History favors draftees in the battle to make the roster
Looking back over the Les Snead/Sean McVay years, the Los Angeles Rams have not been afraid to put draft capital into the safety position. Starting with John Johnson (Rd3, #91) in 2017, then on to Taylor Rapp (Rd2, #61), and Terrell Burgess (Rd3, #104), before finishing up with Kamren Kinchens in 2024 (Rd3, #99), L.A. has gambled a Round 3 or better pick every couple of years. What they don’t do is hand out second contracts to safeties. Not one in the Snead/McVay years has been re-upped after their rookie contracts expire.
Obviously, the Rams don’t put long-term value on safeties. Another thing they don’t do is plug in many undrafted free agents (UDFA) at safety. Late round picks, yes, but not so much on UDFAs. Jaylen McCollough was an outlier in 2024 with 335 snaps and his work came primarily as a hybrid linebacker/safety. You would have to go back to Cody Davis in 2017 (285 snaps) to find a UDFA safety receiving any real action.
That brings us to this year’s UDFA safeties. Can they press McCollough for a roster spot, special teams work, and possibly earn defensive snaps?
Meet the candidates
Nate Valcarcel – Northern Illinois 6’ 194 lb. 30 5/8” arms 9 1/4” hands
Pro Day: 1.55/4.53 forty 6.90 shuttle 4.13 3cone 34.5” vert 9’ 8” broad
Originally signed with South Dakota and was limited to the COVID19 limited schedule, four games on special teams, in the spring of 2021. Transferred to Northern Illinois for the full fall slate later in 2021 and stayed four full seasons for the Huskies. Recruited as a cornerback, Valcarcel switched to safety midway through his tenure and blossomed into a starter. All told, he had 25 starts in 51 games with 111 tackles, four for loss, 2.5 sacks, five interceptions and 14 passes broken up.
Lean build. Valcarcel’s pursuit to the ball, both on the ground and through the air stands out. Played a lot of single-high safety and his film bears out his strong testing numbers on balance, flexibility, agility, and change of direction. Versus the run, he shows good pursuit angles, quick read/react processing, and an aggressive demeanor. His tackling is good, breaking down and getting himself under control, and wrapping up. Against the pass, his cornerback past clearly shows. He reads the quarterback well, shows route recognition, and is adept at both breaking downhill or flipping his hips open and turning to cover deep routes. Northern Illinois used him to blitz and he showed he can get to the QB, even from 20 yards deep.
Valcarcel is an athletic prospect with plus ball-hawking and pursuit skills and has made steady upward progress in his college career. He offers some good film vs. better competition than the MAC generally provides. While a shade on the thin side, his frame could easily add and handle the six pounds a pro strength/conditioning/menu program would provide and bring him up to the 200 lb. standard. HIs special teams background and “full tilt boogie” play style could go a long way in finding a roster spot and contributing while he learns the pro game.
Malik Dixon-Williams – UCONN 6’ 203 lb. 31 7/8” arms 9 5/8” hands
Pro Day: 1.60/4.60 forty 7.43 shuttle 4.36 3cone 40.5”vert 10’ 4” broad
Dixon-Williams lost his first two seasons at UCONN to a redshirt and the 2020 COVID19 cancellation. He made up for lost time by appearing in 44 games over his final four seasons. Over that span, he recorded 258 tackles, 7.5 for loss, seven interceptions, 18 passes defended, and two forced fumbles. He considered transferring to a bigger program for 2024, Oklahoma being the report, but decided to close out with the Huskies.
He certainly looks the part of an NFL safety size-wise with long arms and looks bigger on film. Dixon-Williams’ film is inconsistent (2022 is best), at times he flies to the ball and lays the wood on runners, but at others, he plays tentatively. He seems solid in coverage and UCONN employed him at all three levels of the defense. He looks better coming downhill, and takes better angles when he lets go and reacts. It appears that he’s a half-step slow in pursuit and tries to get where he thinks the ball will go instead of attacking it. It make’s me think he’s best suited for an underneath, box safety role.
Not a lot of extended UCONN defensive film available, mostly snippets of games. He did have a productive career and missed quite a few games with injuries. There were also a couple of cases where he missed the first halves of games, for whatever reason. His early career film is best. He also saw some early career work on special teams, but that waned as he stacked seasons. Interestingly, to find a place on the Rams roster, he’ll have to show that he can cover and block on special teams to get his chance.
A tale of two safeties
Two completely different play styles here.
Not a lot of available room at the table for Valcarcel and Dixon-Williams as the Rams return two dug-in vets (Kam Curl and Quentin Lake) along with two second-year players (Kam Kinchens and Jaylen McCollough), that received considerable reps as rookies.
There’s only one realistic role to be had, special teams warrior. Another bump in the road is how that special teams role could boil down to a pair of other positional outcomes, One, how many veteran cornerbacks L.A. decides to keep, it may be as many as six. And two, how many linebackers are kept, possibly five. The second outcome could also affect the Rams use of “big dime” packages with three safeties on the field.
Nate Valcarcel is the more athletic of the two and shows the traits of a rangy free safety. He enters as the fastest and most athletic player in the Rams safety room. His stature and strength are a bit under the norm, it’s not a sizable gap and although not a thumper, he’s aggressive and always churning at 100%. A good UDFA find with both pass coverage and run fit ability.
Malik Dixon-Williams has prototypical safety build and length. He also has a similar physical and athletic profile as the Rams returnees to the unit.. His best play was back in 2022 and he looked ready to breakout, but nagging injuries and sometimes indifferent effort have marred his last two college seasons with inconsistency. There are enough high-end flashes in his game to warrant development.
Can either of these rookies make the roster?
