Alabama Football: How high will Xavier McKinney be drafted?

Xavier McKinney has a chance to be an NFL star after a great Alabama football career. Where will he be taken in the 2020 NFL Draft?

Alabama football’s defense didn’t live up to the Tide standard last season, but that is not because of Xavier McKinney. The junior safety made plays all over the field as a versatile defender. After considering a return to college, he finally decided to put his name in the 2020 NFL Draft, and it was likely a smart decision as he appears to be the top safety in this class.

Before we talk about where he might be drafted, let’s look at McKinney’s strengths and weaknesses as a player.

Strengths

Coming from Alabama, you know that McKinney is going to be a really intelligent player. Famous Tide safeties include Landon Collins, Eddie Jackson, and Minkah Fitzpatrick, and McKinney has the mental aspect of the game down with the best of them. You’re rarely going to find him out of position.

He also has a great physical nature to his game. McKinney is an aggressive safety that helps him defend tight ends, but he’s athletic enough to cover receivers. His versatility is what NFL teams are looking for.

Weaknesses

McKinney’s weaknesses aren’t major, but he has room to improve his game. He can cover, but his ball skills aren’t the best. He had a lot of dropped interceptions in college. He also doesn’t have tremendous speed, but that’s not a high necessity with his ability to play in the box. His broad jump at the NFL combine was good, but his other testing numbers lacked. However, I’m sure he did enough in the interview process to make up for any bad testing.

Draft projection

McKinney is a hard player to project. I think he’s definitely going to be the first safety drafted, but how are teams going to value that in this class? I would have his ceiling at the Dallas Cowboys at pick No. 17. With Dallas needing desperate help in the secondary, this would be a good fit. However, I think they don’t go safety that early. They need a corner much more than a safety.

After the Cowboys, I could see him slipping. There are plenty of teams that need a corner, but not all of them need a safety. Maybe the Seahawks or the 49ers value him late in the first round, but those picks are often traded for a team looking to take a quarterback, and the 49ers desperately need more assets.

Although I project McKinney as a first-round talent, don’t be shocked if teams are trading up to take him at the beginning of the second round.

Projection: late first-round (No. 20-32).