Jaden
Hicks.
Jaden
Hicks.
Washington St.· 6'2"· 211 lb
"The rare fourth-round safety whose instincts were never the question, only the recovery speed behind them — and Kansas City built a role that hid the second and paid for the first."Pre-draft read
Downhill split-safety with box-safety size and a linebacker's mentality, Hicks played high, low and over the slot for Washington State and did his best work triggering forward. He reads the quarterback's front shoulder from depth, plants and closes on crossers and flat routes, and finishes with heavy, torso-wrapping contact that shows up on run fits between the tackles.
The secondary trait is instinct in zone: he passes off routes cleanly in quarters, drives on the throw underneath and turned three of his college takeaways into return yardage. He is a long strider rather than a twitchy mover, so the signature is timing and length instead of hips — he arrives early because he saw it early, not because he can recover late.
Split-safety (quarters/Cover 6) defenses that rotate a big strong safety into the box and over the slot
Year 1: third safety and core special-teamer with sub-package box/slot reps. Ceiling: full-time strong safety and dime defender in a rotating two-high scheme.
A single-high Cover 1/Cover 3 shell that asks him to be the lone deep defender against four verticals, or a man-heavy scheme that travels him with quick slot receivers.
Best deployed with a rangy free safety next to him so his aggression downhill is a feature instead of a liability.
Jaden Hicks 2023 Full Season Highlights | Washington State DB
Full 2023 season cut-up: box fits, quarters triggers and the pick-six.
Jaden Hicks | Safety | Washington State | 2023 Highlights
Condensed reel focused on downhill tackling and zone reads.
The Enforcer: Jaden Hicks | 2023 Highlights Reaction | Safety
Play-by-play breakdown of his contact profile and coverage assignments.
A two-year starter who redshirted in 2021, Hicks was one of the few obvious pro pieces on a Washington State defense that lost its conference and its roster stability around him. At a listed 6-3, 212, he had the frame of a box defender and the assignment sheet of a chess piece: deep half, robber, slot, dime linebacker.
The production backed the projection. He posted 76 tackles as a redshirt freshman in 2022 with a fumble-return touchdown, then improved to 79 tackles, 6.0 tackles for loss, 2.5 sacks and two interceptions — one returned 37 yards for a score — in 12 games in 2023. The flags were about range and recovery: he wanted to play forward, missed tackles when asked to break down in space, and lacked the short-area burst to erase mistakes when a route stemmed inside of him.
The board had him in the third-to-fourth-round band as a strong safety who could play special teams immediately. Kansas City, a defense that lives in split coverage and asks safeties to be interchangeable, took him with the second of its two fourth-round picks and bet on the football IQ carrying him to a role.
- 01
Downhill trigger
Reads the quarterback from depth, plants without a false step and arrives at the flat or the alley with authority against both run and screen game.
- 02
Finishing tackler
Wraps through the torso and brings big-back size to contact; ballcarriers rarely fall forward when he squares them up between the numbers.
- 03
Zone instincts
Plays the pattern rather than the man in quarters and Cover 3, passing off crossers cleanly and driving late on the throw underneath.
- 04
Ball production
Three interceptions, ten pass breakups and a fumble-return touchdown across 25 college games, with real return juice once the ball is in his hands.
- 05
Positional flexibility
Logged snaps at deep half, in the box, over the slot and as a dime linebacker, which is exactly the profile split-safety defenses shop for.
- 01
Recovery speed
Long strider who builds up rather than bursts; when his first read is wrong he lacks the make-up gear to close a two-way go from depth.
- 02
Space tackling
Misses show up when he has to break down on shifty ballcarriers in the open field, where his aiming point drifts high and wide.
- 03
Man coverage
Tight hips and a heavy plant limit him against quick slots and vertical tight ends who can force him to flip and run.
- 04
Aggression control
Bites on play-action and eye candy at times, vacating his deep-half responsibility before the run action has actually declared.
— — — positional median (p50)
- 40 yd
- —s
- Vertical
- 37.5inp50
- Broad jump
- 122inp50
- Three-cone
- 6.88sp50
- Shuttle
- 4.37sp50
- Bench
- 16repp50
| Yr | Team | G | Tkl | Sk | Int | PD | FF |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | Washington State | 13 | 76 | 1 | 1 | 6 | 0 |
| 2023 | Washington State | 12 | 79 | 2.5 | 2 | 4 | 1 |
| Career | — | 25 | 155 | 3.5 | 3 | 10 | 1 |
Verified against cfbstats.com. Played one game in 2021 and redshirted; no statistics recorded that season. 2023 interceptions include a 37-yard pick-six; 2022 fumble return went 17 yards for a touchdown.
A dash means the figure is not published by a source we trust — never a zero we invented.
Physical downhill safety who starts on volume and toughness while giving up plays in coverage — a fair landing spot for Hicks.
Same big-body box safety archetype with takeaway production and matchup versatility, but Dugger's explosiveness is a tier above.
Smart sub-package defender and special-teams staple who never fully separates from the third-safety role.
Everything above is the pre-draft evaluation. This section is what actually happened — updated year over year.
Kansas City did what Kansas City usually does with defensive backs: it kept him on teams, taught him the whole secondary and let the role find him. As a rookie in 2024 he played 312 defensive snaps behind Justin Reid and Bryan Cook and still led the team with three interceptions, a return on the ball skills that showed up in college. In 2025 the snap count grew to 445 (43% of the defense) across all 17 games with three starts, and the usage widened — strong safety, dime, and real reps over the slot — producing 42 tackles, four passes defensed and half a sack.
Three years in, the honest read is that the pre-draft evaluation held up almost exactly. He is not a single-high eraser and never will be; he is a big, smart, versatile box-and-slot safety who takes the ball away when the quarterback lets him play forward. With the veterans ahead of him gone and Alohi Gilman signed as the anchor, the 2026 camp is the first time a full-time starting job has actually been in reach — a fair outcome for a fourth-round pick, and a good one for a team that only ever needed him to be the third safety who can do four jobs.
Data note: Verified against cfbstats.com. Played one game in 2021 and redshirted; no statistics recorded that season. 2023 interceptions include a 37-yard pick-six; 2022 fumble return went 17 yards for a touchdown.