NFL Draft: Super Six Packers Prospects at Safety

The Green Bay Packers have a hole in the lineup at safety. Get to know our Super Six NFL Draft prospects through stats, scouting and stories.

Author:
Bill Huber
Publish date:
Apr 20, 2023 10:36 PM EDT

In this story:

Green Bay Packers

GREEN BAY, Wis. – Could it be Safety First for the Green Bay Packers?

With veteran Adrian Amos still unsigned and former first-round pick Darnell Savage coming off a down season, the Green Bay Packers could be looking for a safety with an early-round pick, if not a first-round pick, in the 2023 NFL Draft.

It’s not a great class. For the most part, the best players had mediocre testing numbers and the players with the best testing numbers had mediocre careers.

Here is our Super Six list of safeties, with more to be added before the start of the draft.

Brian Branch, Alabama

Brian Branch (Photo by USA Today Sports Images)

Measureables: 5-11 5/8, 190 pounds, 9 1/2 hands. 4.58 40, 4.45 shuttle, 37.5 vertical (pro day), 5.27 RAS.

Stats and accolades: Branch started 10 games his first two seasons before becoming a full-time starter in 2022. He won first-team All-American honors after stuffing the stat sheet with three sacks and 14 tackles for losses among 90 tackles while adding two interceptions (zero dropped interceptions) and nine passes defensed. In three years, he had four interceptions, 27 passes defensed and zero forced fumbles. He returned two punts; one of those was taken back for a touchdown.

Analytical stats: According to Pro Football Focus, of 88 safeties who played more than 580 snaps, he ranked 26th in passer rating allowed (69.3) and second in missed-tackle percentage (three misses). He lined up in the slot 73 percent of the time, most in the class, according to Sports Info Solutions’ top-32 safety prospects, and ranked 21st with 0.80 yards per slot coverage snap, according to PFF. His hand-on-ball percentage (interception, deflection, forced fumble, fumble recovery) of 1.2 percent ranked 14th of SIS’s top 32. Only one safety was penalized more than Branch (five).

How he fits: Branch didn’t play much safety at Alabama but his do-it-all skill-set would make him an instant starter. Branch has a nose for the ball and, despite lacking optimal size, he’s a superior tackler – perhaps the best tackler for any defensive player in the draft. While Keisean Nixon is penciled in as the starter in the slot, Branch’s high-level experience would be hard to keep off the field as the starting safety on base downs with the ability to move into the slot in passing situations.

“I feel like I'm versatile,” he said at the Scouting Combine. “I can play anywhere in the back end. I'm comfortable playing everywhere in the back end and able to do it at a high level.” On comparisons to former Alabama star and current NFL standout Minkah Fitzpatrick, Branch said, “I love his game. The way he's able to play every position in the back end and able to do it at a high level, I think I've been able to do that my years at Alabama.”

Personal touch: Branch went to Sandy Creek High School in Fayetteville, Ga. That’s the same high school that produced Calvin Johnson as well as former NFL offensive lineman Andrew Gardner and current Commanders defensive lineman Kedric Golston. “I want to be better than Calvin Johnson,” Branch said while a senior at Sandy Creek.

Instead, Branch settled on defense. With the passing of his father in March 2020, Branch’s longtime trainer, Andre Powell of Pass Football Academy, became more than a coach.

“His dad was sick. His mom played a major part of the family,” Powell told AL.com. “So he was always trying to make his dad proud, through his illness, and also make his mom proud in the process. We just kind of stepped up and filled the void a little bit.

“When she needed a real man figure, we kind of were there. When he was through summer school, we corrected it. When he wasn’t getting his grades, we corrected it. That’s a large family, too -- single mom, working, five kids, you need some help. We just kind of gave more help.”

Branch plays with attitude.

“When I take the field,” he said at the Scouting Combine, “it’s almost like I’m allowed to release a sort of anger, a legal anger, that I can’t do on an everyday basis but when I get on the field and am able to make contact with the opposing team. Doing that just makes me be able to express myself and just have fun. I just have a mentality of I have to do my job and can’t let the opposing team do a better job than I do.”

