Prior to the 2023 NFL draft, Pro Football Talk’s Chris Simms was breaking down the rookie class’s top safeties.
Commanders fans will be glad to know that days prior to the Commanders making their selections, Simms ranked Jartavius “Quan” Martin as his top safety in this year’s rookie class.
Here are some of the comments provided by Simms from his video breakdown of Martin last season playing for Illinois.
“He has very good coverage skills, I mean amazing coverage skills. The only thing he is missing to be in the top of my corner conversation is top-end speed.”
“He doesn’t have that sixth gear that fast corners do. But he is super short-area fast and explosive. His 10 yards is 1.47, so that tells you how he can come out of a break.”
“So, for a safety, he has elite cover skills. Also, I’m not sure he’s not an awesome, awesome nickel slot.”
“Chauncey Gardner-Johnson is who I kind of compared him to. Yes, he can as a safety get down here and cover slot receivers and d _ _ _ if they run a toss sweep or edge run, he will go in and throw his body around like psycho, and that is what he does. So that is where I loved him.”
The Commanders chose Martin in the second round with the 47th overall selection. One only defensive back who could play safety in the NFL was taken ahead of Martin. The Lions chose nickel back/safety Brian Branch out of Alabama two selections ahead of Martin when Detroit was picking at 45th overall.