My 2025 NFL Draft safety rankings are below, followed by links to all of my other positional rankings for the upcoming draft class.

Safety Rankings For The 2025 NFL Draft

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Top Three Safeties In The NFL Draft

1. Malaki Starks

Georgia | 6007/197 | RAS: 5.29 | Comp: Brian Branch

A Swiss Army knife defender with supreme versatility, over his career, Starks logged 1,191 snaps as a deep safety, 664 as the nickel, and 544 as an in-the-box LB. Starks took the amount of snaps that he did in the box during his career because he’s so gifted in run defense.

Starks is an exceptional tackler in space, a wrap-up disciple who hits the target square and drives through it. Starks had a 6.9% career missed tackle rate over 201 career tackles.

An AI-learning processor of the field who has the picture of the play in his head a beat after the snap, Starks has a trigger so fast it can appear he’s cheating. Over the past two seasons, Starks was 90th percentile in PFF run defense grade.

Starks’ testing metrics didn’t flatter him during the pre-draft process, but his foot quickness on film is undeniable. Starks is at his best in coverage playing downhill, with his eyes on the quarterback. Georgia gave Starks half his career snaps as a free safety.

Starks jumps passing lanes by hitting his NAS button trigger before the ball has left the quarterback’s hands. He’s a ball-hawk who makes legitimate plays on the ball.

Moving Starks into the nickel got him closer to the ball, which he is a magnet to. You just don’t want to leave him isolated one-on-one in coverage with a speedy slot receiver—this is the area where Branch’s lack of elite athleticism becomes an issue.

Fortunately, that can be easily worked around. Evaluating Starks this process gave me deja vu to two springs ago with Brian Branch. On my 2023 big board, I ranked Branch at No. 13 overall. He slipped to No. 45 overall and has subsequently returned first-round value to the Lions. 

Starks could similarly slide based on measurables, but he’s going to be a difference-making move-piece at the next level either way.

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2. Xavier Watts

Notre Dame | 6000/205 | RAS: 5.79 | Comp: Xavier McKinney

Watts is a former receiver, and boy, can you tell it when you watch him. Watts had an absurd 13 interceptions the past two seasons, easily leading the nation, while allowing zero TDs in coverage. 

Watts reads route concepts very quickly, with early jumps downhill onto the straight-line-path freeway. He plays more athletically than he tested, erasing distance quickly with the ball in the air. 

All of which is to say, Watts finds himself at a lot of catch points, and, at that point, it’s receiver against receiver. He’s a legitimate centerfield weapon, hindering pass-game efficiency in addition to the flashy field-flipping plays. The past two seasons, Watts checked in the 92nd percentile in forced incompletion percentage and the 96th percentile in passer rating against on targets.

Watts is a willing, if inconsistent, run defender. He triggers quickly and flies downhill. He makes good use of his arms at contact, either wrapping the target or raking at the ball. But Watts has a kamikaze bent in this phase that can get him into trouble. 

In coverage, the ball never changes directions on Watts mid-air. But in the run game, the direction of the ball can change very quickly. So while Watts descends downhill quickly, his hyper-aggressive straight-line pursuit angles take him out of plays when the runner changes directions, and can also drive him directly into the sort of traffic he doesn’t do well in. Watts is usually dead-to-rights when a blocker gets hands on him. 

Watts has instances of arriving too hot and delivering a high-speed glancing shot as opposed to a direct-hit wrap-up. He has worked on that, cutting his missed tackle rate from 18.8% in 2023 to 12.6% in 2024—but more work is needed, in addition to tweaking his pursuit strategy. 

3. Nick Emmanwori

South Carolina | 6031/220 | RAS: 10 | Comp: Jeremy Chinn

Emmanwori was a first-team All-American in 2024 who went on to light up the NFL Combine with a 4.38 forty and 43-inch vertical at linebacker-size. In run defense, he is a linebacker—your best one. 

Emmanwori is a sideline-to-sideline mutant and a hitman into contact who rarely misses—he had a team-leading 88 tackles while missing only 7.2% of attempts last season. Emmanwori took 413 snaps in the box last season—the next-highest total amongst my top-15 safeties had 358 (Jonas Sanker). Emmanwori will be a huge value-add to a run defense at the next level.

But while he had some impressive flash plays in coverage in 2024, with two pick-sixes amongst his four interceptions, I have questions about this area of his game at the next level. Emmanwori skipped the agility drills during pre-draft testing because while his explosive, muscle-bound athleticism is elite north-south, he’s a bit stiff side-to-side.

When you’re lining him up closer to the ball, you want him dropping into zone—he’ll be exposed in man. Emmanwori did show improvement last year in zone coverage, staying disciplined within his area and bursting to get involved at more catch points.

His big frame and long arms make him a problem for receivers in contested situations. When Emmanwori has a shot at the ball, he looks like a tight end, extending to the ball and greeting it with soft hands. 

His instincts in coverage, however, remain a work in progress—he doesn’t see things as quickly as Starks or Watts, causing delayed reactions. Emmanwori will tangibly improve your run defense and will have flashy field-flipping plays in pass defense. But since I don’t feel I can trust him in man or playing deep, and since I can’t count on down-to-down consistency in the lower-leverage coverage role I’ll be assigning him to, there are pass-down limitations reflected in my grade.

More 2025 NFL Draft Positional Rankings

• Quarterback Rankings for the 2025 NFL Draft
• Running Back Rankings for the 2025 NFL Draft
• Wide Receiver Rankings for the 2025 NFL Draft
• Tight End Rankings for the 2025 NFL Draft
• Offensive Tackle Rankings for the 2025 NFL Draft
• Offensive Guard and Center Rankings for the 2025 NFL Draft
• Defensive Tackle Rankings for the 2025 NFL Draft
• EDGE Rusher Rankings for the 2025 NFL Draft
• Linebacker Rankings for the 2025 NFL Draft
• Cornerback Rankings for the 2025 NFL Draft
• Safety Rankings for the 2025 NFL Draft