2025 NFL Draft Safety Preview
An early look at 2025's top safeties.
Remember when safety classes stunk? That’s not the case in 2025.
The top of the safety class for next year’s draft is absolutely loaded with top-end talent. Instead of waiting until the 47th pick to hear a safety’s name called like last year, there’s a very real chance that two or three of these prospects are first-round picks.
Whether you’re looking for someone who can cover sideline-to-sideline, attack downhill in the box, or an all-around versatile playmaker, the 2025 safety class has a prospect for you.
So let’s take a look at five of the top safeties heading into this season, along with a few other names to keep an eye on.
(PROGRAMMING NOTE: No player deep-dive this week as the HS coaching season kicks off. BUT we are nearing the debut of the 2025 big board! Coming soon with 50 graded players with full notes for paid subscribers.)
1. Malaki Starks, Georgia
(6’1”, 205 pounds)
There aren’t many football players who have checked all the boxes like Malaki Starks.
A former 5-star athlete, Starks is now a national champion and consensus All-American looking to add even more accolades in 2024. He’s been a starter since he was a true freshman, which means he’s coming into this season with plenty of experience despite only being 20 years old.
Starks is the ultimate versatile safety prospect. He has very good length on a 205-pound frame, plus the athletic ability to play all over the field. He does a great job of reading his keys to play the pass or run, and helps communicate with the rest of the defense to adjust to pre-snap shifts and motions.
Along with good ball skills and downhill explosiveness, Starks shows impressive patience to not panic when targeted deep. I’m not sold on his top-end play speed, but he’s so instinctive that he’s usually in the right position to avoid being burnt.
With his production, accolades, physical tools, athleticism, and film, Starks already looks like an early first-round pick.
2. Xavier Watts, Notre Dame
(6’0”, 201 pounds)
If you’re looking for a safety with ball skills, look no further than Notre Dame’s Xavier Watts.
2023 was a breakout year for Watts. He led college football with seven interceptions, earning consensus All-American honors while winning the Bronko Nagurski Trophy for the nation’s best defensive player.
Based off of the film, Watts would fit best in a single-high role to allow him to play sideline to sideline. He has very good length, burst, and top-end play speed to cover the entire field. He also isn’t afraid to fire downhill and make a hit on a ball carrier with good tackling technique.
For as fearless as he is, Watts can tend to be overaggressive when filling the alley, easily allowing cutback lanes to running backs. He can also get caught out of position when coming down to jump windows on slant/glance routes.
Watts will be 23 years old as an NFL rookie, but his skill set is so exciting that there’s a real chance he could be a first-round pick if he can have a similar year for the Irish in 2024.
3. Kevin Winston Jr., Penn State
(6’2”, 206 pounds)
The top three safeties can all fill different roles for NFL teams. Penn State’s Kevin Winston Jr. might be the best box safety of the group.
While Winston hasn’t received the accolades that the other two safeties above him have, he did have a team-high 60 tackles for the Nittany Lions last season. What’s even more impressive is that Pro Football Focus credited him with ZERO missed tackles over the entire year.
The film backs that up, because Winston is a fearless tackling machine. Despite impressive closing speed and momentum at the point of contact, Winston manages to always stay in control to wrap up and keep driving his feet while keeping his pad level low.
Penn State utilizes Winston’s skills almost perfectly, allowing him to not worry about covering deep as much as attacking in the box. He could still work on some of the finer points of coverage, but he’s already an almost completely polished box safety in the run game.
4. Xavier Nwankpa, Iowa
(6’2”, 215 pounds)
For a team looking for a versatile safety like Starks, they might be able to wait until Day 2 to get a prospect who can play a similar role in Xavier Nwankpa.
A former 5-star recruit, Nwankpa has the athletic profile and size to play all over the field. It allowed Iowa to use him in different spots, which is likely something that will happen even more now that Cooper DeJean is in the NFL.
Nwankpa has good play speed and movement skills to cover plenty of ground in coverage. He also has good post-snap processing to quickly diagnose route combinations happening in front of him to quickly react and make a play on the ball.
As a run defender, Nwankpa needs to cut down on his missed tackles. His footwork and backpedal transition need to be cleaned up as well in coverage.
He’s still a work in progress, but Nwanka’s tools give him the upside that will intrigue scouts. A big leap on tape in 2024 could vault him up these rankings by the end of the college football season.
5. Rod Moore, Michigan
(6’0”, 198 pounds)
Moore is easily the smallest safety of this group. However, he might be the most intense.
With three years under his belt, Moore has plenty of in-game experience on both defense and special teams. He was named third-team All-Big Ten this past season during the team’s national championship run.
While Moore doesn’t excel at any one thing, he does everything well. He’s a smooth operator with good hip fluidity and backpedal speed in pass coverage, and flies downhill with good tackling technique against the run.
Moore’s smaller frame may hurt him a bit when it comes to taking on blocks, and there are times where it feels like he doesn’t have the length to stick to receivers deep downfield. However, he’s such a reliable and experienced prospect that he should have no problem going in the first few rounds of next year’s draft.
The Other Guys
Andrew Mukuba, Texas
A former Clemson Tigers safety, Mukuba looked like a future star after his freshman season, winning ACC Rookie of the Year. He hasn’t had the same kind of success since, so a fresh start with the Longhorns could help him get back on track.
Malachi Moore, Alabama
It feels like every time I watch Alabama’s defense I notice Moore making a couple of plays. He’s a four-year contributor as was a permanent captain for the team in 2023, as well as an All-SEC selection in 2022. I really like his urgency as a player, and Alabama’s new defensive scheme could allow him to finally become a star for the Crimson Tide.
Shilo Sanders, Colorado
We have to put Coach Prime’s son on here. Although he’s going to be 25 years old as an NFL rookie, he’ll be worth keeping an eye on if the Buffaloes suddenly become a legitimate contender in the Big 12 this season.