At the Combine, Branch said he talked to the Packers about manning the slot.

Quan Martin, Illinois

Quan Martin (Photo by USA Today Sports Images)

Measureables: 5-11, 194 pounds, 9 5/8 hands. 4.46 40, DNP shuttle, 44 vertical, 9.29 RAS.

Stats and accolades: Jartavius “Quan” Martin grabbed three interceptions as a freshman in 2018, then had just one the next three seasons before capitalizing on his COVID year with three interceptions, 14 passes defensed and two forced fumbles. He added one sack and three TFLs among 64 tackles to earn third-team all-conference. His five-year totals: seven interceptions, 30 passes defensed and four forced fumbles.

Analytical stats: According to Pro Football Focus, of 88 safeties who played more than 580 snaps, he ranked 36 in passer rating allowed (80.4) and fourth in missed-tackle percentage (four misses). He lined up in the slot 64 percent of the time, second-most in the class, according to Sports Info Solutions’ top-32 safety prospects, and ranked 71st with 1.49 yards per slot coverage snap, according to PFF. His hand-on-ball percentage (interception, deflection, forced fumble, fumble recovery) of 2.2 percent tied for No. 1 of SIS’s top 32. He dropped four interceptions.

How he fits: There aren’t many more exciting prospects than Martin, who made a lot of big plays on the football, tackled with excellent efficiency and posted off-the-charts testing numbers. As is the case with Alabama’s Brian Branch, Martin excelled as a combo slot-safety. His high-level athleticism could vault him to the top of the class in three years if he can improve his ball skills.

“My versatility. I feel like that’s the edge for me,” Martin, who had a predraft visit with the Packers, said at the Scouting Combine. “I feel like I’m the most versatile DB in this draft. Just to be able to play every position on the back end, I feel like, is going to give me the edge.”

Personal touch: Martin didn’t have any Power-5 offers until the Illini came knocking on his door.

“I don’t really say motivation, I just go play," Martin told the Herald & Review. "A lot of other schools, they kind of overlooked me, but I don’t really hold a chip on my shoulder from that. I’m just blessed with the opportunities I had and made the best of it."

What did Illinois see that everyone else missed?

"Our evaluation said that he's a pretty good football player," then-coach Lovie Smith said in 2018. "He's a very good basketball player. I saw him play a basketball game and he can pretty much touch the top of the backboard. So we knew we had a good athlete there that could play a couple positions for us."

Martin's mom and dad work in home improvement. He learned nothing from them, apparently.

"Nah," Martin said at the Senior Bowl. "But I can always go on YouTube."

Martin does have some non-football talents. He made Thanksgiving dinner, is a self-taught barber and can throw down some highlight-reel dunks.

“He can jump. He’s a barber,” Illini wide receiver Isaiah Williams told 247 Sports. “He cuts a lot of people’s on the team hair. He cooks. He a laid-back dude, but at the same time, he’s hard-working. He's really a leader.”

Antonio Johnson, Texas A&M

Antonio Johnson (Photo by USA Today Sports Images)

Measureables: 6-1 7/8, 198 pounds, 9 3/4 hands. 4.52 40, 4.34 shuttle, 31 vertical, 4.78 RAS.

Stats and accolades: Johnson was a two-year starter. In 2021, he had 79 tackles, six passes defensed and his lone career interception. In 2022, he had 71 tackles, one pass defensed and three forced fumbles. He dropped his only interception opportunity. His three-year totals: one interception, eight passes defensed, four forced fumbles and 14 TFLs.

Analytical stats: According to Pro Football Focus, of 88 safeties who played more than 580 snaps, he ranked 48th in passer rating allowed (91.2) and 53rd in missed-tackle percentage (13 misses). He lined up in the slot 47 percent of the time, fourth-most in the class, according to Sports Info Solutions’ top-32 safety prospects, and ranked 56th of 78 with 1.20 yards per slot coverage snap, according to PFF. His hand-on-ball percentage (interception, deflection, forced fumble, fumble recovery) of 1.2 percent ranked 14th of SIS’s top 32.

