Dante
Trader.
Dante
Trader.
Maryland· 5'11"· 196 lb
"Dante Trader is a versatile deep-half safety who covers complex zones with keen processing, but questions about his top-end speed and tackling consistency cloud his immediate impact as a starter."Pre-draft read
Trader plays the position with his eyes. He reads the quarterback's shoulders from depth, drives on the throw before the receiver breaks and is rarely the safety caught in a rotation he does not understand. Four years of Maryland starting reps built a defender who knows where the help is and where the throw is going.
The athletic ceiling is what it is. He is 5-11 and 196 pounds and does not run away from vertical speed, so he plays with a cushion and relies on angles to make up the difference. As a tackler he is willing but arrives high at times, and the misses come when he tries to run through a ball carrier instead of wrapping. He is a coverage safety who has to be schemed away from man matchups against fast slots.
Fangio two-high
Year 1 depth and special teams ace, with ceiling as a starting subpackage safety able to play various two-high coverages.
Aggressive, single-high schemes that frequently ask safeties to operate as deep centerfielders without much support.
Trader's versatility and athleticism make him a fit for schemes that value interchangeable safeties capable of playing multiple roles, particularly in two-high shells.
NFL DRAFT HIGHLIGHTS: DB Dante Trader Jr. | Maryland Football
Dante Trader Jr. | Safety | 2024 Maryland Highlights | 2025 NFL Draft
Dante Trader (Maryland '25) 2020 Summer Lacrosse Highlights
Trader started for four seasons at Maryland while also playing lacrosse for the Terrapins, and he finished with 186 tackles, five interceptions and 15 pass breakups across 47 games. That is a long, consistent body of Big Ten work from a player who was never the best athlete on the field.
His value is between the ears. He diagnoses route concepts quickly, communicates the back-end rotation and takes clean angles from depth, which lets him play faster than his testing profile suggests. The Combine numbers — a 4.32 short shuttle and a 7.09 three-cone at 196 pounds — confirm short-area quickness rather than long speed.
Miami took him in the fifth round for the middle of a two-high shell. He is a deep-half and robber safety, a special teams contributor from day one, and a spot starter if the scheme protects him from isolated man coverage against speed. The floor is a smart rotational defender who does not blow assignments; the ceiling is a starting free safety in a Fangio-style structure where processing matters more than measured speed.
- 01
Big Ten experience
Started 47 games and recorded 186 tackles.
- 02
Processing ability
Diagnoses concepts and drives on throws early.
- 03
Deep-half angles
Rarely out of position in split-safety rotations.
- 04
Short-area quickness
Posted a 4.32 shuttle and 7.09 three-cone.
- 05
Two-sport athlete
Lacrosse background aids body control and hands.
- 01
Recovery speed
Lacks true recovery speed against vertical threats.
- 02
Tackling technique
Tackles high, leading to misses from not wrapping.
- 03
Undersized frame
Weighs 196 pounds for consistent box duty.
- 04
Interception numbers
Has only five career interceptions despite heavy snap volume.
— — — positional median (p50)
- 40 yd
- —s
- Vertical
- 31inp50
- Broad jump
- 117inp50
- Three-cone
- 7.09sp50
- Shuttle
- 4.32sp50
- Bench
- 12repp50
| Yr | Team | G | Tkl | Sk | Int | PD | FF |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | Maryland | 12 | 16 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| 2022 | Maryland | 13 | 58 | 0 | 2 | 3 | 0 |
| 2023 | Maryland | 12 | 53 | 0 | 2 | 7 | 0 |
| 2024 | Maryland | 10 | 59 | 0 | 1 | 4 | 0 |
| Career | — | 47 | 186 | 0 | 5 | 15 | 0 |
A dash means the figure is not published by a source we trust — never a zero we invented.
Trader shows flashes of Williams's range and ball-hawking tendencies, though he needs to develop more consistency in his coverage and tackling to reach that level.
Blackmon plays with instincts and burst, mirroring Trader's ability to cover ground and make plays on the ball in a versatile secondary role.
Redwine's career trajectory as a rotational safety and special teams contributor reflects Trader's potential floor if his coverage skills do not fully translate to the NFL.
Everything above is the pre-draft evaluation. This section is what actually happened — updated year over year.
Miami's secondary needed a communicator who could take the deep half and let the corners play aggressively underneath. Trader fit that description exactly.
His rookie season was spent on special teams and in subpackage defensive roles, which is the honest expectation for a fifth-round safety on a roster with established starters.
Nothing about the pre-draft read has changed. The intelligence is real and travels; the speed limit is real and does not go away. In a two-high defense he can start. In a single-high scheme that asks him to cover grass alone, he cannot.