INDIANAPOLIS — In the 2025 NFL season, defenses played big nickel — five defensive backs with three safeties as opposed to three cornerbacks and two safeties — on 6,886 plays. That was up from 5,727 such plays in 2024, 4,985 in 2023, 5,820 in 2022, and 4,496 in 2021.
In Super Bowl LX alone, the victorious Seattle Seahawks played big nickel on 31 of their 72 defensive snaps, with rookie Nick Emmanwori as the great equalizer — the guy who, from his perch as a box and slot force defender, allowed Seattle to roll with more light boxes than most teams would be able to get away with. In that game, the Seahawks played nickel on 44.8% of their snaps, and actually got away with dime defense — six defensive backs — an astonishing 53.7% of the time. That they were able to manage a usually heavy personnel team like the Patriots in the run game tells you a lot about the importance of the force defenders who become force multipliers.
I asked Seahawks head coach and defensive shot-caller Mike Macdonald about defending the run with split safeties and light boxes halfway through his first year in Seattle in 2024, and his answer presaged the defense he has now.
"If you can defend the run and split safety, that's some high-powered stuff," Macdonald said. "It's not easy to do. There's a lot of stress on the interior defense and on your edge with your edge mechanics. Guys have to play multiple gaps, so it's heavy lifting, and it's not easy. You've got to know who you're using in run fits, and when you can use them. So, if you can do it, it just gives you such an advantage.
"Now, there's times where you wanna play single-high, and we kinda call it accordingly there, but I love the question."
Macdonald loved the question because he was already defining the answers. As the Baltimore Ravens' defensive coordinator in 2022 and 2023, he had the benefit of Kyle Hamilton, the NFL's best do-it-all defensive back, and he brought that need to Seattle, just in time for Emmanwori's outstanding 2025 scouting combine and NFL ascent.
With the likes of Hamilton, Emmanwori, and Derwin James of the Los Angeles Chargers as the clubhouse leaders right now when it comes to this kind of effective versatility, other NFL decision-makers will go full "copycat league" and attempt to find their own unicorns.
New Baltimore Ravens head coach Jesse Minter now has Hamilton as his unicorn, and as the Chargers' defensive coordinator in 2024 and 2025, he had James, as well. Not a bad transition if you can pull it off. I asked Minter about the value of these players, and how it's different to coach them.
"I think for how we play scheme-wise, they're important, and they can be highlighted — they can be moved around to impact the game. When you do a variety of coverages and different pressures, you can move that guy where you want to move him. And I think those type of players, they're weapons.
"They're not necessarily a nickel or a safety or a linebacker or a corner, they're kind of a weapon. And when they have that ability to impact the game, the more you can put them in position to do that, the better off you are.
"When you're evaluating those guys, they come in all different forms. Right now, there's that big safety guy with length, guy that can cover ground, that can also play man. I think that's kind of showing up throughout the league. But man, I couldn't be more happy to have Kyle Hamilton."
As one would expect.
Patriots general manager Eliot Wolf detailed for me the importance of having two interchangeable safeties who can get it done everywhere from the box to the slot to the deep third. New England had two such safeties last season in Craig Woodson and Jaylinn Hawkins last season, and it made a big difference in a highly underrated defense that led the way for the Patriots' unlikely Super Bowl appearance.
"Yeah, I mean, the safety position, like you said, they have to be able to do everything," Wolf said. "They have to be able to play down in the box, man cover, tackle in space. And, you know, having guys that are interchangeable just kind of opens up a lot of different things for the defense that [defensive coordinator] Zak Kuhr and [defensive coach] Terrell Williams can kind of employ. So we're excited about those guys. Obviously, Hawkins is a free agent, he's earned the opportunity to see what's out there, but he's certainly someone that we would welcome.
I then asked Wolf which attributes are most important when deciding that a defensive back can be one of "those guys."
"First thing you have to look at is, you know, communication is so underrated at that position," he said. "I think maybe a lot of fans don't understand that being able to communicate, set the defense, that's something that we talked to the coaching staffs in college[s] about, and just making sure that anyone that comes in has to be able to communicate and be smart. But on the field, it's the athleticism, it's the change of direction, it's the speed and range, the anticipation that these guys play with are very important traits that we look for."
As Wolf said, Hawkins is an impending free agent, which may have the Patriots looking at the draft for other such options. The good news for teams looking for these guys is that college football has expanded the feeder stream, and there are at least three such safeties worthy of first-round attention.
Caleb Downs of Ohio State, Emmanuel McNeil-Warren from Toledo, and Oregon's Dillon Thieneman all have the requisite skills to perform at high levels in multiple defensive back roles, and when I asked Daniel Jeremiah of the NFL Network about them last week, he agreed that the trend isn't going away.
"It is something I think teams are looking for. Having guys that can do what those three do in terms of bigger nickels. Guys that can play in that role and be forced players and cover tight ends and blitz, do a lot of different things with them.
"I love all three of those safeties. I had all three in my initial top 25 in this draft. And I think once I update it, going through this weekend, I don't see any of them going down, only potentially going up."
Indeed — Downs currently sits at ninth on Jeremiah's current Big Board, McNeil-Warren is 15th, and Thieneman is 23rd. Which speaks to both the talents these players bring, and the need for their specific levels of versatility.
Caleb Downs, Ohio State
© Adam Cairns/Columbus Dispatch / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images
As Downs recently spoke with me for the upcoming Athlon Draft Preview magazine cover story, I was able to get his thoughts on his own versatility straight from the safety's mouth.
