2025 NFL Draft Top 10 Safeties: Can anyone challenge Malaki Starks for the top spot in this stacked class?
The 2025 NFL Draft is just a few months away now. The College Football Playoff and NFL Playoffs are wrapping up. It's time to look ahead to this incoming class of future NFL stars by position.Our team of NFL Draft contributors at A to Z Sports has been working on this class for several months […]
The 2025 NFL Draft is just a few months away now. The College Football Playoff and NFL Playoffs are wrapping up. It's time to look ahead to this incoming class of future NFL stars by position.
Our team of NFL Draft contributors at A to Z Sports has been working on this class for several months now, so we decided to collectively rank our Top 10 prospects at every position. Eight of our draft analysts ranked their top ten safeties for this iteration of this Top 10 Positional Ranking series as we generated some consensus on this stacked class at the position.
Here's where we landed on the incoming 2025 NFL Draft safety class. If your favorite NFL team needs a safety, you better hope they select one of these top options.
1. Malaki Starks, S Georgia
It's going to be tough for any safety to challenge Malaki Starks for the top spot in this NFL Draft class. He's logged nearly 2,500 snaps in three seasons for the Georgia Bulldogs as the leader of Kirby Smart's elite defenses throughout his career.
Starks is an elite run defender, strong rangy safety on the back end in coverage, and can break on the ball to make defensive plays with ease. He racked up over 20 total passes defended over three years and can line up anywhere succeeding in a variety of coverages in the defensive backfield. After Starks tests at an elite level at the NFL Combine he'll lock up his first round 2025 NFL Draft pick status.
All but one of our A to Z Sports NFL Draft contributors ranked Starks as the top safety in the 2025 NFL Draft class.
2. Nick Emmanwori, S South Carolina
If any safety ends up being better than Malaki Starks in the 2025 NFL Draft class it's likely Nick Emmanwori. He started all three years for South Carolina as a dominant enforcer in the run game, racking up almost 250 tackles in his Gamecocks career.
Emmanwori was a Freshman All-American back in 2022 and only got more impressive from there. He struggled with coverage instincts early in his career, but became perhaps the best cover safety in the game this past season with four interceptions, only 8.3 yards per reception allowed, and a passer rating of just 37.1 when targeted. A standard incomplete pass nets a passer rating of 39.6. Emmanwori is special and could sneak into the first round with a good NFL Draft season.
Not a single A to Z Sports NFL Draft expert ranked Emmanwori below third overall safety in the class.
3. Xavier Watts, S Notre Dame
Speaking of solid cover safeties, (as of this writing) Xavier Watts has gone nearly 500 snaps without allowing a touchdown in coverage. He and Emmanwori are likely the only two safeties in this class that challenge the special skills of Starks.
Watts has grabbed 13 interceptions in the past two seasons alone and demonstrates phenomenal range as a true free safety, but he can drop down and do so much more. He needs to clean up some missed tackle issues that he struggled with at times, but Watts is a versatile defensive weapon who likely hears his name called inside the first two rounds of the 2025 NFL Draft.
Watts may be a bit more polarizing in this class as our A to Z Sports team ranked him as high as the top overall safety while others dropped him to fifth.
4. Billy Bowman Jr., S Oklahoma
Billy Bowman is a former two-way high pedigree star recruit who could play both wide receiver and defensive back at elite levels. He posted an incredible 6.8 yards per reception allowed this year as he was the rare shutdown safety who could win against opposing offense's best playmakers.
Bowman's one glaring weakness is tackling, as he missed nearly a quarter of his attempts even in his best season for the Sooners. As long as he corrals his speed and aggression agains the run at the next level he should still be a strong starting safety in the NFL.
Billy Bowman stood alone as our A to Z Sports NFL Draft team's safety number four. Everyone ranked him between third and sixth.
5. Kevin Winston Jr., S Penn State
Outside of one defensive mistake against Indiana in 2023, Kevin Winston Jr. put together a nearly perfect coverage profile as a safety in college. He gave up one long 69-yard reception, but outside of that, he gave up just 52 receiving yards all season long, surrendering less than six yards per reception. Winston is a sure tackler who almost never misses, a physical force, and an elite athlete in coverage.
Unfortunately, Winston Jr. was badly injured early last fall as he partially tore his ACL. He was sidelined for the rest of the year and won't likely to be doing much on field until March. That means he won't be competing for the NFL Combine and early reports from multiple scouting departments suggest his medicals may be a bit of an issue.
If he were entering this draft cycle healthy he may have ranked higher, but our team at A to Z Sports was torn on him. Winston ranked as high as second and as low as ninth among our NFL Draft experts.
6. Andrew Mukuba, S Texas
Andrew Mukuba made himself a lot of money choosing to go back to school and transferring to Texas this past season. He impressed early as one of the most amazing freshman in the nation back in 2021, struggled immensely in 2022, saw slight improvements in 2023, but then absolutely killed it last season for the Longhorns.
Mukuba tallied five interceptions, allowed a wild 43.5% completion rate when targeted, gave up just 74 receiving yards the entire season, and of course sealed a College Football Playoff victory for Texas against Arizona State.
He was a bit of a late riser in the process for our team, but found himself ranking solidly between third and seventh in this stacked safety class among our A to Z Sports crew.
7. Malachi Moore, S Alabama
Malachi Moore feels like the forgotten talent in this safety class. He's been making plays for the Alabama Crimson Tide since 2020 as one of the most consistent defenders in the nation. He's now logged over 3,100 snaps, bringing more experience than any other safety in the 2025 NFL Draft class.
Moore spent the vast majority of his time playing the slot for the first four years of his career at Alabama, so many people don't think of him as a true safety. However, when he made the switch nearly full-time to free safety this year he put up his best numbers ever. Nine passes defended, completion rate allowed below 45%, and his missed tackle rate dropped immensely too. He could be a mid-round steal.
Our A to Z Sports team agrees as we all ranked him between sixth and eighth in the class.
8. Lathan Ransom, S Ohio State
Lathan Ransom is another extremely experienced savvy veteran coming off the best season of his career. Ransom did give up a handful of explosive plays this year for Ohio State, but he played at a much faster speed all year long. He was a menace against the run, racking up over 70 tackles, including nine tackles for loss. His aggressiveness cost him here and there but he's a strong mid-round safety prospect. Our team rated him almost identically to Malachi Moore.
9. RJ Mickens, S Clemson
The middle rounds are going to be stacked full with older safety prospects as RJ Mickens is our third fifth-year defensive back in a row here. Mickens was Mr. Consistent for much of his early career with Clemson, never giving up many explosive plays or missing too many tackles. But he also never flashed big-play potential either. Then 2024 happened. He defended over a half dozen passes and nearly doubled his career tackles per season average. Early day three grade from our A to Z Sports team.
10. Jonas Sanker, S Virginia
While most of our top ranked safeties thrive in deep coverage situations, Jonas Sanker does his best work closer to the line of scrimmage. Sanker averaged over 100 total tackles for the last two seasons, lining up in the box and the slot quite often. However, when dropping into coverage he wasn't a liability most the time. He'll need to test well at the NFL combine to go very early in the 2025 NFL Draft, but his run-stopping talent, strength, and versatility offer some real value.
Sanker marked the beginning of a huge tier of disagreement on safeties among our A to Z Sports NFL Draft team. He ranked as high as fifth, but as low as 14th among our crew.
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