Sports blog information from USA TODAY.
Meet the Los Angeles Chargers’ 2022 NFL draft class.
The Chargers completed the 2022 NFL draft with eight selections in total, four on offense and four on defense.
Los Angeles opened up the draft in the first round (No. 17) with guard Zion Johnson and closed it out in the seventh round (No. 260) with fullback Zander Horvath.
Here’s a look at every player the Bolts drafted and the spot where they were taken.
Chargers Wire’s Cole Topham breaks down the newest member of the Bolts, JT Woods.
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The Los Angeles Chargers were expected to add to their secondary in the draft.
After using their first-round selection on offensive lineman Zion Johnson and being left waiting without a pick through the second round, the Chargers eventually took Baylor safety J.T. Woods at No. 79 overall.
Woods fits Brandon Staley’s preference for defensive playmakers. He stands at 6’2” and weighs 195 pounds with 32 ⅜” arms. However, his athleticism is likely what won the Chargers over. Woods, a track star in addition to his football duties for the Bears, blazed through the 40-yard dash at the NFL Combine with a 4.36-second time. He also recorded a 39.5” vertical and 128” broad jump.
The movement skills pop on tape. Woods surges to the football with forward momentum and trigger. He charges downhill with ferocious intent when assisting in run support and is able to coast with receivers to eliminate vertical threats. If Woods does manage to get beat, his gears shift rapidly to make up lost ground and vacuum up gaps of separation.
A nice play from new Chargers Safety JT Woods. A little false step, but overall good recognition, gets downhill quickly and takes a good angle to make the tackle. #NFLDraft pic.twitter.com/Ccgcczt3LS
— Daniel Wade (@dantalkssports) April 30, 2022
Take this tackle in open space against TCU in 2021, for example. Woods was a little late reacting to the ball carrier with his initial first step backward, but his superb athleticism made up for the error as he flew downfield to stop the running back for a tackle for loss. Woods was able to close the 12 yards of space quickly with minimal strain.
Woods’ speed and reactiveness show up in short passing game situations as well. He flows to routes entering into his zone over the and is able to multitask well with eyes on the quarterback. While he isn’t the most comfortable diagramming route concepts before they develop, Woods has an uncanny sense to be in the right place at a fortuitous time to turn errant throws or muffed caches into punishing takeaways and stellar field position for the offense.
New Chargers safety JT Woods is the ultimate centerfielder lurker.
Woods flows to routes over the middle with ease and often finds himself in opportunistic situations to make impact takeaways with his fantastic ball skills and elite speed. pic.twitter.com/pGOeKmwHv0
— Cole Topham (@HamAnalysis) April 30, 2022
Those attributes were on display during his interception against the Texas Longhorns last season, where Woods corralled a glancing pass and zoomed down the field to put Baylor in field goal position before halftime. As Woods closed in on the intended target, he was able to secure the ball in stride and immediately reach top speed. This ensured he would not only gain yards on the interception but also put him in a prime position to step out of bounds and preserve the clock.
Matt Corral’s first throw of the game is an INT 😬 let’s see if/how he bounces back.
Shoutout my guy JT Woods with the high point for the pick 👀 pic.twitter.com/7MvAHBnrAC
— Jordan Pun (@Texans_Thoughts) January 2, 2022
Woods was aptly nicknamed “The Heartbreak Kid” by the Baylor coaching staff because of his knack for picking off quarterbacks and ending promising drives for the offense. He is excellent at tracking throw trajectories and is aggressive going up for the ball. On this interception against Ole Miss quarterback Matt Corral, Woods outjumps everybody on the field to high point the ball and hang on through incidental contact.
Woods has several areas to work on in order to become a consistent defensive piece for the Chargers. He needs to improve his reliability as a tackler and refine his technique as well as his approach in coverage. Woods tends to frequently rely on his traits and instincts, so building up his football IQ and overall anticipation will be key. Sometimes, he arrives at the ball with too much heat, which can lead to missed tackles or blown plays if faced with adjustment.
