Calen Bullock scouting report: Exploring the USC safety's strengths and weaknesses
One of the top-200 overall recruits in 2021, Bullock started half of 12 games for USC Trojans as a true freshman and immediately made his presence felt, with 40 tackles, two interceptions and three pass break-ups.
He started all 14 contests on Year 2, recording 58 total stops, five passes intercepted (one returned for a touchdown) and broken up each. While his picks went down to “only” two (one TD scored), he did increase his tackles (63) and PBUs (seven), improving from second- to first-team All-Pac-12.
Profile: 6’2”, 185 pounds; JR
Breaking down Calen Bullock's scouting report
Run defense & blitzing:
• Was the third-most valuable safety in the country according to PFF’s wins above average (WAR) metric in 2022
• Makes sure to maintain outside leverage when working up the alley from split-safety looks
• You don’t ever see him get outraced to the sideline from single-high alignments
• Does a nice job of breaking down in space and not allowing ball-carriers to dance around him in space
• When he’s down low as a hole or flat defender, his ability to bring down the back one-on-one is excellent
• You’d love for Bullock to be a little more physical as a tackler and not allow bigger players to drag him along, but a 10.6% miss rate for how much he was trusted as the last line of defense is solid
Zone coverage:
• Loose mover on the back-end, who can pedal, open and swivels those hips around as if he was oiled up
• Generally does a great job of positioning himself accordingly between routes as a deep zone defender and committing once it’s appropriate
• For more of a lanky build, Bullock redirects well and you don’t feel like receivers can just neutralize him as deep help so to speak
• You rarely see slot receivers have an opening on corner routes when he’s playing cover-two to his side
• Shows the active eyes and instincts to take away multiple options dropping down as a robber/rat and dissuade quarterbacks from throwing touch-balls over his head
• Offers premier ball-hawking skills when it comes to identifying opportunities and then elevating for passes with soft hands
• Quickly covers ground coming forward to get hands on the intended target in front of him
• Throwing curl routes against Bullock in match-coverage (cover-four/-six) can be challenging with how quickly he can erase that cushion.
Man coverage:
• After playing 69% as a deep safety in 2022, Bullock spent between 249 and 320 snaps between the slot, box and at deep (in that order) last season, to showcase some more versatility
• Very calm in his pedal when he has to go backwards with tight-ends pushing vertically against him in man-coverage
• Doesn’t need much of a transition period to turn with and then has the speed to hang with slot fade routes with cushion
• Having 32.5-inch arms definitely helps to enable him to swipe at the ball when the receiver has half a step on him
• Trails the motion-man under good control whilst not allowing himself to be outflanked or caught up in traffic typically
• Effectively drives through the legs or clamps the legs of receivers in order to negate any YAC
• Only surrendered six completions for 55 yards and half of those catches ended in “stops” for the defense, across 131 snaps and ten targets in man-coverage
Weaknesses:
• Earned PFF coverage grades above 80 each of the past two seasons, but in run defense he finished at only a 55.1 and a 49.0 respectively, where I feel like he’ll avoid getting involved on the tackle if possible
• Frequently has to curve his path due to poor initial angles down from the deep post and surrenders additional yardage in the process
• Has real issues dealing with tight-ends in the run game if you ask him to play down low on early downs or he’s lined up over them in the slot
• Too often just drifts way too deep just to not get beat over the top (especially playing center-field), but creates a lot of free real estate in front of him for the offense to attack – was responsible for a career-worst five touchdowns compared to two picks last season
• While it was more about the physicality and involvement as a tackler in 2022, last season he also actually nearly doubled his miss rate (13.5%)
Calen Bullock 2024 NFL Draft prospect
This guy was a very challenging evaluation for me. Bullock generally projects best as a more traditional single-high free safety thanks to his range, ball-skills and while not a big hitter, the reliable tackling skills in space. However, his initial track to the football from that spot routinely needs to be altered and his unit ends up allowing bigger than necessary.
I like what he can bring matching routes from depth or placing himself between them as a threat to take the ball away. However, I don’t think he wants that smoke when offenses pull bigger bodies out to the corner or he has to deal extensively with tight-ends.
He’s slender, the timed speed is adequate (4.48) but nothing crazy and he lacks some of that killer instinct of throwing his body around. With that being said, I understand the value of a defensive player who can create extra possessions, has his kind of fluidity and makes quarterbacks uncomfortable pushing the ball down the field if he’s in range.
I just believe in today’s game, where you play with lighter box counts and need your safeties to actively involve themselves in the run fit even if they aren’t by alignment, he could be somewhat of a liability, hence why I have him this low.
Grade: Late third/Early fourth round