How he fits: Johnson is an all-around weapon, whether it’s playing traditional safety, serving as a big slot defender or going in attack mode around the line of scrimmage. Johnson is considerably bigger than Alabama’s Brian Branch and Illinois’ Quan Martin but not quite as athletic and lacks their playmaking production. If he can improve his tackling, he’d be a real force either playing deep or in run support.

“I feel like [playing multiple roles] prepared me very well because I don't have a set title to my name. It opens a lot of doors for me, places teams can put me at. I feel that’s one of my strengths. Teams … ask me what's my preferred position. I feel that's a blessing because a lot of players don't have that opportunity to be as versatile and have a set spot. Going to a new team, I can learn different positions and have a better chance of getting on the field faster.”

Personal touch: How did an East St. Louis, Ill., end up in College Station, Texas?

“It was ‘Friday Night Lights’ on Netflix when I realized Texas football is different,” Johnson told The Houston Chronicle. “I always wanted my mom to move to Texas so I could play football here. I knew (football) was just so big here, and through my recruitment when I came and visited, I fell in love with the place, and fell in love with the ‘12th Man.’”

There also was the opportunity to get away from the “rough city” that is his hometown.

“I like to say, you find a lot of diamonds in the rough in a city like that,” Johnson told The Battalion. “It helped build character, and that’s why I stand by my city.

“I played a lot of sports to help me stay out of trouble,” Johnson added. “I just played any sport so I didn’t have to go home after school.”

Did you ever wonder what it’s like to run out of the tunnel before a game but that tunnel is surrounded by pregame smoke? “There’s somebody there with a light, but it is so hard to see the light,” he told My Aggie Nation. “You see people run and then slow down right there to make sure they don’t hit the [goal post]. It’s funny, because I know I do it. When I run out, I make sure I don’t [hit the pole].”

JL Skinner, Boise State

JL Skinner (Photo by USA Today Sports Images)

Measureables: 6-3 3/4, 209 pounds, 8 1/4 hands. DNP workouts (pectoral).

Stats and accolades: The super-sized Skinner started 31 games in four seasons, including 12 in 2021 and 12 more in 2022. As a senior, he had four interceptions and eight passes defensed. As a junior, he had seven passes defensed, seven tackles for losses and both of his forced fumbles. His four-year totals: seven interceptions and 20 passes defensed.

Analytical stats: According to Pro Football Focus, of 88 safeties who played more than 580 snaps, he ranked third in passer rating allowed (40.1) and 25th in missed-tackle percentage (nine misses). He lined up in the slot 26 percent of the time, 10th-most in the class, according to Sports Info Solutions’ top-32 safety prospects. Had he reached our 100-slot-snaps threshold, he would have ranked seventh with 0.53 yards per slot coverage snap, according to PFF. His hand-on-ball percentage (interception, deflection, forced fumble, fumble recovery) of 1.5 percent ranked seventh of SIS’s top 32. He dropped two interceptions.

How he fits: Skinner’s size, obviously, is a tremendous asset when tasked with matching up on tight ends or helping on a receiver in deep coverage. He’s got a chance to be a real X-factor in that way, though packing on some muscular pounds would help him in those matchups as well as tackling and getting unglued from blockers. Still, his size and ability to cover ground is impossible to overlook.

“There’s some big tight ends in this league. Very big mismatches with some safeties,” he said at the Scouting Combine. “But I’m also a big guy, too. So, being able to go down and cover those guys, I feel like I can be versatile on that end. And also playing that position where I’m able to cover those smaller slots, being able to do both I feel will be a mismatch for some people.”

Personal touch: Skinner suffered a torn pectoral just before the Scouting Combine. The injury kept him from testing during the predraft process. Based on his timeline, he might be on the field at some point during OTAs but certainly will be good to go for the start of camp.

“At the end of the day, my film speaks for itself,” he said at the Combine. “So, I don’t really think that it’ll hurt me too bad. Being able to showcase my 40 would’ve been nice. Being able to show I can run that 4.4. But my film speaks for itself. So, hopefully, they’ll be able to see that.”

