, his run support instincts don't, but he is seen as a still-developing player. He said his key to interceptions is "just having the mindset that any ball that's in the air, it's my ball. I feel like I'm a playmaker. Any time I had a chance to make a play or change momentum of a game, I took it upon myself to do so."

Asked about Adams, Hooker said: "I really don't see a competition. I feel like we're both very good players. I feel like we're definitely capable of going top 10, top five."

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