Round 3, Pick 76

Kyle Dugger, S, Lenoir-Rhyne

Height: 6-1

Weight: 217

Class: Senior

D.O.B.: 3/22/96

Statistical Profile: After spending six years at Lenoir-Rhyne after a redshirt in 2014 and a medical redshirt in 2016, Dugger will be one of the oldest prospects in the 2020 NFL Draft, turning 24 this past Sunday. Over the course of his career at Lenoir-Rhyne, Dugger played in 42 games, with injuries keeping him to just seven contests during his senior season. When he was on the field, the big safety made his presence felt, amassing 10 interceptions, 36 pass breakups, 6.5 tackles-for-loss and six forced fumbles.

Scouting Dugger: The word “missile” gets throw around a lot for safety prospects, but it truly is an apt description of Dugger. If he reads low hat on the offensive line or any backfield motion resembling a run, he’s mashing the gas and asking questions later.

Dugger loves to play fast and violent, and at the D-II level, where he was bigger and faster than most other skill position players, that style served him well. He is always looking to mix it up in the box, and his absurd closing speed allows him to play with a ton of range when working downhill, especially out near the boundaries. His burst to the ball and his physicality as a tackler are probably his best two traits.

Dugger will hit when he arrives too, although he could benefit from throttling down more consistently, as he will overshoot tackles and slip off ball carriers on occasion.

Big hit on the goal line, but doesn’t wrap up. Touchdown.

Dugger will also take highly aggressive angles to the football a good amount of the time, overshooting his mark and taking himself out of plays. His best traits are the speed and violence with which he plays the game, but those can turn into negatives when he isn’t under control and playing assignment sound.

Unfortunately, Dugger’s aggressive tendencies are also his undoing as a post safety. Lenoir-Rhyne left him at free safety most of the time, and Dugger frequently abandoned his deep middle coverage to try to lay the wood to receivers underneath or on the perimeter. He plays through a straw in every sense of the phrase, from a lack of awareness to anything happening on his peripherals to the tightness in his hips when he has to re-direct laterally.

Dugger’s lack of mental processing and instincts in deep coverage would give me significant concern in having him play free safety, as he just blows assignments far too often with his gambling style of play.

RPO clears him well out of the middle of the field, corner does a nice job behind him to force the incompletion. But Dugger has no regard for his assignment, watch his steps compared to the other safety.

Dugger simply doesn’t play with much anticipation, he’s more of a see-it-and-react type of defender, and while his reactions are quick, the constant biting on fakes and misdirections will put an NFL defense in some tough spots if they play Dugger deep.

I’m not even sure where he’s going here. Trying to jump one of the routes to the field if it’s a quick throw? As a free safety with these cornerbacks in man coverage? That’s not a thought process that is going to work in the NFL. It’s a touchdown to the slot receiver if the corner doesn’t grab him around the waist, all because he has no help over the top.

A lot of those same tendencies impact Dugger in man coverage too, where he occasionally aligned in the slot for the Bears. He just looks sped up in his process, and receivers who knew what they were doing as route runners consistently opened up good-sized windows against him. You can see the speed and quickness are there to mature into a quality tight end stopper, but the footwork and mental processing are too far behind to count on him making an early impact in that role.

Quarterback ends up running with this, but Dugger bites hard on the double move and gets beat down the seam by No. 2. I get inching up on this, but you have to be in control in coverage, can’t be selling out and leaving the seams wide open. If more Lenoir-Rhyne opposing quarterbacks could have hit (or even attempted) these passes, Dugger’s numbers in coverage would have looked a lot worse.

Separation against Dugger in man coverage was frequent on tape, but this rep demonstrates why that was so often the case. Dugger thinks the receiver is breaking inside on his pattern, and recklessly charges at his opponent at the top of the route. The receiver deftly breaks inside and Dugger is left speed-turning to regain a monumental amount of ground that his sloppy technique created. The receiver doesn’t remain in the camera angle, but you can see if the quarterback has time to throw here, a massive window has opened up.

If Division II slot receivers are opening up throwing windows against you in man coverage, I’m guessing the NFL is gonna be a pretty big jump. Dugger also plays deep safety like a gap-shooting linebacker, constantly looking to fly up to the wings or into the box and level the ball carrier. He takes some rough angles at times and needs to play with a little more thought and a little less action at times, but he has speed and size and aggression that every NFL team will want to get on the football field, the question is, where? Can he move to linebacker full-time at the next level?

Bucs Fit: Dugger’s best role early in his career will be as a dime-backer, playing in the box in a pseudo-linebacker role and slowly earning his way into slot reps against certain match-ups. His size, length and long speed suggest a player teams will work hard to get on the field as a tight end/big slot receiver eraser, but Dugger will need significant work in his attention to detail before he can assume that role in the NFL.

If Tampa Bay drafts a safety, they should be focused on center-fielding free safety types, not box defensive backs. Some team may grab Dugger before the 76th pick if they believe they can develop him the rest of the way, but the Bucs don’t need another project in their young secondary, especially one that doesn’t fill their biggest need as a deep cover man in the wake of Justin Evans’ injury uncertainty. I’d pass on Dugger if Tampa Bay wanted him as a free safety.