Safety

Safety (S) First Round Draft Trends

This page tracks every safety selected in Round 1 of the NFL Draft from 2021 through 2025, with pick-by-pick scoring under both the Huddle Report and FantasyPros systems. Use the year toggles to isolate individual draft classes or compare S selection patterns across all five years.

Understanding how many safetys go in Round 1 each year — and where in the round they cluster — is one of the most effective ways to improve mock draft accuracy. Position-specific trends help you decide whether to project a safety at a given slot or anticipate a position run that could push Ss into a different range than expected.

Build your 2026 mock draft with these historical S trends in mind, then check the accuracy leaderboard after draft night to see how your safety picks scored.

Teams Likely to Draft a Safety in 2026

Based on current team needs, the following teams have safety as a top-3 positional need heading into the 2026 NFL Draft. As a defensive position, safetys are on the defensive side of the ball — see the offense vs defense analysis for how each side has trended from 2021–2025:

• New York Giants — Pick #5
• New York Giants — Pick #10
• Minnesota Vikings — Pick #18
• Chicago Bears — Pick #25

Related Analysis

• Offense vs Defense — how side-of-ball distribution shapes Round 1 each year
• Accuracy by Pick Range — where in the round predictions are hardest
• Position Runs — consecutive same-position picks that shift S draft slots
• 1st Round Misses — projected Round 1 players who fell to Day 2
• Consensus Big Board — 86.3% of top-32 ranked prospects go in Round 1