K'Von
Wallace.
K'Von
Wallace.
Clemson· 5'11"· 206 lb· 4.53s 40
"A permanent Clemson captain who tied the school record with 59 games played and broke up 21 passes — a physical nickel-safety hybrid whose range, not his instincts, sets the ceiling."Pre-draft read
Wallace is a nickel-safety hybrid who lives in the box and the slot. At 5-11 and 205 pounds he triggers fast on run fits and tackles with force, and he was Clemson's answer whenever the defense needed a back who could handle a tight end or slot receiver in man.
He is at his best with his eyes forward and a clear assignment, blitzing off the slot, matching in man, and rallying to the flat. He tracks the ball well when he gets a chance at it, taking one interception 66 yards for a touchdown as a senior. Range as a true deep-middle safety is the limit. He plays faster downhill than he does turning and running, so he is a matchup piece rather than a single-high eraser. The signature is versatility and a captain's instincts.
A multiple defense that uses a third safety as a nickel matchup piece against tight ends and slot receivers rather than as a deep-middle player.
Year 1 third safety and special-teams contributor covering tight ends in sub packages, with a ceiling as a starting strong safety in a two-high defense that keeps him near the line.
A single-high system that asks one safety to cover the deep middle of the field alone and erase vertical routes from hash to sideline.
K'Von Wallace 2019 Season Highlights - Clemson DB
Conference network cutup of his senior year, including the pick-six against Charlotte.
Clemson S K'Von Wallace Highlight Reel - 2019 Season
Full senior-season reel showing the box work, slot coverage and blitz snaps.
Clemson S K'Von Wallace Top Plays 2018
Junior-year plays from the national championship defense.
Wallace is a four-year Clemson defender whose value was defined by the number of jobs he could do. A Richmond, Virginia, product, he played 59 career games — tied for the most in program history — with 36 starts and 1,896 snaps across a stretch in which Clemson played for three national championships.
His final line reads 178 career tackles with 5.5 for loss, 21 passes broken up, five interceptions returned for 180 yards including one score, two sacks and two forced fumbles. His senior year was his best: 81 tackles, three for loss, ten breakups, two sacks and two interceptions in 698 snaps over fifteen starts. He was a permanent team captain, third-team All-ACC and an academic All-ACC selection, and he had the signature game of his career against Texas A&M, leading the team with ten tackles including a sack and a pressure that produced an interception, earning conference defensive back of the week — the program's first since 2012.
The board read him as a nickel-safety tweener with ideal makeup: too physical and too instinctive to be off an NFL roster, not rangy enough to be a true free safety. Philadelphia, which needed slot and box coverage help, took him at 127.
- 01
Coverage versatility
Matched tight ends and slot receivers in man coverage at a program that asked him to change roles nearly every week.
- 02
Downhill trigger
Diagnoses run action quickly and arrives with force, which is how he put together 178 career tackles from a defensive back spot.
- 03
Ball production
Broke up 21 passes and returned five career interceptions for 180 yards, including a 66-yard touchdown as a senior.
- 04
Blitz value
Recorded two sacks as a senior pressuring from the slot, a real weapon for a defensive coordinator who likes simulated pressure.
- 05
Leadership and durability
A permanent team captain who tied the school record for career games played with 59 across four seasons.
- 01
Limited deep range
Plays much faster coming forward than turning and running, which caps him as a single-high free safety.
- 02
Tweener frame
At 5-11 and 205 pounds he is small for a true box safety and not quite fast enough to live outside as a corner.
- 03
Straight-line speed
Gets stacked by faster vertical threats when asked to carry a receiver down the seam without help over the top.
- 04
Angles in space
Aggression occasionally takes him past the ball carrier when he has to tackle in the open field on the perimeter.
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
- 4.53sp50
- Vertical
- 38inp50
- Broad jump
- 133inp50
- Three-cone
- 6.76sp50
- Shuttle
- 4.15sp50
- Bench
- 18repp50
| Yr | Team | G | Tkl | Sk | Int | PD | FF |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2016 | Clemson | — | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 2017 | Clemson | — | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 2018 | Clemson | — | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 2019 | Clemson | 15 | 81 | 2 | 2 | 10 | 0 |
| Career | — | 59 | 178 | 2 | 5 | 21 | 2 |
Career totals and the 2019 season line come from Clemson's official player page: 59 games with 36 starts, 178 tackles, 5.5 for loss, 21 breakups, five interceptions for 180 yards and two forced fumbles. His 2016 through 2018 seasons were not published individually and are left empty rather than derived by subtraction.
A dash means the figure is not published by a source we trust — never a zero we invented.
A rotational safety who plays a lot of special teams and gets a stretch of starts when injuries hit.
The ceiling: a big nickel who finds the right defense, starts for years and becomes a defensive signal-caller.
A tweener defensive back who never finds a defined role and bounces between rosters on a one-year deal at a time.
Everything above is the pre-draft evaluation. This section is what actually happened — updated year over year.
Wallace became exactly the rotational piece his scouting report described. He played fifteen games with three starts as a rookie in Philadelphia in 2020, then thirteen games with three starts in 2021 and all seventeen with one start in 2022, mostly on special teams and in sub packages behind the safeties the Eagles kept adding. His three Eagles seasons produced 64 total tackles.
He left in free agency and 2023 was his real chance. Arizona started him five times in seven games, where he posted 43 tackles, four breakups and the only interception of his career, then traded or released him to Tennessee, where he started seven of ten games and put up 46 more tackles. That 89-tackle season stands as his career year. Seattle signed him for 2024 and used him in nine games with no starts, and 2025 became a scattered year across Minnesota and Houston, where he played three games. Baltimore signed him for 2026. Through 2025 his line reads 74 games, 20 starts, 177 tackles, eight passes defended and one interception. The evaluation was correct in both directions: a useful depth defender, never a starter.