2021 NFL Draft safety rankings: Grant and Moehrig battle for the top spot

3. Andre Cisco, Syracuse
6-foot-1, 216 pounds
2021 NFL Draft grade: Second round

Over the past three years, no safety in college football has been more of a ballhawk than Syracuse’s Andre Cisco. In just the 24 games he played in he recorded 13 interceptions and 14 pass breakups, and these numbers would have been significantly higher if he didn’t miss time due to injuries. However, he missed most of the 2020 season with a torn ACL and also missed three games in 2019 due to injury.

A team looking for a player who is a great center fielder when the ball is in the area would be wise to strongly consider Andre Cisco. He does an outstanding job of tracking the ball in the air and also shows the reliable hands to bring in the interception instead of just breaking up the pass. He is a force vs the run and is not afraid to make the big hit either. This physicality also helps him in pass coverage since he is known to lay out receivers who try and go across the middle on him.

Any player who is coming off a season-ending injury is always going to be a medical risk, and that is definitely the case with Cisco. To make him even more of a medical risk though is the reckless way he throws his body around which will likely lead to more injuries down the road. Another concern with his reckless style of play is it can lead to both him missing tackles and blowing coverages at times.

While Cisco will need to become a more disciplined player in the NFL he has all the tools to become a high caliber starting safety in the NFL. Two teams that have shown interest in him and would be a good fit are the Dallas Cowboys and Chicago Bears. It would make sense if one of these teams took him at the end of the second or early in the third round of the 2021 NFL Draft.