2023 NFL draft: 10 biggest defensive standouts from 2023 East-West Shrine & Senior Bowl weeks

#9. Sydney Brown, Illinois (Safety)

Purdue v Illinois

In terms of who I enjoyed watching the most among all the players at either event, Brown’s name is right up there at the top of the list. Somewhat in the shadow of his twin brother Chase (who rushed for over 1,600 yards this past season at Illinois), Sydney has been building a pretty resume himself.

Across 52 career games – of which he started all but one – he racked up 320 combined tackles, ten of them for loss, ten interceptions (two of those returned for touchdowns), 16 pass break-ups, four forced fumbles and a scoop-and-score.

On day one, Brown seemed very much in control of man-coverage reps versus tight-ends from off-alignment, being able to read the hips and jump on breaks in time. After that, he got levelled up and was covering receivers one-on-one quite a bit, where the success continued.

He continuously was able to stay in phase throughout routes and once he saw guys slow their feet, he drove on stuff in a hurry. He wrapped around on a curl route by Stanford’s Elijah Higgins, and perfectly running with Cincinnati’s Tre Tucker on a fade into the end-zone (where he got both hands on the ball for a near pick, with each of those coming on day two).

On the third day, he was on Stanford’s Michael Wilson (arguably the biggest standout of the entire week) who ran a hitch-and-go or hitch-to-wheel and didn’t get fooled at all, turning and running with him.

Earlier in that practice period, he made a tremendous interception during one-on-one’s in the red-zone, where he undercut Clemson tight-end Davis Allen on an out route. And he continued to excel in team period (whether he was playing off-man or quarter), with the ability to click-and-close and disrupt the catch point, once knocking the ball loose on a backside glance off an RPO.

Something that I wanted to note is how he consistently raked exactly through the ball in the midst of the paws of the target (without initiating premature contact that would draw flags). Brown consistently played with good leverage and activity in run defense, while showing great instincts and closing burst (once when he saw a bootleg by Louisville’s QB Malik Cunningham and outraced that guy to the flats). That high-level football IQ also showed up in the actual game, when he created a seven-yard loss on a running back screen in the fourth quarter.