DB U? Pitt Top Five at Producing NFL DBs

The Pitt Panthers consistently produce great defensive backs and stand up there with the best college teams in getting them to the NFL.

Sep 10, 2023; Foxborough, Massachusetts, USA; Philadelphia Eagles cornerback Avonte Maddox (29) / Eric Canha-USA TODAY Sports

PITTSBURGH -- The Pitt Panthers have a great track record of producing defensive backs and match up with the best college teams in the country in doing so.

PFF College put out a list of the schools who have the most defensive backs in the NFL right now and Pitt ranked fifth, along with Auburn, Georgia, Oregon and rival Penn State, with nine alumni in the pros.

Most DBs by School Currently on NFL Rosters🔒 pic.twitter.com/v9SxF5o5Ek

— PFF College (@PFF_College) May 10, 2024

The current Pitt Panthers defensive backs in the NFL include Dane Jackon with the Carolina Panthers, Damar Hamlin with the Buffalo Bills, Damarri Mathis with the Denver Broncos, Erick Hallett II with the Jacksonville Jaguars, M.J. Devonshire with the Las Vegas Raiders, Jason Pinnock with the New York Giants, Avonte Maddox with the Philadelphia Eagles, Jordan Whitehead with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and AJ Woods with the Washington Commanders.

All of these players developed under head coach Pat Narduzzi, who took over ahead of the 2015 season. His work, along with secondaries coach Archie Collins and safeties coach Cory Sanders, plus defensive coordinator Randy Bates, has led to the great list of NFL players that Pitt has.

Much of the success lends itself to the scheme that the Pitt coaching staff deploys for their defensive backs. They play more in man coverage, which forces players to account for their own targets and receiving less help on the field.

There is some criticism for this approach, as Pitt has struggled in some seasons with defending long pass plays and preventing large passing gains in games at times, but the individual success is hard to argue.

Players like Hallett, Devonshire, Woods and Mathis all played in 2021, when Pitt won 10 games in a regular season for the first time in over 40 years and hoisted its first ever ACC Championship.

Even older players in the earlier years of Narduzzi and co. are still fixtures in the NFL. Whitehead goes back to Tampa Bay, the team that drafted him, on a two-year contract, while Maddox sticks with Philadelphia, with both heading into their seventh season as a pro.

Devonshire went to the Raiders in the Seventh Round of the 2024 NFL Draft, making it five straight seasons a Pitt defensive back earned a draft selection.

While a 3-9 season hurts the reputation for the program, there's no doubt that Narduzzi, Bates, Collins and Sanders have built one of the better pipelines for defensive backs to the NFL during their time with the program.

Make sure you bookmark Inside the Panthers for the latest news, exclusive interviews, recruiting coverage, and more!

• Pitt's M.J. Devonshire Signs First Contract With Raiders
• Pitt's Bub Means Signs First NFL Contract
• Pitt's M.J. Devonshire Has Advantage Entering NFL
• ESPN Adds League One Volleyball, Pitt Star to Represent
• Pitt Wrestling Hires Lou Rosselli as Assistant Coach

Follow Inside the Panthers on Twitter: @InsidePitt