Top 10 safeties in the 2021 NFL Draft

#2 2021 NFL Draft Prospect: Trevon Moehrig (TCU)

6' 1", 200 pounds; JR

Trevon Moehrig

A former top-500 overall recruit, Trevon Moehrig saw very limited playing time as a freshman but recorded his first interception.

In his first season as a full-time starter in 2019, Moehrig recorded 43 solo tackles, four interceptions, 11 PBUs and a couple of fumbles forced. Last season, his numbers went down ever so slightly in two less games, with 30 solo stops, two picks and nine more passes broken down. Considering his first-team All-Big-12 accolades, he received the Jim Thorpe award, which goes to the top defensive back in the country.

Moehrig was primarily deployed as their field-side safety with a lot of two-high looks for the Horned Frogs. He stays balanced throughout plays and won’t get sucked up by play-fakes or backside bubbles, but once he sees the ball actually come out, he’ll get there in a hurry. And in 2020 I feel like his trigger got quicker altogether.

He can cover a lot ground and then work around the action with shuffle-steps to put himself in position for a tackle. And he has that sudden burst and slipperiness to work around picks/rubs and blockers on screen passes. Every once in a while, TCU’s coaches ask him to come down late and rush off the edge, where his speed really stands out.

When they roll his into the deep middle, Moehrig has turned himself into a much more reliable last man, who can deal with the tough job of having to bring down dynamic players with a lot of space to work with. He has only 15 misses over 100 tackling attempts these last two years combined. He had a tremendous game against Oklahoma State in their regular-season finale, when he made a couple of key stops and had a huge interception in the end-zone, when the Cowboys were about to take the lead.

In quarters coverage, Moehrig is great at anticipating and jumping on curl and dig routes, never just leaning back on his heels and waiting to commit, plus he has the oily hips to flip and run with them, as they try to go over the top. When the ball gets thrown up the seams or on slot fades, he plays through the receiver, but with his eyes on the ball, to dislodge it.

Moehrig was asked to cap over slot receivers and take them in man quite a bit when the Horned Frogs blitzed their nickel, or match number three’s in trips alignment. In one-on-one coverage, he is not afraid to squat on routes and has great short-area burst to contests slants, but also the speed to trail receivers across the field. Either way, he sticks with his man even when the play is extended and won’t just freelance.

Trevon Moehrig also plenty of experience rotating into the deep middle in free-man situations, where his range allows him to make plays anywhere between the numbers. His football IQ and awareness as a zone defender are really illustrated by the way he can match patterns and anticipate routes and grasps what head coach Gary Patterson asks from his safeties in terms of pre and post-snap adjustments. He allowed just under half of the targets his way to be completed last season (20 of 41), with one touchdown compared to two INTs and eight forced incompletions and a passer rating of 51.7.

When he is in man-coverage, Moehrig takes a couple of steps down and totally sits on the receiver, which allows some guys to blow by him with a running start. Texas’ Devin Duvernay did so in 2019 for a touchdown of almost 50 yards. It makes him susceptible to double-moves, plus him needing to put hands on the receiver at the top to stay in position will be flagged at the next level.

Last season, he found himself around the catch-point a lot, but couldn’t make a play on the ball, which is due to him not very imposing in that regard. Moehrig is still certainly a bit an ankle-tackler, who dives at the legs of the ball-carrier instead of wrapping up. Some inconsistencies in that area could be a question-mark for single-high duty, which he is projected to play by most evaluators. That's because a certain physicality is missing to his, in order to play closer to the line of scrimmage. He also has to do a better job of protecting the inside when he is approaching the ball-carrier at the sideline.

Nevertheless, Moehrig is the best true single-high safety prospect in this class, which is a type of player that is highly sought after in the NFL. He may not have sideline-to-sideline range like those elite free safeties we have seen in the past, like Ed Reed or a prime Earl Thomas.

But he can control everything in-between the numbers, he brings high intelligence and awareness to the table, has already shown major improvement as a space-tackler and was voted a team captain for every single game these last two years at TCU. I expect him to be the first safety off the board and possibly the only one came Thursday night of the draft.