After a disappointing 2020 season, while most of his teammates returned to their hometowns for Christmas break, Skinner stayed in Boise to restart his training.

“As a DB, if you don’t have confidence, it’s going to be really hard to succeed,” Skinner told The Idaho Statesman. “After this past season, I did a lot of reflecting on myself, and I started to build that confidence within myself again. I started to realize I’m able to play this position at a high level, and I just have to keep working.”

One word describes his game – and it’s a word used six times in this quote from The Idaho Press. “I’m very passionate. I’m very passionate about this game,” he said. “I try to lead by example and show guys how to do things and how to plan stuff. But when I have to be vocal, it’s kind of loud and it comes off a certain way. But it’s all from love. I’m just so passionate about it. It’s really passionate — I’m just really passionate about this game. Whenever I play, I try and let everything show that I’m passionate about this game.”

Ji’Ayir Brown, Penn State

Ji'Ayir Brown (Photo by USA Today Sports Images)

Measureables: 5-11 3/8, 203 pounds, 10 1/8 hands. 4.65 40, 4.21 shuttle, 32.5 vertical, 5.96 RAS.

Stats and accolades: There was no bigger ballhawk than Brown. During his final two seasons, he intercepted 10 passes. After picking off six passes with 11 passes defensed in 2021, he put together an encore of four interceptions, seven passes defensed, 4.5 sacks and seven tackles for losses. That gave him 10 picks (with three drops), 18 PBUs, three forced fumbles and eight TFLs during his final two seasons.

Analytical stats: According to Pro Football Focus, of 88 safeties who played more than 580 snaps, he ranked 16th in passer rating allowed (56.3) and 37th in missed-tackle percentage (11 misses). He lined up in the slot 12 percent of the time, according to Sports Info Solutions’ top-32 safety prospects. Had he reached our 100-slot-snaps threshold, he would have ranked eighth with 0.63 yards per slot coverage snap, according to PFF. His hand-on-ball percentage (interception, deflection, forced fumble, fumble recovery) of 1.4 percent ranked ninth of SIS’s top 32.

How he fits: The interception total is staggering. Yes, that speaks to his talent. It also speaks to his preparation as the leader of the secondary. Those massive hands, among the biggest in the safety class, are like black holes in sucking in any ball that floats his way. He’s not tall but he’s not small, either, and that size comes in handy as a willing run defender. Of note, he tested horribly at the Scouting Combine but improved at pro day with a 4.58 40 and 35.5 vertical. If he were a 4.50 guy rather than 4.60, he might be in the first-round mix.

With a nose for the ball he earned the nickname Takeaway King. “Just getting turnovers in basketball, football, just always getting turnovers. Every season I played, I had three-plus. So just being able to get the ball back to the team a lot just led to the name Takeaway King.”

Personal touch: It’s incredible how close Brown’s path to the draft almost never got started. Due to poor grades, Brown was not recruited by Division I programs. Only when Lackawanna Junior College had a player drop off the team did Brown have a chance to get a foot in the door. Brown got his chance and won the starting job alongside Jaquan Brisker. Ultimately, both players made it to Penn State. Brisker was drafted by the Bears last year; Brown is next.

"Every step, every accolade, every accomplishment I get at this stage of my life is very surprising and a wow to me," Brown told The Times Tribune. "After going through all that, I never envisioned how I was going to get here, how I was going to get it done, what kind of stuff I was going to accomplish. I just knew I was going to get here one day. I never knew about the team captain or all that stuff. I’m very appreciative of everything.”

Brown doesn’t need to himself. He was a big-time producer and leader.

“Just that I'm a great kid, you know, and I love the game of football,” he said at the Combine. “You don't have to watch me any other way besides on a football field. I'm a low-maintenance, high-production guy.”

Brown’s always been a turnover-producing machine. A native of Trenton. N.J., he led the state in steals in basketball.

“I think my instincts, I always had instincts growing up, especially on the court, and just having that knack for the ball, knowing when the ball is about to be passed out,” he said at the Combine. “Just been something that's been carried with me throughout my career.”

