NFL Draft Profile: Safety Kyle Hamilton

Breaking down Notre Dame safety Kyle Hamilton

Notre Dame safety Kyle Hamilton is widely considered the best safety in this year's draft class. His 6-foot-4, 220 pound frame combined with his athletic ability makes him a rare safety prospect. However, his stock appears to have fallen slightly after the combine and his pro day, where he ran slower than expected in the 40-yard dash and didn’t quite put up the overall numbers he was expected to have. Ultimately though, those numbers are just measurements on one day in the offseason without any pads or in a game situation. They’re designed to be cross-checking material, confirming what scouts suspected from watching film or making them go back to rewatch the film and make sure their initial evaluations were accurate. 

When watching film of Hamilton, the underwhelming performance at the combine and his pro day don’t really concern me personally.  On the field, he doesn’t struggle athletically, in fact it’s a big strength of his. His range is fantastic and that allows him to cover a lot of ground in a short period of time.

This is Hamilton’s highlight play of the year. You’ve likely already seen it before as it’s truly outstanding. Hamilton starts the play near the far hash marks while Florida State has the running back run a wheel route out of the backfield and down the far sideline. The quarterback looks to throw the wheel to the running back, but feels pressure and begins to scramble to his right. After a slight delay, he then pulls the trigger on the deep ball down the sideline to the back. At the time the ball is released, Hamilton is still inside the hash marks in the middle of the field. He has a ton of ground to cover to reach the sideline in time to contest the throw to the back. But Hamilton not only gets there in time to contest the throw, but he gets there early enough to undercut the throw and intercept the pass. 

That play is as good as it gets from a safety. It shows off his range and athletic ability, which should help ease the concerns from the combine and pro day performance, but also his ball skills to be able to track the ball and make the play. But another play he made in that same game impressed me almost as much. 

This time, Florida State lines up in a very run-heavy look, with no receivers out wide and extra bodies at tight end and in the backfield. However, Florida State actually fakes the run and rolls out the quarterback on a play-action pass. The back to the left of the quarterback sifts back across the line and leaks out late into the flat as a quick underneath option. Hamilton initially takes a step to his right as he sees the offensive lineman move that way, but then he spots the back sifting across to the flat and his instincts take over. He instantly triggers to the flat to match the back in the flat. His quick read enables him to arrive before the ball does and get his hands in at the catch point. His presence causes the ball to be tipped up in the air behind him and allows his teammate to make an interception.

Hamilton’s instincts are a big part of his game. Having great athletic ability means nothing if the player doesn’t know where to go. There are quite often players that are faster in a 40-yard dash than Hamilton but on the field, they play much slower because they lack his instincts of where the ball is going. Hamilton’s instincts allow him to play much faster than he timed, which again eases any concerns for me of his testing numbers at the combine and pro day. 

Range and instincts are two big traits of Hamilton’s game. The third trait that joins those two is his tackling ability. Tackling is often overlooked when discussing defensive players, especially defensive backs. But it’s an essential part of football and even more critical in the modern game where intimidating big hits can be more regularly flagged and fundamental tackling skills are in high demand. Hamilton understands good tackling form and shows it frequently.

This clip shows two examples of Hamilton’s tackling. On the first play, Cincinnati motions a receiver from the slot to the right of the formation. That receiver then instantly sifts back out to the flat on a bootleg pass. Hamilton starts from deep with his eyes on the outside receivers, but as soon as he spots the receiver sifting out to the flat, he drives down to the flat to make the play. He manages to make a quick adjustment to avoid traffic as the receiver cuts back inside and still makes a strong tackle to wrap up the receiver while landing a firm hit in the process. On the second play of the clip, Purdue calls a swing pass to the back in the flat. Hamilton is the slot defender and is responsible for the flat. Once the ball is thrown, Hamilton breaks down and makes the tackle on the back at the line of scrimmage for no gain.

With his instincts, range and tackling ability combined, Hamilton is a fantastic run defender, even working from deep. 

On this play, Purdue lines up in a run-heavy look, but runs a jet sweep to the right side. Hamilton starts from deep, but he spots the jet sweep early and quickly triggers to work down to the flat. His instincts get him down to the line of scrimmage quickly while his range allows him to go under the blocks of the tight ends to reach the runner. He then uses his tackling ability to attack the hip of the runner and wrap up, bringing him to the ground short of the line of scrimmage.

There are plenty of safeties, even in the NFL, that would have missed that tackle, or been late to recognize it and allowed the runner to turn the corner and work down the sideline. Hamilton should instantly boost the run defense of whatever team drafts him. But run defense is only part of the game for a safety. What’s Hamilton like in coverage? Well, we’ve already seen the range and instincts, which apply to both the run and pass game. But in terms of different coverage assignments, Hamilton’s game can vary. 

Hamilton is a very versatile defender that can move around and play multiple roles within a single game. He can play both strong and free safety, dime linebacker, big nickel and even line up over the slot. He’s a strong zone defender and even shows promise as in pattern-matching coverages. His man coverage can be inconsistent though. He matches up well against athletic tight ends, but can struggled out in the slot against smaller, quicker slot receivers.

