The 2024 NFL Draft is fast approaching. The PFF big board is live, mock draft season is in full swing and the 2024 NFL Scouting Combine has wrapped up.
The 2024 safety class showcases a broad range of skill sets. Leading the pack is Minnesota’s Tyler Nubin, who could thrive in two-high shells. There are also players like Georgia’s Javon Bullard, who project better as nickel defenders.
Let's look at Georgia‘s Javon Bullard, who earned an 80.0-plus PFF grade in back-to-back college seasons.
Click here for more draft tools:
2024 Mock Draft Simulator | 2024 Big Board | 2024 Draft Guide
2024 Player Profiles | 2024 Mock Drafts | NCAA Premium Stats
SCOUTING SUMMARY
Bullard is a fiery competitor who brings a mentality every NFL team will gravitate toward.
He started in the slot in 2022 and at safety in 2023. His best work came from the slot, where he played confidently in press coverage and showed his willingness and effectiveness in run support.
He did not look as comfortable at safety and took overly aggressive angles when coming downhill. His in-your-face playstyle was much more aligned with slot responsibilities.
WINS ABOVE AVERAGE
WAA represents the number of wins a player is worth over an average college football player and is a metric evaluators can utilize to assess performance.
It combines how well a player performed in each facet of play (using PFF grades) and how valuable each facet is to winning football games. The result is a first-of-its-kind metric that allows for cross-positional valuation and predicts future value at the player and team levels.
HOW BULLARD RANKS IN THE STABLE METRICS
Coverage grade is not a stable measure by itself, but it becomes more stable when it is used to evaluate players who will go on to play in similar situations. For example, it is better to project a safety to a safety role than it is to project a safety to a slot cornerback role.
Therefore, it’s informative to isolate performances in specific situations, such as snaps played at free safety or snaps played in the box.
Forced incompletion rate is relatively stable from season to season, making it an important number when projecting future performance. PFF run-defense grade is also very stable from year to year, while run-stop percentage is a good measure of playmaking in the run game.
Bullard was an excellent coverage safety throughout his time at Georgia. He thrived in the slot, allowing only 0.84 yards per slot coverage snap across 453 career snaps.
He’s quick and shifty, posting a 4.47-second 40-yard dash and an otherworldly 3.97-second short shuttle. He’ll likely be asked to play in the slot in the NFL, and his career 9.2% missed tackle rate shows that he can play close to the ball.
BOTTOM LINE FROM PFF's 2024 NFL DRAFT GUIDE
Bullard is a versatile secondary player with a fearless mentality. Though he isn't an elite athlete, his competitiveness, quickness and tackling ability project him to a starting role as a nickel defender.
© 2024 PFF - all rights reserved.