Dadrion
Taylor-Demerson.
Dadrion
Taylor-Demerson.
Texas Tech· 5'10"· 197 lb· 4.41s 40
"The fastest safety at the 2024 Combine was also the most opportunistic, and Arizona bet that ball skills and range would outrun a 197-pound frame that never wanted to tackle anybody."Pre-draft read
Taylor-Demerson played free safety in Texas Tech's split-field structure, working from depth with the range to cover hash-to-sideline and the eyes to trigger early. His cleanest mechanic is the pedal-to-drive transition: he reads the quarterback's shoulders out of two-high and closes on seam and dig throws before the ball gets there.
The secondary trait is ball production — ten interceptions and three straight years leading the Red Raiders in picks, manufactured by anticipation rather than luck. He is far happier playing forward than fitting downhill, and run support is where the 197-pound frame shows up in ankle-level attempts. The 4.41 speed, fastest among safeties at the 2024 Combine, is the separator.
Two-high shells — quarters, Cover 2 and split-field match coverage that let him read the quarterback and drive on the throw.
Year 1: third safety in dime and big-nickel packages plus core special teams. Ceiling: starting free safety in a two-high defense who takes the ball away five-plus times a season.
A single-high, box-heavy defense that asks its safety to spill inside zone and take on pulling guards every snap — the frame and tackling style break down before the coverage does.
Best value comes when he is the deepest defender with a run fit that arrives from the alley, not through traffic.
Dadrion Taylor-Demerson 2023 Full Season Highlights | Texas Tech DB | 2024 NFL Draft Prospect
Second Team All-Big 12 senior season at Texas Tech, including his four-interception year.
Dadrion Taylor-Demerson Highlights - Welcome to the Arizona Cardinals
Pre-draft reel framing the range and ball skills Arizona bought at pick 104.
Film Breakdown: Dadrion Taylor-Demerson SHINES in 1st NFL Start for the Arizona Cardinals
All-22 breakdown of his first NFL start, Week 10 of his rookie season against the Jets.
A five-year Red Raider who arrived as a high school running back and left as a captain, Taylor-Demerson is a coverage-first safety whose football identity is built on eyes, timing and closing speed rather than mass or collision. He is a deep-half and single-high defender first, a nickel body second, and a run defender only when the angle is clean.
The production tells the story: 62 tackles and three interceptions in his first year as a full-time starter, 74 tackles with 5.5 tackles for loss and two forced fumbles the next, then a Second Team All-Big 12 finish with four picks as a fifth-year captain. Three consecutive seasons leading the team in interceptions is not an accident in a league that threw as much as the Big 12 did. The flags are equally consistent: he plays light at contact, dives at legs instead of driving through them, and his gap discipline against zone-run teams wandered when he tried to make the splash play.
Boards had him as a Day 3 starter-in-time — a fourth-to-sixth-round grade with a real path to snaps because of the range, the special-teams profile and the experience. Arizona taking him at 104 was a value bet on ball skills in a defense that lives in two-high, with the understanding that he would have to earn the run fits.
- 01
Ball skills
ten career interceptions and three straight seasons leading Texas Tech in picks, with hands that finish the play instead of just breaking it up.
- 02
Range from depth
4.41 speed, fastest among safeties at the 2024 Combine, lets him cover a hash-to-sideline and erase throws that look open at the release.
- 03
Anticipation
reads route concepts and quarterback shoulders early out of two-high, driving on the throw rather than reacting to the catch.
- 04
Alignment versatility
logged real snaps at free safety, in the box and over the slot, which gives a coordinator a movable chess piece on passing downs.
- 05
Experience and leadership
59 games and a captaincy in a pass-heavy league, so the mental side of the transition was never the question.
- 01
Tackling strength
plays light at contact and too often dives at ankles, letting bigger ball-carriers run through the attempt for extra yardage.
- 02
Frame
5-foot-10, 197 pounds with short arms, which caps what he can do as a full-time box defender against tight ends and pulling linemen.
- 03
Run-fit discipline
hunts the interception and vacates his gap, giving zone-run teams cutback lanes that a deep safety should be closing.
- 04
Play strength at the catch point
can be boxed out by longer targets in contested situations when he has to win the ball with contact.
— — — positional median (p50)
- 40 yd
- 4.41sp50
- Vertical
- 38inp50
- Broad jump
- 123inp50
- Three-cone
- —s
- Shuttle
- —s
- Bench
- —rep
| Yr | Team | G | Tkl | Sk | Int | PD | FF |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2019 | Texas Tech | 11 | 16 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 2020 | Texas Tech | 10 | 15 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 2021 | Texas Tech | 12 | 62 | 0 | 3 | 10 | 0 |
| 2022 | Texas Tech | 13 | 74 | 1 | 3 | 5 | 2 |
| 2023 | Texas Tech | 13 | 73 | 1 | 4 | 8 | 0 |
| Career | — | 59 | 240 | 2 | 10 | 23 | 2 |
A dash means the figure is not published by a source we trust — never a zero we invented.
Honors
- Second Team All-Big 12 (2023)
- All-Big 12 Honorable Mention (2021)
- Team captain (2023)
- Led Texas Tech in interceptions three straight seasons
A useful two-high starter who takes the ball away and gets exposed in the run fit — the realistic version of this projection.
The ceiling if the anticipation keeps translating: a range-plus-ball-production safety who wins with eyes rather than collisions.
If the tackling and availability issues stack up, a rotational third safety and special-teams contributor who never locks down the job.
Everything above is the pre-draft evaluation. This section is what actually happened — updated year over year.
Arizona used him immediately. He played all 17 games as a rookie in 2024 with two starts, posting 35 tackles, three tackles for loss, five pass breakups and a strip of Joshua Dobbs, and his first start against the Jets in Week 10 was the kind of clean tape that buys a young safety trust. Year two brought the leap: 55 tackles, two interceptions and six pass breakups in 12 games before an injury at Seattle cost him time, plus an 11-tackle game against Atlanta in his first week back. Nick Rallis leaned on a three-safety package that put him on the field alongside Budda Baker and Jalen Thompson, which is exactly the deployment his college tape asked for.
In hindsight this looks like a fair fourth-round outcome rather than a steal. He is a rotational-to-starting coverage safety who has earned snaps on merit and taken the ball away at the NFL level, which is more than most picks in the 100s deliver. The limitations scouts flagged remain real — he is not the player you want fitting an inside zone run on third-and-one — and Arizona's 3-14 finish in 2025 and the coaching turnover that followed cloud the projection. Entering 2026 as a third-year piece of the secondary rather than a locked-in every-down starter is roughly where the pre-draft grade said he would be.