(Melina Myers-Usa Now Sports activities)
Peak: 6’4 1/8″ (99th) Fat: 220 (92nd)
40-Lawn Sprint: 4.59 seconds (93rd)
10-Yard Split: 1.58 seconds (97th)
Bench Push: N/A
Vertical Jump: 38 inches (81st)
Broad Jump: 131 inches (93nd)
3-Cone Drill: 6.9 seconds (70th)
20-Lawn Shuttle: 4.32 seconds (24th)
Wingspan: 79 3/4 inches (94th)
Arm Duration: 33inches (90th)
Hand Size: 9 1/8 inches (34th)
Bio: A 4-star recruit out of the Marist Faculty in Atlanta, Hamilton was born on the Greek Island of Crete and spent time in Russia when his father performed basketball there in advance of shifting to Atlanta as a tiny child. He was a basketball and soccer player who performed quarterback by center college until eventually an injury experienced him going absent from the position — and the formation. He was a star at safety and receiver in high university, and selected Notre Dame in excess of just about each big software in the state simply because of its academics. A a few-yr participant and two-year starter for the Preventing Irish, Hamilton played all over the position in Notre Dame’s protection, tallying 313 snaps in the box, 437 in the slot, 644 at no cost security, 29 at the defensive line, and 15 at cornerback. He produced Initial Crew All-American in 2021 (his 2nd straight year carrying out so) and led the defense in interceptions with three regardless of missing the final six online games of the time with a knee harm.
Stat to Know: More than those 3 seasons with the Fighting Irish, Hamilton allowed 39 receptions on 82 targets for 388 yards, 149 yards just after the capture, one particular landing, eight interceptions, 14 move breakups, and an opponent passer score of 25.9.
Strengths: Hamilton can do the job the complete industry as a match defender simply because his transition competencies are top rated-notch. He’ll use his hands to create the landmark, and operate the route proper with the receiver — no make any difference wherever it goes. This interception versus Florida Point out is a master course.
Here’s his second interception versus Florida State, and this is the initial example of quite a few exactly where Hamilton’s crazy capability to do the job from a person facet of the discipline to the other in a incredibly shorter instances demonstrates up as a significant asset. He starts off the participate in on the defensive suitable seam, and in some way not only receives to the left boundary, but has the wherewithal to make the decide. There are not numerous safeties in the NFL who can pull this off Devin McCourty at his very best has performs like these — and Devin McCourty is 5-foot-10, 195 lbs. Fellas this large and rangy are not meant to have motion techniques like these.
And when Hamilton closes down on a receiver, he comes with violent intentions. Claimed receiver experienced greatest have his head on a swivel.
Hamilton did not blitz a lot for Notre Dame, but if I’m on his NFL coaching staff members, I’m imagining about his measurement, aggression, and closing pace, and I want him on that wall. Wisconsin’s quarterback would possibly agree.
You will listen to that Hamilton has difficulties covering in the slot, and in male coverage beneath, but… I dunno, you fellas — this rep towards Cincinnati appears to be pretty superior to me. When you can have a basic safety who trails movement and goes to the boundary downfield like this, I imagine it’s a as well as.
This was a 31-garden operate for Purdue’s King Doerue, but view how Hamilton careens more than to stop it from turning into a property connect with by outrunning most people on the area. All that closing pace you see in coverage is just as evident when he’s participating in the operate.
Weaknesses: Hamilton’s peak prospects to iffy changeover abilities at instances, and though he can enjoy the deep 3rd as a single defender, it is not his optimum location — except if he’s turning and working to respond. He’s not the best defender towards faster, extra angular receivers downfield. On this play towards USC, Hamilton’s backpedal out of solitary-superior is decent sufficient, but he does not transition as speedily as he would if he was coming down to the receiver. Drake London receives a 29-garden catch as a outcome.
I imagine that Hamilton can develop into a greater deep-3rd participant, and it’s nevertheless ridiculous what he’s in a position to do back there at his sizing, but that’s one particular discussion to be experienced in front offices, and you can see why some analysts ding him for this. If you want him up significant in two-deep seems, which is in which the NFL is headed in any case, I assume he’ll be just fantastic. He needs to be much more sudden with his transitions, acquire better timing to the ball, and trust what he sees in people open-discipline cases.
Summary: There are a whole lot of issues about Hamilton’s NFL foreseeable future. I have two.
Is Hamilton the up coming evolution of the Isaiah Simmons “defensive weapon” template in that deep-fifty percent capabilities and ungodly open up-field speed are now developed in? What is that value to a defense?
Why is Hamilton the greatest participant in this draft class? He’s an unprecedented athlete at one particular of the NFL’s most essential positions. We have simply just by no means noticed anyone like him prior to. That is why he’s the very best participant in this draft class to me.
Mel Blount was 6’3″, 205. KYLE HAMILTON IS More substantial AND TALLER THAN MEL BLOUNT AND He is Carrying out THIS. https://t.co/lJyHM8f8uW
— Doug Farrar ✍ (@NFL_DougFarrar) April 14, 2022
Some teams will not know what to do with him. Some will see him as a massive box basic safety — I have viewed comparisons to Kam Chancellor, and with all owing respect to Kam Chancellor, that erases the essential variety component of Hamilton’s participate in. Also, some teams simply really don’t price the safety place enough to think of him as a best prospect. You can normally inform which teams feel of safeties like that in the modern day NFL, mainly because their move defenses stink.
I hope that Hamilton goes to a staff with a head mentor and a defensive coordinator who do not attempt to restrict his prospective as one particular principal form of player or an additional. Kyle Hamilton is the rarest form of participant — a jack-of-all-trades who is also a learn at just about everything, and the iffy stuff is fixable. You can establish an whole defense about a player like this.
NFL Comparison: Derwin James. When healthy, James has turn into a single of the NFL’s most flexible and productive safeties, and he does it all around the area. Previous season, he performed 361 snaps in the box, 224 in the slot, 326 at free of charge basic safety, nine at cornerback, and 41 together the defensive line. James has experienced some transitive challenges as a pure deep-3rd protection, but as the Chargers operate a ton of two-high below head mentor Brandon Staley, that worry is minimized by plan.
Now, take all the things I just reported about Derwin James, add a few inches to his height, and 5-10 lbs to his pounds. Now, you have Kyle Hamilton. Once more, we’re conversing about an unprecedented participant.
(Ok — the supreme upside comparison for Hamilton, and I do this with a good deal of trepidation, is the late, wonderful Sean Taylor. Taylor could do matters at 6-foot-3 and 230 kilos that just did not physically make sense. Hamilton would have to create far more smoothness in the deep 3rd, but he has each other attribute to make that kind of an impact in the NFL more than time).