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Draft 101: Why Three Do-it-All Safeties Will Rule the First Round
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- Draft 101: Why Three Do-it-All Safeties Will Rule the First Round
The 2026 NFL draft begins on Thursday, April 23, which means there's precious little time left to make sense of so many things that require clarity. In an attempt to bring more signal to the noise, Athlon Sports' Doug Farrar is doing a series of videos designed to simply explain this draft's most polarizing subjects.
Welcome to Draft 101.
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In this installment, we explain why three versatile safeties — "defenders without a position" — will be prized enough by NFL teams to be taken in the first round, when such an idea would have been unthinkable in previous eras.
Related: Draft 101: Can Alabama's Ty Simpson Be an NFL Franchise Quarterback?
The NFL is, above all else, a copycat league.
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When one or more teams hit on a great idea, everybody else will rush to the same well to see how much juice is left for that particular concept. Now, one of the most notable NFL trends is the rise of the do-it-all safety. We've already seen it with Derwin James of the Los Angeles Chargers , Kyle Hamilton of the Baltimore Ravens , and Nick Emmanwori of the Seattle Seahawks , and these "unicorns" who can play all over the field, as opposed to the old-school free and strong designations, are ever more important.
Why? Because a defensive back who can patrol the slot, the box, and the deep third ties your entire defense together. James has been a tone-setter since the Chargers took him with the 17th overall pick in the 2018 draft.
Hamilton has been the NFL's best overall safety over the last few seasons, to the point where the very idea that he was selected 14th overall in the 2022 draft is now seen as one of the larger mistakes in recent memory. Because there isn't a team in that top 13 that wouldn't love to have him.
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As for Emmanwori, who was selected with the 35th pick in the second round of the 2025 draft, he allowed the Seahawks to do what they wanted to do on defense – defending the run with light boxes and two-high coverages. Everybody on that defense contributed, of course, but Emmanwori was the missing piece.
In the 2026 draft, there are three such unicorns who will likely see their names called in the first round: Ohio State 's Caleb Downs , Toledo's Emmanuel McNeil-Warren , and Oregon's Dillon Thieneman . These players all have top-end skill sets, but it's the combination of traits and attributes, and perfect schematic timing, that will make these three guys so valuable at the next level.
A generation ago, such hybrid players would have been seen as rogue elements; too difficult to place in a defense. Now, that versatility is the end-all/be-all, and all three players have what it takes to fill those roles.
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Caleb Downs has a very good chance of going in the top 10 after a 2025 season in which he played 37% of his snaps at split safety, 30% in the slot, 17% as a single-high safety, 9% as an outside defender, and 7% in the box. Overall, the 6-foot-0, 204-pound Downs had 58 solo tackles, 35 stops, four tackles for loss, two forced fumbles, one sack and five total pressures. He also allowed 26 catches on 39 targets for 171 yards, 96 yards after the catch, no touchdowns, two interceptions, one pass breakup, and an opponent passer rating of 54.5. Downs reminds me of Green Bay Packers safety Xavier McKinney in that everything in front of him is open to destruction.
Emmanuel McNeil-Warren may have some teams marking him down a bit due to strength of competition, but when you watch the tape, he may have the most useful range of any of the three. In 2025, the 6-foot-3 ½, 201-pound McNeil-Warren played 45% of his snaps as a single-high safety, 20% in the slot, 19% as a split safety, 14% in the box, and 2% on the outside. He totaled 43 solo tackles, 18 stops, four tackles for loss, two forced fumbles, one sack, and five total pressures. He allowed six catches on 15 targets for 116 yards, 50 yards after the catch, one touchdown, two interceptions, five pass breakups, and an opponent passer rating of 50.3. McNeil-Warren will bring equal parts deep coverage and big hits closer to the line of scrimmage.
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In his first season with Oregon after two at Purdue, the 6-foot-0, 201-pound Dillon Thieneman had 72 solo tackles, 30 stops, three tackles for loss, and four quarterback pressures. He also allowed 18 catches on 29 targets for 145 yards, 42 yards after the catch, two touchdowns, two interceptions, four pass breakups, and an opponent passer rating of 68.9. He did so as a split safety on 55% of his snaps, 21% as a single-high safety, 12% in the slot, 8% in the box, and 4% outside. Thieneman isn't quite the thumping enforcer that Downs and McNeil-Warren are, but if you're looking for the ideal deep-third defender with equal expertise in the slot, he could well be your man.
I interviewed Downs for the cover story of the 2026 Athlon draft preview magazine , and he outlined how important it is for him to be one of those true do-it-all guys.
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"I feel like defense is not just, hey, I line up every play, and you know where I am," Downs said. "I feel like it's moving pieces around and making the offense see different pictures. Coach [Ohio State defensive coordinator Matt] Patricia, he uses the term, 'Simple for us, hard for them.' At the end of the day, if I'm in all these different positions and doing different things at different positions, the quarterback is having to think about that every play.
"'Okay, he's the boundary safety this play, close to the line of scrimmage this play. He's in the post this play. He's dropped down 10 yards over the apex in the middle of the field. He could run the alley on this play. He could play the post. He could do all these different things. He's at nickel this play. He could blitz. He could play coverage. He could play zone.
"They're having to go through that every play. And I feel like that's something that makes DBs special, but also coaches have to be able to move the chess pieces around and be able to do that at a high level."
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When you see all three of these players taken in the first round of the 2026 draft – which has rarely seen three safeties taken overall that high – it's not about positional value, It's about the value of versatility, and how much the NFL has attuned itself to that particular reality.
This story was originally published by Athlon Sports on Mar 24, 2026, where it first appeared in the NFL section. Add Athlon Sports as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
