Who's the Better Safety Prospect Fit for Dolphins: Starks or Emmanwori?

The Miami Dolphins’ most crucial needs in the 2025 NFL draft have come into focus.

With the first two waves of free agency finished, it’s clear the Dolphins’ primary needs are guard, safety, cornerback, and interior defensive line. There are some depth needs across the roster, but those are the positions where the team needs a starter.

Although the positions where the Dolphins need the most help are obvious, which player they should select is far less so. In this series, we cover the top players available at each position of need and break down who fits the Dolphins best.

Part 3 of this series will cover the top options at safety, after part 1 covered cornerback and part 2 covered interior defensive line.

Let’s look at Malaki Starks (Georgia) and Nick Emmanwori (South Carolina).

Malaki Starks’ Fit With Miami

Pros of Starks’ Game

All of the best parts of Starks’ game center around his coverage ability. As a three-year starter for Georgia, Starks spent a lot of time patrolling deep zones and making plays on the ball downfield.

Starks recorded six interceptions and 14 pass breakups in his three seasons and showed excellent ball tracking and body-adjustment ability to make difficult catches.

His time with Georgia should give him a good baseline for NFL defenses. Starks lined up all over the field for the Bulldogs and has the football IQ to execute any deep-coverage role for the Dolphins’ defense.

This is especially important for a team looking to replace Jevon Holland. The Dolphins signed Ifeatu Melifonwu and Ashtyn Davis in free agency, but neither has Starks’ range and coverage versatility on the back end.

In fact, pairing Starks with Melifonwu would probably be the best-case scenario for both players. Melifonwu is well equipped to handle a role near the line of scrimmage, limiting some of Starks’ weaknesses.

Although Starks is better in deep zones, he’s a capable player near the line. He has some high-profile missed tackles on tape, but his overall tackling profile is pretty solid. Last season, his missed tackle rate of 8.1 percent ranked in the upper percentile of college defenders.

Lastly, Starks also provides some cornerback versatility. The Bulldogs played Starks at slot cornerback a lot in 2024, and he had some nice moments mirroring receivers and tight ends in man coverage.

It was clear that wasn’t his best spot, but that versatility could help the Dolphins since they’re also missing a starting cornerback.

Cons of Starks’ Game

Starks had the worst season of his career in 2024. As mentioned above, he was asked to play in the slot more — a career-high 271 snaps — which clearly was not his best position.

While he’s a capable slot defender, it robbed Starks of his best trait, reading out plays and breaking downhill to make a play on the ball. Forcing Starks to play in man coverage exposed his average change of direction skills and physicality.

Assuming the Dolphins limit his slot reps to specific matchups, many of Starks’ worst reps from the 2024 season won’t translate to the NFL.

The only other on-field concern with Starks’s play is that he can miss some big tackles. His overall tackling profile is solid, but when he misses, he misses badly, which led to a few big plays for other teams last season.

Safeties are the last line of defense, especially someone like Starks, who plays outside the box a lot. Any time they miss a tackle, it usually leads to a big play. This is a bit of a nitpicky concern, but it’s definitely something worth pointing out.

Overall, Starks is a clean prospect. He has good NFL size, tested well at the combine, and has three years of quality tape for a big-time program. The question is how much of his production dip in 2024 was due to playing more cornerback as opposed to a dip in his ability to play safety.

Nick Emmanwori’s Fit With Miami

Pros of Emmanwori’s Game

Emmanwori is one of the most impressive athletes in this entire class.

The South Carolina product measured in at 6-3, 220 pounds with a 78-inch wingspan at the NFL combine, which is good for the 97th, 96th and 86th percentiles among all safeties since 1999.

At that massive size, Emmanwori proceeded to tear up every drill. He ran a 4.38 40-yard dash (91st percentile), jumped 43 inches in the vertical (98th percentile), and had a 138-inch broad jump (99th percentile).

Calling Emmanwori a rare athlete might not be giving him enough credit, and his athletic profile translates to his tape. He can fire downhill to make plays near the line of scrimmage and close down zone windows in the intermediate area of the field well.

His length and size also make him a physical presence against the run. He’s got a massive tackle radius and likes to hit ball carriers hard in the open field. This allows him to operate as a sub-package linebacker.

Emmanwori also displays good ball skills and a knack for creating turnovers. He had four interceptions and three pass breakups while allowing an NFL passer rating of 37.1 last season.

In theory, there’s no limit to the type of roles Emmanwori can play on the Dolphins defense. His best usage will come closer to the line of scrimmage, but he’s more than fast enough to play in deep zones in a limited sample size.

Cons of Emmanwori’s Game

The biggest hangup with Emmanwori’s profile is a lack of consistency. His best games (Kentucky, Oklahoma, Clemson) feature so many impressive plays that would it easy to take him inside the top 15.

However, his worst games (Alabama, LSU, Texas A&M) feature many plays that point to a player who needs a lot of development before becoming a consistent contributor.

Although Emmanwori’s coverage stats are good, he should not be tasked with playing man coverage in any capacity. His speed is good enough to close down windows in deep zones, but his anticipation and ability to read out passing concepts needs a lot of growth.

He’s got a bad habit of taking bad angles from depth or just simply guessing wrong about the routes developing in front of him.

Unless he takes major strides in that area, his coverage versatility will be pretty limited at the next level. He can do almost anything a team wants near the line of scrimmage or as a robber, but that makes Emmanwori a linebacker.

Combine that with how much growth Emmanwori needs, and you’ve got a high-risk, high-reward prospect with a lot of uncertainty about where he’ll actually play at the next level.

Starks vs. Emmanwori — Verdict

Although Starks and Emmanwori are listed as safeties, they could not be more different. Although we feel like Starks is a better player on tape, it could come down to which role the Dolphins prefer.

Starks is the better option if they want a safety who is better suited to replace what Holland did last season. His football IQ and coverage instincts are the best in this year’s safety group, and he’s experienced lining up all over the field.

From a short-term perspective, Starks likely would make the 2025 Dolphins better than Emmanwori would.

However, if the Dolphins want to take the long-term view, Emmanwori makes a ton of sense. He has the athletic ability and size to change a defense like Derwin James and Kyle Hamilton have done for the Chargers and Ravens, respectively.

Dolphins defensive coordinator Anthony Weaver was in Baltimore for Hamilton’s ascension into one of the league’s best safeties, so he’ll likely be amenable to developing a unique prospect like Emmanwori.

The issue is that Emmanwori’s tape is much worse than Hamilton and James’ was coming out of college. Those two had immediate impacts once they settled into their roles, and Emmanwori will probably need a bit more development.

Despite Emmanwori’s upside, Starks might be considered a better option because the Dolphins’ decision-makers are under a lot of pressure to win this season.