No safety has been selected with the first overall pick in any pro football draft. The closest any team has come to doing it was when the Cleveland Browns took UCLA’s Eric Turner with the second overall pick in the 1991 draft. Turner had a nice career, with 30 interceptions, two Pro Bowls and one First-Team All-Pro nod over nine seasons, but he’s not the first name that comes to mind when it comes to the best safeties we’ve ever seen.
Ronnie Lott was selected with the eighth pick in the 1981 draft by the San Francisco 49ers, and Bill Walsh took the USC star because another UCLA alum — Kenny Easley — had been picked by the Seattle Seahawks fourth overall. Both men eventually made the Hall of Fame.
Regarding players in the modern era, Ed Reed was taken by the Baltimore Ravens with the 24th pick in the 2002 draft, and he wasn’t even the first defensive back selected — that was Phillip Bucannon, taken by the Oakland Raiders 17th overall. The Washington Redskins took Sean Taylor with the fifth overall pick in 2004. The Pittsburgh Steelers selected Troy Polamalu with the 16th overall pick a year earlier, and the Seahawks took Texas’ Earl Thomas — who Pete Carroll has said reminded him of Polamalu — with the 14th overall pick in 2010.
You get the idea. No matter how important the safety position may be, no team has ever thought to make anybody playing that position the first overall pick. Regardless of how great that player may have been in college.
That streak will most likely continue through the 2022 NFL draft. The Jacksonville Jaguars have the first overall pick, and most mocks have them going either edge-rusher or offensive line. Solid ideas, but were I atop the org chart in Jacksonville, I would seriously consider doing something that’s never been done before.
Because it’s my belief that both the best and the most unique overall player in the 2022 draft is the same guy — Notre Dame safety Kyle Hamilton. The three-year star and two-year starter for the Fighting Irish will likely go in the top 10 — perhaps higher — but you’ll have to find a top executive who believes that in this era, the safety position is as important as any on the field.
It’s not yet a common thought. I recently asked Daniel Jeremiah, who heads draft coverage for the NFL Network, calls games for the Los Angeles Chargers, and has spent time in NFL front offices, about this schism between value and perception.
“To me, there’s a real debate going on around the league about just how high you take safeties,” Jeremiah said, regarding the position, and Hamilton specifically. “I’m a little more biased in favor of them. You know, calling the Chargers games for the last four years and seeing every game that Derwin James has played there and the impact that position can make, and think back to my time with the Baltimore Ravens and seeing what Ed Reed could do.
“So, I don’t necessarily agree with the conventional wisdom on that, of how high you take a safety. I think this kid is pretty unique. He’s so tall and long and rangy. The ability to make plays from the deep middle as well as to drop down and play down low and be a physical player, he can erase tight ends.”
Derwin James’ name will come up later in this analysis, but before we get to that, let’s go deep on why Kyle Hamilton is a very different cat than any player you might have seen before.
