Touchdown Wire’s early 2021 NFL Draft watch list: Defense

Sure the 2020 NFL Draft just ended, but it is never too early to think about the next one. Here are the players to watch on defense.

Safeties

(Alicia Devine/Tallahassee Democrat)

1. Hamsah Nasirildeen, Florida State

2. Andre Cisco, Syracuse

3. Caden Sterns, Texas

4. Jevon Holland, Oregon

5. Richie Grant, UCF

6. Richard LeCounte, Georgia

7. Kolby Harvell-Peel, Oklahoma State

8. Trevon Moehrig, TCU

9. Paris Ford, Pittsburgh

10. Ar’Darius Washington, TCU

Hamsah Nasirildeen is a rising senior who enjoyed a huge junior campaign. Last year he recorded 101 tackles, becoming the first Florida State defender to record 100 tackles in a season and the first since 1990 with multiple 17-tackle games in a season. For his efforts he was named a Second-Team All-ACC Selection. Andre Cisco enters the 2020 season as the FBS active leader in interceptions (12) and has led the ACC in interceptions each of the past two seasons. He was also a Second-Team All-ACC selection.

TCU’s safety tandem of Trevon Moehrig and Ar’Darius Washington is going to be fascinating to watch. Moehrig was graded by Pro Football Focus as the best safety in FBS last season, and they went as far as calling his season the third-most valuable in the PFF College Era. He allowed just two of his 17 contested targets to be caught. Washington was PFF’s second-highest graded safety a season ago, and he allowed just five catches out of 265 coverage snaps and forced a combined seven interceptions and pass breakups.