Sydney Brown 2023 NFL Draft profile: Scout report for the Illinois SAF
Born in Ontario, Canada, Sydney Brown was a three-star recruit in 2018 and immediately became a starter for Illini. He was so in all but one of 51 of his career games, as the defensive counterpart to his brother Chase Brown at running back.
Across those, he piled up 320 combined tackles, ten of them for loss, ten interceptions (two of those returned for touchdowns), 16 pass break-ups, four forced fumbles and a scoop-and-score. In 2022 he was voted first-team by the coaches and second-team All-Big Ten by the media.
Sydney Brown NFL Draft scouting report: Strengths
- He is definitely not a safety who is content with sitting back and waiting for the ball carrier in the run game, where you see him blow through the inside shoulder of blockers in reduced splits and fill the C-gap.
- Was regularly deployed in the box. You see some great moments of pulling bigger insert blockers off himself to make an impact on the ball-carrier, while taking some receivers motioning into condensed splits for a ride.
- Shows no regard for his body with the way he crashes into some piles at full force, and he will shoot through the legs of fullbacks in the hole when needed.
- Does a nice job of swatting away the hands of hands of tight-ends and avoiding being pinned on the backside, in order to chase the ball.
- If you think you can assign a smaller slot receiver with blocking Brown in the run game, you’re sadly mistaken. Plus he times up his hand-usage well and fights over rubs or gets around blockers in the quick screen game frequently.
- Regularly gets involved on tackles late and makes the sure the ball-carrier goes backwards.
- You see Sydney Brown blitz off the edge and dip underneath pullers or just chase from the backside, to create havoc in the backfield a few times.
- Was constantly asked to match up with tight ends and despite those guys having around 50 pounds on him, Brown was the one to dictate terms if anything. He used that contact to feel breaks coming, with plenty of pop in those massive 10 and ¼-inch hands.
- Such an easy mover, who presents excellent change-of-direction and has some teaching tape reps in off-man coverage – whether it’s streak routes/benders, corner or pivot routes, he typically is able to stay in phase.
- Even when his alignment dictates him opening one way and he should be vulnerable as guys work across his face, Brown has the snap in his hips to not get lost.
- Not afraid of guys being able to run by him down the middle of the field and actively swipes with the inside hand as guys trying to hold him off.
- Something he excels at is wrapping around and raking right through the hands of the intended receiver, without initiating contact with the body.
- Despite being right at that six-foot mark, Brown isn’t somebody you can take advantage of in jump-ball situations. He had a perfect rep against the Wyoming TE flexed out wide, being engaged the whole way and looking back at the quarterback to pull the ball down with one hand and ending up with the PBU through that guy’s mitts.
- Had an incredible interception against Michigan State, where he beat up their flex TE Daniel Barker on a corner route, undercut it, located the football and came down with it through contact.
- Showcases high football IQ and spatial awareness in zone coverage, plus he regularly contests the catch-point on late throws to targets around him.
- Illini coaches asked him to play the hook/flat area, bail out from the box into two-high shells, act as a robber, carry routes down the seams and more.
- Rarely seems to just be covering grass, adjusting his drops to the pattern and attaching to targets late.
- IDs running back screens and shows the quick burst to shoot through a lane between two blockers to shut those down.
- You saw Sydney Brown be mugged up in the A-gap and also come on those, happily launching himself through the back in protection.
- Improved his PFF grade each of the last three years, with a 78.4 this past season, being responsible for just one touchdown, compared to his six picks (58.7% completion percentage).
- Arguably had as good a Senior Bowl week as anybody, just locking up WRs and TEs in man-coverage, making plays in coverage during team drills and excelling in run support.
- Finished top-four at the combine in the 40 (4.47), vertical jump (40.5 inches), broad (10’10”) and bench press (23) among safeties (the latter three being above the 90th percentile), along with looking throughout the on-field portion of the workout.
Sydney Brown NFL Draft scouting report: Weaknesses
- Very short for a role in the box or slot, at 5’10” with 31 and ½-inch arms.
- According to PFF, Sydney Brown only spent 60 snaps last season at deep safety, which isn’t optimal for a projection to an NFL that uses as much two-high looks as it’s ever done.
- When asked to rotate into the deep middle every once in a while, that’s the one area where Brown is more so just getting to his landmark rather than processing the game and is able to track the quarterback’s eyes plus the targets around him.
- Has a tendency to overrun plays from the backside and fully commit his shoulders, when you’d like him to be in position to redirect his flow for cutbacks.
- Missed 14 of 74 tackling attempts this past season, oddly losing his balance as he’s redirecting and failing to wrap up properly on too many occasions. He needs to learn how to come to balance and shoot his hips through contact.
Sydney Brown NFL Draft scouting report: Grade
This is one of my favorite players in this entire draft. I highlighted Sydney Brown as one of “my guys” a couple of weeks ago, because even though he’s seen a massive rise in terms of draft stock, when looking at consensus boards, I’m still significantly higher on him than the consensus.
He has show less positional versatility in terms of how he was deployed at Illinois than teammate Jartavius Martin. But with the tremendous feet he has and how feisty he is against bigger bodies, I feel comfortable matching him up with anybody on the inside.
I think he fits very well in split-safety based systems, thanks to his closing burst and ability to disrupt the catch-point. If he can just learn to gather himself better as a tackler, he can be a top-tier run defender from anywhere in the secondary. How much more he can provide at the next level in terms of utilization as a coverage asset will be key to how early he goes, but Sydney Brown is a top-50 overall prospect for me personally.
Grade: Top-50 overall