2019 NFL Draft Prospects: Safeties - Deionte Thompson, Alabama
Rarely do you see a top-five safety recruit redshirt for a college program, but that just speaks to the amount of secondary talent at Alabama. In his first two years on the field Thompson mainly contributed on special teams before stepping into the starting lineup last season. Starting all 15 games for the Crimson Tide, the talented safety was a first-team All-American and first-team All-SEC selection, posting 79 tackles, two interceptions, six pass-deflections and four fumbles forced.
Thompson played in multiple spots for the Crimson Tide and you can tell he was taught by one of the best DB minds in Nick Saban. He lined up as a true free safety, played half field and at nickel. He can play robber or two-deep and drive on a dig routes to take away those completions or when he is one the hash and the QB telegraphs a throw to the sideline, there’s a good chance that he will make a play on it. However, he is at his best as a true free safety, where he shows not only elite range and closing speed, but more importantly the football IQ to anticipate and put himself into the right position.
Thompson shows impressive recognition skills to work through his progressions the way quarterbacks would do, he tracks the eyes of the passer and then has the fluid hips to turn the other way and break on a ball. Due to that you see very smooth transitions from rolling towards the deep middle to attacking passes in the seam-area. Thompson allowed a reception in his area on every 27th defensive snap only in his one season as a starter.
The young playmaker displays quick transition from sinking deep to coming upfield to run-action or quick completions, where he makes up ground with long strides. Thompson will deliver some big blows when he comes in with a run-up, cuts down bigger ball-carriers right at their roots and takes them off their feet. His tremendous length at almost 6’2” help him grab guys at their ankles or such as.
What I really like about him is that he doesn’t shy away from getting in on the action once the ball-carrier is wrapped up, like you see some other guys just walk away. Thompson had an outstanding season-opener versus Louisville last year, when he broke up a couple of passes, intercepted one in the end-zone and made a tackle on the running back in the opposing backfield.
While he was a very consistent performer until the College Football Playoff, Thompson saved his worst for last. In the 2019 National Championship game versus Clemson he was crossed badly once by the electric freshman receiver Justyn Ross and had a couple of other uncommon lapses in coverage. Rarely do you see him actually wrap up and that led to a total of 14 missed tackles over the course of last season.
Thompson takes some questionable angles and is forced to round them off a lot, allowing several additional yards that shouldn’t have been picked up. I don’t really see the short-area quickness to take on a larger role in man-coverage. If he wants to have any function in the box going forward, he will need to add bulk to his lanky frame and become a more reliable tackler.
I think Thompson is a free safety prospect only, but he could be a special one. His tackling form is disgraceful at times and he will have to work on bringing ball-carriers down more consistently, but that is something I think that can be corrected. The range, ability to decipher information and directly transition on the move make him a highly intriguing player to control the back-end. While there were some bad snaps, I thought Thompson’s end of the season was a little overblown.
Grade: Late Second