2019 NFL Draft: 10 players who could fall out of the first round

Alabama safety Deionte Thompson has long been considered the consensus top-ranked safety prospect in the 2019 draft class. He’s got some competition at the top now, however, with the emergence of Delaware’s Nasir Adderley after he put on a show during the week of practice and the game at the Senior Bowl.

Thompson struggled over the second half of his redshirt junior season with the Crimson Tide after starting off strong. He picked off two passes in the first three games of the season, showing a propensity to be a ball-hawk with a nose for finding the football. He didn’t intercept a single pass over the season’s final 12 games.

He was in position to get some, particularly in the Orange Bowl against Oklahoma, but he misplayed some balls in the air or outright dropped what should have been easy interceptions.

Alabama’s secondary struggled late in the season, and that was no more evident than it was in Santa Clara when the Tide got thumped by Clemson in the National Championship Game. Thompson wasn’t fully to blame, but he did seem to be out of position at times as well as missing a few open field tackles when he was the last line of defense.

In Thompson’s defense, this was his first year as a starter after logging little meaningful action over the previous few years in Tuscaloosa. He’s got a lot of room to grow, but Thompson has flashed enough potential to warrant a potential first round selection.

Adderley may have overtaken him at the top of draft boards, but there’s still plenty of reason to expect Thompson to be a first round pick. There’s also enough doubt now to think he could easily slip to day two.