Jeremy
Chinn.
Jeremy
Chinn.
Southern Illinois· 6'3"· 221 lb· 4.45s 40
"A 6-3, 221-pound FCS safety who posted the best athletic testing line ever recorded at his position, forcing teams to decide whether they could build a role for a defender who was neither a true free safety nor a linebacker."Pre-draft read
Chinn is a box safety built like a linebacker who moves like a corner. He plays best coming forward, reading the run from depth and arriving with force in the alley, and he is comfortable walking down over a tight end. The tackling radius is enormous because of his length and closing burst.
The differentiator is what the frame can do. At his size he ran in the mid-4.4s and tested near the top of the athletic charts, which lets a defense move him around without losing anything. He plays the ball well when he can see the quarterback and has real range from the middle of the field. He is stiffer than he is fast, though: turning and running from a shuffle costs him time, and tight man coverage on quick route runners is not where he wins.
Multiple defense that plays a defined strong safety in the box on early downs and uses him as a sub-package linebacker against 11 personnel.
Year 1 starting strong safety who plays the run downhill and covers tight ends in zone, with a ceiling as a defensive chess piece who lets the front stay in nickel against every personnel group.
A single-high system that asks him to play deep middle every snap and match slot receivers in man coverage, where the transition stiffness shows up immediately.
He needs a coordinator who commits to one primary role; moving him weekly between safety and linebacker cost him two seasons in Carolina.
SIU Safety Jeremy Chinn Highlights
Full college cutup, the best single look at the range and downhill hitting that defined his Saluki tape.
Jeremy Chinn Southern Illinois Highlights
Additional game reel from his junior and senior seasons with the ball-production plays.
Jeremy Chinn Puts Up Incredible Numbers at the NFL Scouting Combine
The Indianapolis workout that produced the best recorded athletic testing line by a safety and moved him into the second round.
Chinn was a lightly recruited defensive back out of Fishers, Indiana, who grew into the best player on an FCS defense. He started four years at Southern Illinois and produced in all of them, leaving with 243 tackles, 13 interceptions, 31 passes defended and six forced fumbles from 2016 through 2019. He earned three straight all-conference honors and was a consensus All-American as a senior, when he posted 71 tackles and four interceptions.
The evaluation questions were the obvious ones for a small-school defender. He had faced FCS offenses for four years, and his ball production came in part from quarterbacks who did not see him. Teams needed to know whether the range and physicality would carry, and the Senior Bowl answered part of that: he held up against better competition and interviewed as well as anyone at the position.
Then Indianapolis settled it. At 6-3 and 221 pounds he ran in the mid-4.4s with a 41-inch vertical and a broad jump past 11 feet, posting the best relative athletic score ever recorded by a safety. That workout turned a Day 3 small-school prospect into a second-round pick. The call was whether a defense could build a real position for a player too big to be a free safety and too fast to be a linebacker.
- 01
Rare athletic profile
Mid-4.4 speed with a 41-inch vertical at 221 pounds, an athletic testing line that no safety had matched at the combine before him.
- 02
Downhill force
Triggers fast on run keys and finishes with genuine pop in the alley, turning short gains into stops and knocking the ball loose on contact.
- 03
Positional versatility
Can play the box, the slot, the second level or split-field safety, which lets a defense keep the same personnel against any offensive grouping.
- 04
Ball production
Thirteen career interceptions and 31 passes defended across four starting seasons, with the length and timing to high-point throws over receivers.
- 05
Four-year durability
Started every season from his freshman year forward and never missed meaningful time, with no medical flags entering the draft.
- 01
Hip fluidity
Stiff in transition for a defensive back, losing ground when he has to flip and run rather than drive forward on what he already sees.
- 02
Man coverage limits
Not equipped to travel with slot receivers or move tight ends in isolation, which caps how a defense can deploy him on third down.
- 03
Level of competition
Four years of FCS offenses means much of the ball production came against quarterbacks and receivers he physically overwhelmed.
- 04
Position definition
Neither a true free safety nor a linebacker, so the value depends entirely on a coordinator building a specific role rather than plugging him in.
Relative Athletic Score (Kent Lee Platte) benchmarks combine/pro-day numbers against every measured prospect at the position since 1987. 10.00 is elite; 5.00 is average.
— — — positional median (p50)
- 40 yd
- 4.45sp50
- Vertical
- 41inp50
- Broad jump
- 138inp50
- Three-cone
- —s
- Shuttle
- —s
- Bench
- 20repp50
| Yr | Team | G | Tkl | Sk | Int | PD | FF |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2016 | Southern Illinois | — | 66 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 0 |
| 2017 | Southern Illinois | — | 51 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 0 |
| 2018 | Southern Illinois | — | 55 | 0 | 3 | 7 | 2 |
| 2019 | Southern Illinois | — | 71 | 0 | 4 | 3 | 0 |
| Career | — | — | 243 | 0 | 13 | 31 | 6 |
Career totals of 243 tackles, 13 interceptions, 31 passes defended and six forced fumbles from 2016 to 2019 are confirmed by Southern Illinois. Season tackle and interception splits sum exactly to those career figures. Per-season games, tackles for loss, sacks, fumble recoveries and most pass-breakup splits are not published in a verifiable source and are left null rather than estimated.
A dash means the figure is not published by a source we trust — never a zero we invented.
Hybrid safety-linebacker who produces heavy tackle volume in a defined role and depends on a coordinator who protects him in coverage.
The ceiling version, where the size-speed combination becomes a true defensive weapon who rushes, covers and plays the run at an All-Pro level.
Tweener drafted high who bounces between positions, never settles into one, and becomes a volume tackler rather than an impact defender.
Everything above is the pre-draft evaluation. This section is what actually happened — updated year over year.
Carolina built the role immediately. Chinn started 15 games as a rookie in 2020, put up 117 combined tackles with five passes defensed and an interception, returned two fumbles for touchdowns in the same game against Minnesota, and finished as the runner-up for Defensive Rookie of the Year with All-Rookie honors. He followed that with 107 tackles in 16 starts in 2021. The next two seasons were bumpier: a hamstring injury cost him most of 2022 and he played 11 games, and a quad injury limited him to 12 games and eight starts in 2023 as the Panthers shuffled his role between safety and linebacker. He rebuilt his value in Washington in 2024 with 117 tackles in all 17 games, then signed with Las Vegas in 2025 and posted 114 tackles in 15 starts.
In hindsight this was one of the better Day 2 picks in the class. Chinn has started 84 of his 88 career games across three teams, which is the definition of return on a pick at the top of the third round. The limitation the evaluation identified is also exactly what capped him: he is a tackle-volume defender rather than a ball-hawking safety, with three career interceptions in seven seasons. Carolina hurt him for a stretch by moving him between roles instead of committing to one, and his best football has come when a coordinator simply lets him play downhill in the box.
Data note: from Kansas City via Seattle