However, Woods is a great fit for Staley’s scheme and the type of defense the Chargers like to play. His athleticism can wear many hats for the unit, prey on quarterbacks, and create game-changing turnovers. Along with Derwin James, J.C. Jackson, and Asante Samuel, Woods joins a Chargers secondary loaded to the brim with lockdown potential and explosive playmaking ability.
What the selection of JT Woods means for the Los Angeles Chargers.
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Chargers fans’ long wait for another pick is finally over, as Los Angeles selected safety JT Woods at No. 79 overall.
The 6’2”, 195 lbs safety started all 23 games across 2020 and 2021 and was named to the Big 12 Commissioner’s Honor Roll in all five years at Baylor. His play in 2021 was enough to garner a Reese’s Senior Bowl invite, where Woods showcased his plus coverage abilities against the draft’s top receivers and tight ends.
Woods clocked a 9.43 RAS score, with elite testing numbers in the 40 (4.36), vertical (39.5”), and broad jump (10’8”).
Woods will be best utilized as a two-high deep safety, where he can rely on his elite closing speed and hit power to decimate opposing receivers. That’s good news for the Chargers, who figure to kick Derwin James down into the box as a true playmaker type and have Woods and Nasir Adderley clean things up on the backend. With six career interceptions, Woods has unusually proficient ball skills for a late bloomer in the Power 5.
Football IQ is still inconsistent with Woods, who has his share of mental lapses on the backend. Hopefully, the coaching of Derrick Ansley and mentoring of James gets Woods into a better spot by the season opener, as he should be in contention for a big role along with Alohi Gilman and Mark Webb. Safety depth was a huge issue for the Chargers in 2021, but Woods provides some insurance should one of James or Adderley miss time.
Woods will also contribute on special teams from the jump, as his natural speed and willingness to collide with ball carriers will be a valuable asset as a punt gunner and kickoff coverage man. So even if he’s slow to see the field as a true safety, he’ll still contribute from day one as a Charger.
The Los Angeles Chargers added a piece to their secondary.
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The Chargers have taken former Baylor safety JT Woods with the No. 79 overall selection in the 2022 NFL draft.
Woods registered 57 tackles, 4.5 tackles for a loss, two passes defended, five interceptions, and a touchdown through 14 game appearances as a senior in 2021.
He recorded 157 tackles, eight tackles for a loss, two sacks, five passes defended, eight interceptions, and a touchdown through his four collegiate seasons.
At the NFL Scouting Combine, the 6-foot-2 and 195-pound Woods had an impressive 40-time of 4.36 seconds and vertical jump of 39.5 inches, some of the best among the defensive backs.
At Baylor, Woods did a little bit of everything, but he was at his best dropping and covering into the deep half of the field.
Check out our final mock draft as we try to predict who the Carolina Panthers select this weekend.
We come bearing gifts for you, the Carolina Panthers faithful, here on NFL Draft Day Eve. It’s our last mock draft of the season!
So get ready to open up our final projections, as long as general manager Scott Fitterer and head coach Matt Rhule keep their picks, for the team’s 2022 draft.
The #Chiefs are hosting college football’s co-leader for interceptions in 2021 on a top-30 visit per report.
The Kansas City Chiefs continue to host a number of draft-eligible prospects on top-30 visits. The latest visit is with a talented defensive back, who crushed his workout at the 2022 NFL Scouting Combine.
According to Pro Football Focus reporter Doug Kyed, the Chiefs are hosting Baylor S JT Woods on a top-30 visit on Tuesday, April 19. Woods was the FBS co-leader in interceptions during the 2021 college football season, tying Penn State’s Ji’Ayir Brown and Oregon’s Verone McKinley III with six interceptions on the year.
He’s managed to be around the football a lot throughout his time with Baylor, with nine total interceptions and four fumble recoveries spanning his four-year career. He even earned a cool nickname for his penchant for making game-changing plays, being dubbed “The Heartbreaker.”
