Getty Former Notre Dame S Alohi Gilman.
With the decision to let Karl Joseph walk in free agency, the Las Vegas Raiders added Jeff Heath and Damarious Randall to fill the hole. Both players have starting experience, but neither of them have a ton of upside. It seems unlikely the team uses a first-round pick on a safety for the second year in a row, so they could look to the later rounds to find a potential future starter.
The Raiders may be zeroing in on former Notre Dame safety Alhoi Gilman as they recently had a FaceTime meeting with him, according to Justin M of SB Nation.
According to CBS Sports‘ latest mock draft, Gilman could get selected in the fifth round of the draft. The Raiders do have a pick in that round if they like the special teams ace.
Analysis of Gilman
Gilman is a tad undersized, but he’s a decent athlete. In his two years with the Fighting Irish, he accumulated 168 total tackles and caught three interceptions. NFL.com’s Lance Zierlein praised Gilman’s aggressiveness:
His consistent urgency and aggressiveness makes you like him, but there are too many inconsistencies to love him. Gilman has quick run recognition and triggers hard into the box or alley to meet ball-carriers. Rallying to the ball isn’t an issue, but his pursuit lacks control, as does his tackling at times. Mental busts in coverage hurt his team, but he has some man-cover potential worth exploring. Gilman has limitations, but the athleticism, attitude and special teams ability make him a prime candidate to be a core special-teamer and backup safety.
The Raiders definitely value aggressive players and Gilman plays hard. That will stick out to Jon Gruden, which could bode well for Gilman’s chances to get drafted by the team. Las Vegas could also use some help on special teams and he’d likely help in that regard. If the investment isn’t too high, Gilman would be a solid pickup for the Raiders.
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Other Safety Prospects to Watch
While the Raiders probably won’t want to invest a first-round pick in a safety, they could use one of their three third-rounders on one. According to Pro Football Focus‘ latest mock draft, they have the Raiders selecting Terrell Burgess out of Utah with their first third-round pick:
Burgess can seamlessly fill in as the slot corner for the Raiders and let LaMarcus Joyner get back to safety. Burgess took 273 of his snaps from the slot last year en route to a 90.4 coverage grade in his only season as a starter.
The team doesn’t appear to have any interest in putting LaMarcus Joyner back at safety as they still believe he has upside as a slot corner. However, Burgess might be better suited to play at safety anyway. He used to play cornerback but transitioned to safety. He didn’t emerge until his senior year at Utah but looked very impressive at times. He’s still got some work to do to become an NFL starter. That said, Burgess is loaded with potential. He’d definitely be worth a shot with a third-round pick.
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