Top 10 safeties in the 2021 NFL Draft

#10 2021 NFL Draft Prospect: James Wiggins (Cincinnati)

6' 0", 205 pounds; RS SR

James Wiggings

A former top-1000 overall recruit, James Wiggins redshirted his first year on campus and then barely saw the field as a freshman.

In year two, he entered the starting lineup and became a second-team All-AAC selection right away, with 54 total tackles, four interceptions, with one them taken back to the house, and five more passes broken up. Unfortunately, he missed the 2019 season with a torn ACL, but then came back last year and turned himself into a first-team all-conference player, coming up with a pick and six more PBUs.

Wiggins made Bruce Feldman’s freak list three years in a row and was also called “The Freak” within Cincinnati’s program, while coaches spoke glowingly about the young man. After primarily being deployed in the slot in 2018, Wiggins pretty much evenly split time between deep safety, in the box and slot respectively last season.

He accelerates up the alley with his shoulders square to the line of scrimmage and while it won’t look impressive on the stat sheet, he makes a lot of stops for four/five yards, as the running back gets past the second level. From two-high alignments or the edge of the box, he shows some suddenness to work around blockers and wrap up the ball-carrier from the side, as that guy tries to go through the hole.

As a nickel in the Bearcats defense, Wiggins is super-effective at using his hands to not let blockers to touch him at all. He does a great job of squaring up ball-carriers as a tackler, initiating with low pads and shooting his hips through contact to limit any additional yardage, while effectively wrapping up their legs on an angle.

Moreover, when quarterbacks go over the middle late, when he can race up from depth, they can give their receivers some headaches, because Wiggins will blow them up. Overall, he only 11 missed tackles on just under 100 attempts his last two years combined.

As a coverage defender, Wiggins is really light on his feet and has some heat under his ass when he drives on the ball. You see him in split-safety looks with a 15-yard cushion on the slot receiver and not even be in a pedal, but push that guy out of bounds right after he catches a short out route at times. Yet, at the same time, he legitimately has the range to widen in cover-two and cover multiple vertical routes on the trips side.

That also makes him a valuable deep middle safety, where he looks so comfortable moving backwards and shutting down anything down the post, to go with punishing any late throws, when he can target receivers in front of him with a runway. You saw that in last year’s UCF game, when the ball was slightly behind Marlon Williams and he heard Wiggins’ footsteps, which ended with the receiver getting blown up anyway and fellow safety Darrick Forrest coming up with a huge pick, down three, early in the fourth quarter.

As a nickel, he shows no fear of squatting on routes, because he knows he has the explosion to get back into the receiver’s hip pocket on underneath stuff or back into phase on vertical patterns, while often forcing them to go through his body. You saw that in the 2018 SMU game, where he lined up five yards off James Proche on a quick-in route and undercut the pass for a game-winning pick-six in overtime.

He is certainly not the type of guy you target on slot fades and stuff like that, because you think you can get chunk plays against him. Last season, Wiggins allowed pretty much half of the targets his way to completed last season (20 of 39), with two TDs and one INTs, for a passer rating of 70.7.

However, at times, Wiggins comes in too hot when he’s lined up over slot receivers on quick hitches or smoke routes, because he is so eager to bring them down for no gain. His superior athleticism allowed him to see routes develop and just beat receivers to those spots, but against NFL guys, he will be tested much more and put on his heels.

When he does have to move backwards, there’s a hitch before he gets moving forward again. I saw multiple miscommunications or missed assignments on pick-plays and switching receivers between Wiggins and the outside corner. When defending the run, if blockers can cut off angles to the ball and he has to actually engage, Wiggins is much less effective and won’t impact the play on many occasions.

Like I already kind of mentioned, Wiggins is a freakish athlete, which he illustrated once again at Cincinnati’s pro day, where he had a 4.40 flat 40-yard dash, 38" vert, 10' 7" broad jump and 22 reps on the bench. In his case in particular, he will be tested more in the NFL, but the capability to cover players in space is certainly there.

I believe Wiggins can truly play any spot in the secondary other than outside corner. He can cover in man, drive on routes as a zone defender, effective in run support as well as bringing ball-carriers to the ground and he hits harder than his size would indicate. We just have to see how it will transfer to the next level.