Here, Notre Dame asks Hamilton to line up in the slot and work against a smaller, shifty slot receiver running a corner route. Off the snap, the receiver takes a hop step to square Hamilton up before then taking an outside release and bursting up the seam. Hamilton attempts to disrupt him by getting a hand on him, but he struggles to stay with the quicker receiver as he works vertically. Hamilton just about manages to work back to level with the receiver when he suddenly breaks off the route outside, creating plenty of separation. The throw from the quarterback isn’t the best, being a bit lofty and behind the receiver. That allows Hamilton a chance to recover and he very nearly does. However, he attempts to turn and play the ball at the last second instead of focusing on the receivers hands and trying to get his hands in at the catch point. That allows the receiver a chance to work back to the ball and make the catch before getting into the end zone for a touchdown. 

Those smaller, shiftier slot receivers gave him trouble in man coverage in every game I watched, which is to be expected given he’s a safety and not a cornerback. But being able to line him up in the slot to match athletic tight ends and the new trend of big slot receivers could work. He could also align out there and play zone or match coverage concepts and be just fine, like how the Commanders used Landon Collins towards the end of last season. Hamilton is a much more accomplished zone defender. We’ve seen his range when playing deep already, but he’s also perfectly capable of playing underneath zones to a high level too.

Here are two examples of Hamilton playing as a hook defender in underneath zone coverages. In the first play of the clip, Notre Dame disguises its coverage pre-snap, but rotates to a base Cover-3 once the ball is snapped. Hamilton plays an underneath hook in the middle of the field. He quickly recognizes there are no real threats to his zone and then locates the tight end leaking out after chipping the edge rusher. Hamilton spots the quarterback starting to look to that side, so he quickly triggers down to the tight end to take his route away. He overruns it slightly as the tight end drifts inside, but with pressure arriving on the quarterback, the flash of Hamilton’s jersey is all he needs to decide against making the throw. The quarterback instead steps up in the pocket and looks to scramble. Hamilton spots him tucking the ball and running, so he adjusts his path to the quarterback and immediately makes the tackle to keep the gain to a minimum. 

On the second play of the clip, Hamilton again plays the underneath hook in a disguised Cover-3 scheme. The quarterback takes a quick drop before looking to his left to set up and throw a slant route. The receiver breaks inside straight into Hamilton’s zone and takes a punishing hit for doing so. Credit to the receiver, he managed to hang on to the ball to complete the catch, but that type of intimidating hit will cause receivers to think twice about breaking over the middle for a catch when Hamilton is in the area.

The NFL is trending more and more towards pattern-matching coverages, which are a blend of man and zone coverages. They require smart defenders to read multiple routes and the releases of different receivers to then match their coverage to the correct receiver. When run correctly, it’s the best form of coverage because you get the benefits of both man and zone coverage, but it also requires every defender to be on the exact same page, reading each route the same way and understanding the rules of each coverage call perfectly, otherwise it can lead to a lot of coverage busts and big plays. Hamilton ran some pattern-matching coverages at Notre Dame from different spots on the field.

On this play, Hamilton plays as the dime linebacker. His role in this coverage is to wall off any in-breaking route from the slot receiver. However, the receiver instantly breaks outside off the snap, which tells the outside corner to break off and work to the flat, passing off the outside receiver to the deep safety. With the slot receiver breaking outside, Hamilton smartly gets his eyes on the outside receiver. He then sinks back and matches his route, walling him off from breaking inside and allowing the safety to stay over the top of the route. This is a great example of how well match coverage can work, but it requires great communication, understanding and cohesion from everyone involved. Hamilton worked as the dime linebacker on this occasion, but he’s also played as the slot defender and the deep safety in these types of coverages, showing an understanding for not only his role within a scheme, but the bigger picture of the entire defense.

Overall, Hamilton is an extremely talented safety prospect worthy of his hype. He has terrific range, instincts and tackling ability and works best when keeping things in front of him where he can drive down on routes and ball-carriers. He offers a ton of versatility too, with the ability to play single-high, a deep half, quarters, underneath zones or even matchup man-to-man against receiving tight ends or bigger slot receivers. His skill set and frame make him one of the best prospects in this draft class, regardless of how he tested at the combine and his pro day. 

From a Washington Commanders perspective, Hamilton would make for an excellent addition to the secondary. He could play both strong and free safety, interchanging with Kam Curl and Bobby McCain at either spot. He could also fill the void vacated by Landon Collins as the Buffalo nickel, which the Commanders clearly value as a priority role within this system. If Washington continues with its more basic schemes that it had success with after the bye week last year, relying on Cover-3, quarters and fire zones with the occasional man coverage calls sprinkled in here and there, Hamilton would be able to find a role in every call. He could play the deep middle or any of the underneath zones in Cover-3, he’d be an excellent quarters safety. His athletic ability means he could be a strong blitzer on fire zones like Collins was last year with the range to cover one of the underneath zones in coverage too. If Hamilton is on the board at 11, I’d imagine he’d be hard for the Commanders to pass up on.