Renner’s 2027 NFL Draft scouting series: Ranking the top 10 safeties, including the next Kyle Hamilton?

No one is going to confuse the top of this year’s safety class with Caleb Downs anytime soon, but there is a very strong group that could ultimately vie for late first- or early second-round consideration. This class isn’t short on size, either, with numerous prospects below who could pass for linebackers.Even though the position has been devalued throughout the NFL, I could easily see this class producing a couple more first-rounders like we saw in 2026.

Positional rankings:  IOL • S • LB • DT • TE • OT • RB • CB • EDGE • WR • QB

Note: ⭐️ represents each player’s 247Sports star rating as a high school recruit

Class strength rating: 8/10

• Player type: Versatile chess piece
• Early grade: Early Day 2

The Kyle Hamilton comparisons have been made since the day the lanky 6-foot-2 safety got to campus at Notre Dame. While Hamilton is obviously a one-of-one who sets an unfair bar, the similarities in their play styles are unmistakable. 

Tae Johnson can play deep, slot or in the box without looking out of place. His ultra-long frame allows him to make plays on the ball from behind receivers in coverage while also making him a top-notch tackler in the open field. In his lone season as a starter, he picked off four passes and broke up three more. While Johnson’s play strength hasn’t come close to Hamilton’s yet, the redshirt sophomore still has time to fill out.

With a playmaker’s mentality, the biggest thing Johnson needs to clean up is the unnecessary chances he takes. He’ll jump routes and take himself out of position more often than he should. That’s not unheard of for a one-year starter, though. If he cleans that up, he could easily play his way into the late first round.

• Player type: Do-it-all-safety
• Early grade: Early Day 2

Jelani McDonald is the type of well-rounded athlete whose draft stock will always have a high floor. For a taller safety at just over 6-foot-2, his ability to change directions effortlessly is his biggest selling point. 

He fits the body type and play style that’s becoming en vogue in the slot in the NFL: players with longer wingspans who can bring some weakside linebacker-esque ability in the run game while still mirroring underneath routes. It also helps that he’s a physical, sure-handed tackler.  

He was one of many Longhorns who could have been a top-100 pick last spring but opted to return for a potential national title run this season.

• Player type: Rangy deep safety
• Early grade: Early Day 2

KJ Bolden fits perfectly into what’s become an early-round Georgia safety pipeline. Malaki Starks, Javon Bullard and Lewis Cine have all gone in the top two rounds over the past five years, and Bolden looks destined to do the same. He was a true freshman starter for the Bulldogs in 2024 and has been nothing but reliable ever since. PFF credits him with allowing only 11 first downs on 744 career coverage snaps.

Where he is truly special is ranging on the back end. He can make plays around the line of scrimmage from a two-high alignment or mirror slot verticals in off-quarters. He doesn’t have the heft to be a full-time box/slot safety, but if he gets to a ball carrier unblocked, he’s an aggressive finisher. Bolden is another safety who could play his way into the first round with a big season.

• Player type: Box enforcer
• Early grade: Day 2

Ty Benefield spent three years at Boise State, where he broke into the starting lineup midway through his true freshman season before transferring to LSU this offseason. 

Even though he’s only No. 4 on this list, Benefield is the clear-cut No. 1 from a pure traits perspective. At 6-foot-2 and 208 pounds, he’s absurdly twitchy and absurdly violent. Some of the high-end reps he put on tape last year were nothing short of jaw-dropping.

At the moment, however, he doesn’t quite put the “safe” in safety. He’s too often out of control as a tackler (18.8% career missed tackle rate), and his assignment discipline on the back end is shaky. With the way he plays, though, you’d be silly not to keep him around the line of scrimmage.

• Player type: Slot
• Early grade: Late Day 2

Zach Lutmer plays the slot for Iowa, which is always a difficult role to project wholesale to the NFL. With Lutmer’s smooth change-of-direction ability and feel for manipulating space, deep safety feels far more likely for him than outside corner at the next level. He’s at his best in coverage, where only 13 of his 63 targets last year resulted in a first down.

While not a true physical presence taking on blocks or shutting down screens, Lutmer is very instinctual against the run. He does his best work knifing around blocks and into the backfield to take down ball carriers. He should be a plug-and-play starter in the slot.