Baylor S JT Woods has a visit with the Chiefs today, per source. Previously visited the Dolphins and Raiders and worked out with the Saints.
6-2, 195, 4.36s 40, 1.5s 10, 39.5" vert, 10-8 broad jump, 4.19s shuttle, 6.94s 3-cone and 14 bench press reps.
— Doug Kyed (@DougKyed) April 19, 2022
Woods was a former track athlete in high school, running the 100-meter dash and also hurdling. It was no surprise that he posted one of the best 40-yard dash times (4.36 seconds), vertical jumps (39.5 inches) and broad jumps (128 inches) at the 2022 NFL Scouting Combine. At 6-2 and 195 pounds, those scores put him in some elite company. There are some people who think he could even play some cornerback in the NFL.
Right now, Woods’ draft stock remains a bit of a mystery. Teams appear to be higher on him than mock drafts have been, with his availability sometimes lasting late into Day 3. I suspect that Woods won’t be around past Day 2 given the interest he’s seen in the pre-draft process, with visits and workouts with the Miami Dolphins, Las Vegas Raiders and New Orleans Saints per Kyed. Getting him in the building for a visit is a wise move by Kansas City as they continue to look at ways to revamp their defensive secondary ahead of the 2022 NFL season.
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Touchdown Wire’s Doug Farrar concludes our positional rankings with the top 11 safeties in the 2022 NFL draft.
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What the NFL expects from its safeties has changed drastically over the last decade. There are multiple reasons for this.
Think about the need for a true shutdown post safety in predominantly single-high coverage. A decade ago, when Seattle’s Legion of Boom defense was the desired template, you were playing heavy press underneath with defined box and post safeties. The Seahawks were able to do this because they had a dominant press cornerback (Richard Sherman), a dominant box safety (Kam Chancellor), and the best post safety of his era (Earl Thomas).
That’s not an easy archetype to copy, because you obviously have to hit on multiple generational players at crucial positions that all teams desperately desire. Your hit rate is reduced by the scarcity of human beings who can do what Sherman, Chancellor, and Thomas could do, and it’s then exponentially reduced even more by the fact that so many teams are looking for those same types of players. Factor in the relative lack of scheme versatility in that particular instance, and all of a sudden, the structure for your hit rate goes from the ceiling to the basement.
Now, look at where the NFL has prioritized its defensive resources in the last few years. The Vic Fangio/Brandon Staley template of two-high coverage and lighter boxes works in today’s NFL for a lot of reasons. Teams are throwing more often. Teams are running the ball not only less, but in different ways and with different types of players. In 2021, offenses threw out of more quick-game concepts (zero to three step drops) at a 60% rate, and the ability of the quarterback to have second-reaction ability to keep things alive when the play breaks down is seen as more of a near-necessity than a prominent luxury.
So, that Earl Thomas/Ed Reed-level deep safety, while awesome if you can get him and if he even exists in any draft cycle? I mean, if you know the draft prospect can possibly be that level of player, you move heaven and earth to get him, because you’re talking about a once-in-a-decade player who can define your defense.
More likely, you’re getting safeties who do a lot of things — some very well, some with developmental issues, and some things they probably shouldn’t be doing at all. You’re going to want a guy who can play some free, some slot, some box, maybe even a few snaps of outside corner, and some reps as a blitzer along the defensive line. It’s why teams go less and less for the defined box and free safeties as they used to.
There are far more Tyrann Mathieus than Earl Thomases. And there are far more safeties who work well in two-high shells, whether they stay in two-high or spin to something else post-snap. Player value at the position has turned from athletic to schematic. It’s more about finding the player who works in the concepts you want to run, as opposed to waiting around for the guy who will fill in the nearly impossible blank.