“I feel like defense is not just, hey, I line up down every play and you see that,” Downs said. “And you know where I'm at every play. I feel like it's moving pieces around and making the offense see different pictures. Coach Patricia [Ohio State defensive coordinator Matt Patricia], he uses the term, ‘Simple for us, hard for them.’ At the end of the day, if I'm in all these different positions and doing different things at different positions, the quarterback is having to think about that every play.
“‘Okay, he's the boundary safety this play, close to the line of scrimmage this play. he's in the post this play. He's dropped down 10 yards over the apex in the middle of the field. He could run the alley on this play. He could play the post. He could do all these different things. He's at nickel this play. He could blitz. He could play coverage. He could play zone. What are they?’
“They're having to go through that every play. And I feel like that's something that makes DBs special, but also coaches have to be able to move the chess pieces around and be able to do that at a high level. And that's why I appreciated Coach Patricia. I feel like that was a big thing. And for myself, I feel like I've always been able to make plays at any level of the field, whether that's man, zone, in the box, in the post, in the deep part of the field.
“That was a big positive learning his system and seeing how he was going to use me. So I feel like that just shows versatility and [how NFL] teams can use me in a lot of different ways.”
In one year (2023) with Alabama, and through the next two seasons at Ohio State, Downs allowed a total of 79 catches on 122 targets for 812 yards, two touchdowns, six interceptions, seven pass breakups, and an opponent passer rating of 68.8. Downs also totaled 213 solo tackles, 96 stops, 16 tackles for loss, two forced fumbles, as well as two sacks and nine pressures on just 60 pass-rushing snaps.
In each of his three collegiate seasons, Downs played at least 146 snaps in the box, the slot, and at deep safety. In his 2025 season, he became a bit more of a deep safety for the Buckeyes, lining up 63% of the time in the deep third (17% as a single-high safety and 46% as a two-deep defender), 21% in the slot, 8% in the box, and 8% at outside cornerback.
Jeremiah saw Downs as the most polished of the three, if perhaps not the most "amazing" on tape.
"With Caleb Downs, everything he does, he just does right," Jeremiah said. "He doesn't have the size that those other guys you're referencing do, just in terms of the size and the length. I don't think he's quite as explosive as those players are, but he can cover tight ends.
"He can do that easily. He's an outstanding force player. So you got somebody on the field that can be a real reliable, firm tackler, takes great angles.
"I think he can be a communicator back there as well, just not quite as much playmaking."
I might bump Downs' playmaking ability up more than a notch, but the point remains. Caleb Downs will be able to fill those roles right away for his NFL team.
Emmanuel McNeil-Warren, Toledo
At an unofficial 6-foot-2 and 202 pounds, Toledo's Emmanuel McNeil-Warren is the biggest in this class of do-it-all guys, and he's been doing all of it at a very high level for a long time, albeit for a smaller program. In his 2025 season, McNeil-Warren lined up 45% of the time as a single-high safety, 19% as a split safety, 20% in the slot, 14% in the box, and 2% at outside cornerback. Overall, he allowed six catches on 15 targets for 116 yards, 50 yards after the catch, one touchdowns, two interceptions, five pass breakups, and he had 43 solo tackles, 18 stops, four tackles for loss, and two forced fumbles.
"To me, McNeil-Warren is the one that's the most intriguing of all these guys," Jeremiah said. "When they had him measured in the spring, he was 6-foot-3 3/8, 209 pounds.
"So he's a little bit of that bigger, longer, rangier guy who's got incredible ball skills, can play in the middle of the field. He's got a real presence and physicality over the middle. You can see all the plays in the ball, which are impressive. He had a pick-six against Western Kentucky that's pretty dynamic. He just pulls the trigger and plays really, really fast. And when I've watched Derwin [James] doing the Chargers games, he just bounces around. He's just got a lot of energy to him with how he's used and how he plays. And the closer he gets to the line of scrimmage, the more energy he provides.
"I see some of that with McNeil-Warren."
Dillon Thieneman, Oregon
Dillon Thieneman is one to watch not only because of his versatility, but also because when you watch his tape, and see the number of high-speed plays he's involved in... well, this is a dude who could blow up the combine drills. The tape and metrics are good enough, by the way.
Last season for the Ducks, Thieneman allowed 18 catches on 29 targets for 145 yards, 42 yards after the catch, three touchdowns, two interceptions, four pass breakups, and an opponent passer rating of 80.4. Thieneman also had 72 solo tackles, 30 stops, and three tackles for loss.
"Thieneman from Oregon, you're going to start seeing the buzz on him start to really, really build as we get to Indy," Jeremiah said. "He's going to run a heck of a lot faster than people think. He's going to jump out of the gym. He is super, super explosive.
"And you go back to Purdue, when he was there as a true freshman playing in the dead middle of the field, making interceptions outside the numbers with that type of range. And now you get to Oregon, he can cover in the slot, can be a legit nickel and mirror and match smaller, quicker guys. He's another guy who trusts his eyes, flat-footed reads, great angles, excellent tackler.
"I think those three guys are three of the best players in the draft, not just three of the best safeties. So yeah, I think they're going to be in high demand."
There's no question about that, especially as defensive trends continue to favor the versatile safety. Caleb Downs, Emmanuel McNeil-Warren, and Dillon Thieneman could not possibly be any more in the right place at the right time than they are right now.