• Player type: Box enforcer
• Early grade: Late Day 2

Bray Hubbard is yet another player who blurs the line between safety and linebacker. At a listed 217 pounds, Hubbard is a buffet trip away from being a linebacker. Unsurprisingly, he does his damage as a blitzer and against the run. He’s not a zero in coverage, though. He has a great feel for zone and is a stout tackler in space.

Any scheme with a defined box safety role or one that likes to bring a safety down into a dime linebacker role will heavily covet Hubbard’s skill set next spring.

• Player type: Future LB
• Early grade: Early Day 3

Faletau Satuala isn’t your run-of-the-mill safety at 6-foot-4 ⅝ and 212 pounds. In fact, if Satuala sticks at safety, he’ll be the tallest defensive back drafted since 6-foot-4 ¾ Pat Watkins out of Florida State went to the Cowboys in the fifth round in 2006. 

Were I advising Satuala, I’d tell him to take a look at Sonny Styles’ career arc as a massive safety who switched to linebacker and ended up a top-10 pick. Even now, Satuala’s best reps come almost exclusively around the line of scrimmage.

Satuala’s movement skills are special for a man that tall, and height is more valuable shutting down underneath windows than it is on the back end. He’s only a rising true junior, though, meaning he’ll likely use both of his remaining years of eligibility to iron out his best role.

• Player type: Rangy deep safety
• Early grade: Early Day 3

The other Ohio State safety last season, Jaylen McClain got lost in a back seven that saw five of its members get drafted last spring — three in the top 15. The rising junior was quietly impenetrable in his own right, allowing just 94 yards on 28 targets last year.

While his frame is on the smaller side for the position, he’s well built and a gifted all-around mover. The biggest thing he needs to prove this fall is that he can be more of a playmaker after failing to record an interception and totaling only two pass breakups last season.

• Player type: Versatile safety
• Early grade: Early Day 3

Peyton Bowen is a former five-star recruit who broke into the starting lineup as a true freshman in 2023. Injuries derailed his sophomore campaign, but he returned to become one of the best safeties in America last fall.

Physically, Bowen is similar to the safety above him on this list in that his frame is smaller than you’d like for a prospect, but his movement skills and physicality more than make up for it. With the way he plays, he’s one of the stronger candidates in this top-10 list to move to the slot full-time in the NFL.

• Player type: Slot
• Early grade: Early Day 3

When you flip on Jackson Bennee’s tape, it becomes obvious very quickly that the man can flat-out cover. What’s not so obvious is where his best position will be in the NFL. 

While he plays primarily in the slot for the Utes, he’s in the wrong weight class when it comes to defending the run. His trim frame looks far more like a cornerback’s than a safety’s, and the former may end up being his best position at the next level. He’s only a junior, though, so he has plenty of time to fill out and see where his game ends up.

Ranking all 191 first-round NFL Draft picks since 2020: Best, worst selections of the decade

Mike Renner

Three names to watch

Note: These aren’t necessarily the next three players in my rankings, but rather three prospects who caught my eye for one reason or another.

Dashawn Spears (LSU)

Dashawn Spears has been a part-time player through his first two seasons and looks like he’ll step into a full-time slot role this fall. He’s a long, physical defensive back who made an outsized impact in limited playing time. Spears picked off two passes and broke up two more in just 145 coverage snaps last season.

CJ Heard (Vanderbilt)

CJ Heard is a bowling ball of a safety at under 5-foot-10 and 211 pounds. He plays like a cannonball coming downhill and was key to the Commodores’ defensive success last season. He’s easily near the top of the “fun-to-watch” list at the position.

Earl Little Jr. (Ohio State)

Earl Little Jr. definitely has the bloodlines, as his dad was a nine-year NFL veteran at the position in the late 1990s and early 2000s. The younger Little definitely got his father’s athleticism as he flew around the field last year at Florida State. He was simply far too inconsistent to crack the top 10 on this list, but if that changes for the Buckeyes this fall, he has the tools to be an NFL starter.

Class superlatives

• Most NFL-ready: KJ Bolden (Georgia)
• Most versatile: Tae Johnson (Notre Dame)
• Best tackler: Jelani McDonald (Texas)
• Biggest hitter: Ty Benefield (LSU)
• Strongest: Bray Hubbard (Alabama)
• Best slot: Zach Lutmer (Iowa)
• Most athletic: Ty Benefield (LSU)
• Top non-Power-4: Abu Kamara (Yale)
• If only they were bigger: Qua Moss (Tennessee)
• Most experienced: Ty Benefield (LSU) – 2,169 snaps