Tyler
Nubin.
Tyler
Nubin.
Minnesota· 6'1"· 199 lb
"The safest safety in the 2024 class went 47th to a team that needed a brain in the back end, and two seasons later he has started every game he has been healthy for without intercepting a single pass."Pre-draft read
Deep-middle free safety who plays the game from the top down. Aligns at 12-15 yards, reads the quarterback's shoulders rather than the route stem, and triggers on the throw with a click-and-close burst that turns ordinary coverage into ball production. Post rotation, quarter-field spacing and two-high match rules all live comfortably in his head; he sorts formation tells pre-snap and sets the back end.
Against the run he fills with angles rather than violence, arriving under control and wrapping low as a reliable last line. Straight-line speed is adequate, not special, and he wins the deep third with leverage and anticipation instead of recovery gear. The signature is the ball: thirteen career picks on instinct, timing and hands.
Two-high match or single-high shell that lets him play from 12-15 yards and use his eyes on the quarterback rather than his feet on a receiver.
Year 1: immediate starting free safety and back-end communicator. Ceiling: high-end deep-middle eraser whose takeaway production carries the defense.
A heavy nickel-safety scheme that drops him into the slot to cover man-to-man or asks him to play the box as a run-fitting strong safety.
His value climbs the further from the line of scrimmage he plays.
Tyler Nubin 2023 Season Highlights | Minnesota S | 2024 New York Giants Draft Pick | SNY
2024 NFL Draft Highlights: DB Tyler Nubin | Minnesota Football
Ball Hawk 🦅 | Tyler Nubin 2023 Minnesota Highlights 💣 || HD
A five-year Minnesota starter who arrived in the 2024 class as the most complete deep safety available and the most predictable. Nubin is a true free-safety archetype in an era that had drifted toward interchangeable nickel-safety hybrids: high-IQ, quarterback-driven, comfortable as the single-high eraser and as the field-side quarter defender in match rules.
The production was the whole case. He led the Gophers in interceptions in each of his final four seasons, set a school record with thirteen career picks, and finished with 207 tackles across 55 games while never posting a season with a real coverage collapse on tape. P.J. Fleck's defense asked him to be the communicator, and he was — but it also protected him, keeping him deep and rarely testing him in man coverage on slot receivers or in one-on-one space against tight ends.
The board saw the flags clearly: pedestrian long speed, average recovery burst, a tackling style built on angles rather than pop. Teams valuing floor over ceiling had him as a clean second-round starter; teams chasing traits pushed him toward day three of round two. The Giants, with a vacancy at deep safety and a defense that needed a brain in the back end, took the floor at 47 and did not blink.
- 01
Processing
Reads the quarterback's eyes and shoulders from depth, diagnoses route concepts before they develop, and consistently arrives where the ball is going instead of chasing where it went.
- 02
Ball skills
Thirteen career interceptions and four straight seasons leading Minnesota in picks; tracks the deep ball naturally and finishes with hands rather than body-catching contests.
- 03
Range through angles
Wins the deep third with leverage, alignment and early trigger, covering ground he cannot cover on pure speed by starting his break on the throw motion.
- 04
Communicator
Five-year starter who ran the back-end checks, sorted motion and stemmed the coverage shell late; a defensive coordinator's plug-and-play voice at free safety.
- 05
Reliability
43 career starts with no meaningful blown-coverage tape and a tackling style built on control; the profile of a defender you never have to scheme around.
- 01
Long speed
Adequate rather than special straight-line gear; when he loses his leverage or guesses wrong on the read, there is no recovery burst to bail him out over the top.
- 02
Man coverage
Rarely asked to travel with slot receivers or match tight ends in space, and the limited reps that exist show tight-hipped transitions and late change of direction.
- 03
Tackling pop
Arrives under control and wraps low as a last line, but he is a drag-down finisher rather than a striker, and bigger ball carriers fall forward through him.
- 04
Ceiling
The floor is the case; there is no untapped athletic trait to develop, so his value is capped at exactly what he already is on day one.
| Yr | Team | G | Tkl | Sk | Int | PD | FF |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2020 | Minnesota | 7 | 41 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| 2021 | Minnesota | 13 | 52 | 1 | 3 | 2 | 0 |
| 2022 | Minnesota | 11 | 56 | 0 | 4 | 3 | 1 |
| 2023 | Minnesota | 12 | 53 | 1 | 5 | 4 | 1 |
| Career | — | 43 | 202 | 2 | 13 | 9 | 3 |
Seasons verified on cfbstats (2020-2023). His 2019 true-freshman year is not listed on cfbstats; Minnesota credits him with 55 career games across five seasons, so the totals here cover only the four verified statistical seasons. School records also credit 24 career passes defensed, a figure that counts interceptions alongside breakups.
A dash means the figure is not published by a source we trust — never a zero we invented.
Range-through-anticipation free safety who quarterbacks the coverage and produces on the ball without elite testing numbers.
The version where the instincts stack with takeaways every year and he becomes the defense's identity in the back end.
Solid deep-third starter whose lack of recovery speed and finishing pop keep him a rotational-value piece rather than a core one.
Everything above is the pre-draft evaluation. This section is what actually happened — updated year over year.
He started from day one and immediately looked like the most stable piece in a bad defense. As a rookie in 2024 he started the first 13 games, finished second on the team in tackles and led all NFL rookies in the category before an ankle injury in December put him on injured reserve. The tape matched the projection almost exactly: reliable deep-third leverage, sharp communication, sound angles, and no splash — he did not intercept a pass, and the ball-production trait that defined his college case simply did not translate in year one. In 2025 he again started when available, played 13 games and posted 75 tackles with a fumble recovery returned for a touchdown, but still finished the season without a pick.
In hindsight the pick was correct on the floor and quiet on the ceiling. Two seasons in, Nubin is exactly what the evaluation said he would be — an every-down free safety who diagnoses, aligns and finishes — and nothing more. Whether he becomes a valued long-term starter or a replaceable one depends entirely on whether the takeaways ever show up.
Data note: Seasons verified on cfbstats (2020-2023). His 2019 true-freshman year is not listed on cfbstats; Minnesota credits him with 55 career games across five seasons, so the totals here cover only the four verified statistical seasons. School records also credit 24 career passes defensed, a figure that counts interceptions alongside breakups.