Takeaway King isn’t his only nickname. Nor is it his favorite. “Tig is a better nickname than that but I definitely like the Takeaway King,” he said at the Cmbine. “It was Tigger the bouncing tiger, ended up just chopping a couple of words off, a couple of letters and called me Tig. I felt like I was a little too old for people to be calling me Tigger the bouncing tiger so just call me Tig.”

Sydney Brown, Illinois

Sydney Brown (Photo by USA Today Sports Images)

Measureables: 5-9 3/4, 211 pounds, 10 1/4 hands. 4.47 40, DNP shuttle, 40.5 vertical, 9.68 RAS. (Brown is too short for Green Bay’s standards but we’ll use 2021 receiver Amari Rodgers as a guide as a player who was short but not small.)

Stats and accolades: Brown was a second-team All-American in 2022 with a Big Ten-leading six interceptions. After intercepting four passes with 13 passes defensed while starting 38 of 39 appearances during his first four seasons, Brown had six interceptions and 13 passes defensed in 2022. His five-year totals: 10 interceptions, 26 passes defensed, four forced fumbles and 10 tackles for losses.

Analytical stats: According to Pro Football Focus, of 88 safeties who played more than 580 snaps, he ranked 10th in passer rating allowed (49.6) and 61st in missed-tackle percentage (14 misses). He lined up in the slot 30 percent of the time, eighth-most according to Sports Info Solutions’ top-32 safety prospects, and ranked 25th of 78 with 0.82 yards per slot coverage snap, according to PFF. His hand-on-ball percentage (interception, deflection, forced fumble, fumble recovery) of 2.1 percent ranked third of SIS’s top 32.

How he fits: Brown played mostly near the line of scrimmage, where his talents for man coverage or run support could be put to max usage. With speed, experience, a nose for the ball and giant hands (only one career dropped interception), Brown was a turnover-producing machine in 2022. Against the run, his athleticism and stocky frame made him a force in beating blockers and getting to the ball-carrier. Now, he just needs to cut down on the misses.

“I'm a confident, versatile player,” he said at the Combine. “I can play in the box, have natural flow for the line games in front of me, whatever run concepts you're going to throw at me. I can play in the post, I can play deep half, I can play curl flat, whatever you need I can do. I trust my instincts. I kind of risk take without regret, kind of live by this thing: ‘I think, therefore I miss.’ So, I don't think, I just go.”

Personal touch: Brown’s twin brother, Chase, is a running back in this drat class.

“We're going to both go to the NFL, so it's going to be cool,” Sydney said at the Combine. “It was a childhood dream of ours growing up and just to kind of finish it off like this and just build on it – getting to the NFL is one thing and maintaining it is another. So, just getting there and really establishing ourselves is what we're looking forward to doing.”

The Brown boys did everything as kids, from boxing to figure skating. Their mom, Raechel, was a figure skater.

“My mom put the skates on us with the toe picks and all that,” he said with a laugh. “It's crazy. Seven-year-old boys and toe picks. It's not a good look.”

The Browns are from Canada. Football opportunities are limited north of the border. So, Raechel enrolled the kids in a school in Florida, and they moved in with a couple she didn’t know. But she had her own problems and money was tight.

“Tuition or paying the rent was the choice,” Raechel told Sports Illustrated’s Pat Forde. “So, we paid tuition. … It was not something I really told them. I just said they couldn’t come home.”

Her hardship paid off with the twins about to make their NFL dreams come true.

“We push each other in anything but more so on the field,” Sydney told The Chicago Tribune. “It’s fun being on the sideline, being able to watch him do his thing. And then when he makes a play, it just encourages me to go out there and do something with the defense. It’s like a battle between the two of us to see who can play better. It’s fun and it only pushes the two of us.”

Brown was a team captain in 2022.

“I'm a guy that leads by action for sure,” he said at the Combine. “And I'm going to set the standard each and every day and face complacency in that. So, making sure that I'm on my p's and q's before I get on anyone else. And I think that's an asset at the next level.”