Notre Dame’s Kyle Hamilton, the consensus top safety in the 2022 draft class, had 1.440 defensive snaps over three collegiate seasons, per Pro Football Focus. Hamilton had 644 snaps at free safety, 437 in the slot, 313 in the box, 29 along the defensive line, and 15 at outside cornerback.
Hamilton’s specific value is not in his ability to play that many positions, because nearly every safety coming into the draft over the last few years has a somewhat similar position share. His specific value is in his ability to take the multi-position archetype that is the order of the day, and play those positions at a level that is disproportionately high in comparison to the other safeties in this class. Factor in his height/weight template, and that’s where Kyle Hamilton becomes a potentially generational prospect. It’s not at all that he does one thing very well. It’s entirely that he does 4-5 things, he’s NFL-ready at all of them, and he’s NFL-plus ready with this or that attribute in ways we haven’t seen from other players.
When you see the position snaps for the top 11 safety prospects on our list. you’ll see, over and over, how much the value guide for the position has flipped on its head.
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Here are Touchdown Wire’s top 11 safeties in the 2022 draft class.
(All advanced metrics courtesy of Pro Football Focus and Sports Info Solutions unless otherwise indicated. All testing data comes from the 2022 scouting combine, with percentile per position, courtesy of MockDraftable.com. Certain biographical information was gleaned from Dane Brugler’s “The Beast” draft guide over at The Athletic, which is a must-read every year).
2022 NFL draft: The top 11 cornerbacks
2022 NFL draft: The top 11 linebackers
2022 NFL draft: The top 12 edge defenders
2022 NFL draft: The top 11 interior defensive linemen
2022 NFL draft: The top 11 interior offensive linemen
2022 NFL draft: The top 11 offensive tackles
2022 NFL draft: The top 11 tight ends
2022 NFL draft: The top 16 receivers
A trade shakes things up early for the Vikings
We are two weeks into free agency and the landscape is becoming more and more clear. For the Vikings, they are being very calculated with their additions and cap maneuvering.
The latest of those is the signing of edge rusher Za’Darius Smith. In doing so, the Vikings have created one of the best edge rushing tandems in the league and now have more flexibility when it comes to the draft.
You can check out my previous mock drafts below.
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Tyler Browning (@DiabeticTyler) talks about who out of the CBs and safeties saw their stock rise fall as Texas colleges took center stage.
The 2022 NFL combine has officially come to its end. On Sunday defensive backs and special teams took the field and showcased their talents. The Dallas Cowboys saw Trevon Diggs take a massive Year-2 leap, while they didn’t see much from Day 2 rookies Kelvin Joseph and Nahshon Wright. While Anthony Brown is under contract through the next year, Jourdan Lewis is under contract until 2023. It is not out of the realm of possibilities to see the Cowboys go corner yet again at some point in the draft.
Meanwhile, the club is barren at safety once again. Starters Damontae Kazee and Jayron Kearse, along with rotational safety Malik Hooker were all one-year rentals. Donovan Wilson enters the final year of his deal. So who saw their stock rise on the last day of the combine? Who saw it fall?
Teams will now head back to their respective headquarters to get their draft boards in sync and get ready to send scouts out to school’s pro days. Pro days are also an important time in the evaluation process, as some players elect not to work out at the combine and rather wait for their pro day. But for those who did show up in Indy, here’s the winners and losers from the final day of workouts.
10 takeaways from the top defensive back performances at #NFLCombine #NFLDraft #Sauce #SauceGardner #LewisCine #FlyEaglesFly
The 2022 NFL Scouting Combine has concluded after the defensive backs and special teams players put on a show of their own on Sunday.
Ahmad ‘Sauce’ Gardner solidified himself as the top cornerback on the board, while Georgia Safety Lewis Cine also made himself some money at Lucas Oil Stadium.
UTSA cornerback Tariq Woolen continues to rise up draft boards, while Baylor’s Kalon Barnes ran the fastest time among the group.
Here are 10 takeaways from Sunday’s defensive back performances.
