Dallas Cowboys Draft: Top-10 safeties and their potential fit

Juan Thornhill, Virginia

What’s Good: Ball Skills, Open Field Tackling

What Ain’t Good: Play at the Line

Thornhill was asked to do a variety of things at Virginia. In 2017, he played some cornerback along with his usual play at safety. In 2018, he lined up in the linebacker zone along with his usual play at safety. What is the analysis of all this? He’s more effective when he plays further from the line of scrimmage.

He’s fantastic as a safety, he had 6 interceptions this season. He possesses solid ball skills and has good feel for where he is on the field. He’s not afraid to tackle anyone in the open field and he’s consistently good at doing so. My only concern with his tackling is he can get too low causing stronger and more elusive players to break his tackler. However, this didn’t seem to be an issue at Virginia.

Thornhill looks like he possesses average athleticism which isn’t a big deal because he can move through the whole field pretty easily and he has legitimate ball skills. The only major concern I see is him stopping the run at the line of scrimmage. He has his eyes on the quarterback consistently and this causes him to be delayed in his actions.

There is the obvious element of a play action but when the ball is handed off, Thornhill doesn’t necessarily have the athleticism to make up for his delayed reaction. This is why Thornhill should play further from the LOS. It doesn’t matter where he plays because he can play either safety position.

Could he be a Cowboy?:

Yes. He fits in perfectly in the Tampa 2 defense the Cowboys run. If the Cowboys have the ability to select him in the second round, I’d have no issue with this pick. Of course, this is inferring that he will be available by the Cowboys pick.

His ball skills and tackling ability will be attractive to many teams so it is very likely he gets selected before the Cowboys. But if all goes well for Dallas, he will help the Cowboys.