Jordan Battle 

Pos: SAF

School: Alabama

Ht. 6’1″ 

Wt. 209

Games Watched: LSU, Texas, Tennessee

One Liner: Reliable safety who wins with size, football IQ, and fluidity

Strengths: 

  • Very good size. Battle has ideal size for an NFL strong safety, which allows him to effectively backpedal with good bend and also be able to attack players of all sizes as a wrap up tackler. His size would also allow him to cover tight ends and wide receivers moving forward.
  • Very good football IQ. Battle plays with good instincts and processes play’s early in their development. He sniffs out runs early and maintains some patience before reacting to the play to avoid being faked out by misdirection or counters. 
  • Good fluidity. Battle flashes solid fluid movements and loose hips in coverage, and while his hips aren’t good enough to help him recover from poor initial positioning, he is definitely capable of flipping his hips in man and off man to allow him to remain in good position during his transitions. 
  • Good versatility. Battle’s size and fluidity allow him to have some options as to where he could be lined up on the field. Ideally he plays a strong safety role, but he could also come into the box or play some nickel snaps as well due to hsi ability to play in coverage. 

Weaknesses:

  • Adequate athleticism. Although Battle is a fluid player, he does not jump off the screen with notable athletic traits that puts him above the top. He lacks the elite long speed or range to play deep safety, and doesn’t have excellent short area quickness or burst to recover or close in out of zone looks. 
  • Adequate tackling.Battle has some issues as a wrap up tackler, and missed some with shaky technique that will need to be fixed up especially considering the strong safety role that Battle will most likely be asked to play at the next level. 

Overall Assessment: Jordan Battle is a well rounded safety prospect, who does a lot of things at a solid level, but doesn’t particularly jump out in one particular way. He is a smart safety who has good instincts and processes play developments in front of him in a quick and timely manner. He possesses the ideal frame to be a strong safety and come down to the box, while also having versatility to play man as a nickel. Battle’s ceiling in the pros will be capped by the fact that his athleticism is just average, and won’t put him over the top. Battle will also have to correct some tackling technique issues before becoming an impact strong safety in the NFL.

Scheme Fit: Strong safety that would thrive in a zone scheme, but could also play man out of nickel looks, or also come down as a box safety.

Pick Projection: Day 2

Grade: 6.27