Dallas Cowboys 7-Round Mock Draft: Trading up for a Quarterback
By Reid Hanson
Dallas Cowboys Round 4, Pick 115
Tariq Thompson, SAF
San Diego State
Andre Cisco is gone and my need for a starting safety remains unaddressed. Ideally, Donovan Wilson is the starting strong safety and we’d get a true free safety to be the namesake of the single high safety defense. But at this point most of those clear centerfielders are gone.
Tariq Thompson from San Diego State is a player who’s likely to be available here. He has a skill set very similar to the man leaving the free safety position in Dallas and could serve a variety of roles, including the single high safety.
At 6-foot-0, 200lbs he’d not big, but he plays a variety of roles including deep safety, nickel CB, in-box safety, and Cover 2 looks. Basically, he’s a jack-of-all trades, just like Xavier Woods was.
What’s most appealing is Thompson’s ball skills. He plays a variety of roles but shows good awareness in all of them. Whether his back is to the ball or he’s facing the action, Thompson has the comfort level to look for the ball.
Is he the long-term answer at FS for Dallas? It’s tough to tell. He wasn’t even invited to the NFL Combine this year so I’m not sure we should consider him the “answer” for anything. But he has position flex, innate ball skills, and strong tackling ability so it’s hard not to picture him fitting in somewhere in this Dallas Cowboys secondary.
#SDSU S/Nickel Tariq Thompson is a player who possesses great ball skills and makes plays all over the field.
— Devin Jackson (@RealD_Jackson) February 28, 2021
Played snaps at deep safety, in the box, in the slot, he has a nose for the football and is very smooth in and out of his breaks.
Brings a ton of versatility, sleeper. pic.twitter.com/H2WPcGOij7
In the clip above you can see him playing multiple roles with different responsibilities. He’s versatile and effective in multiple ways.