We need to start talking about Antoine Winfield Jr.
If Zimmer is right, and the NFL has become a single-high league (which he is and which it has for the most part), that puts an increased emphasis on the value of the true deep third safety who can roam from side to side, blitz from anywhere, handle run fits when the situation requires, and essentially bait and trap quarterbacks as a cornerback would. Delpit is an interesting version of such a player, but my eye has been on Minnesota’s Antoine Winfield Jr. for a while now.
Winfield, the son of the longtime Bills and Vikings cornerback, played in just eight games combined in 2017 and 2018 with various injuries, but came back with authority in 2019 by picking off seven passes for the Golden Gophers. Winfield’s injury history had some people wondering about his NFL future at one time, but as I discovered when I recently watched tape with him, there is no afterburn whatsoever with his previous maladies.
Minnesota's Antoine Winfield Jr. clocks a 4.48u in the 40-yard dash, a great number for him. He's a fun player with great ball skills/instincts.pic.twitter.com/4FozBFTl3O
— Austin Gayle (@PFF_AustinGayle) March 1, 2020
Moreover, Winfield, who ran a 4.45 40-yard dash at the combine and killed it in the drills, plays even faster than he runs because he’s so astute with on-field reads. Some may still doubt that a 5-foot-9 guy can play safety in the NFL, but Winfield’s measurements stack up pretty well with Earl Thomas’ when Thomas came out of Texas in 2010. Not that I’m yet comparing Winfield to Thomas, the best coverage safety of his generation, but between the speed, the acumen, and the attitude, there’s a lot to like here. Perhaps enough to make Winfield a first-round pick.