Terrell
Burgess.
Terrell
Burgess.
Utah· 5'11"· 202 lb· 4.46s 40
"A four-year Utah defensive back who waited behind three NFL picks, then started fourteen games, led the secondary in tackles, and turned one season of positionless tape into a third-round selection."Pre-draft read
Burgess is a positionless defensive back who spent his senior year proving he could line up anywhere Utah needed. He played deep safety, rolled into the box, covered tight ends from the slot and worked every core special-teams unit. The tape is instincts and angles, not length or explosiveness.
He is at his best coming downhill, triggering on run action and arriving square with reliable tackling form, which is how a defensive back finished third on a Pac-12 championship team in tackles. In coverage he mirrors well inside and reads concepts, but lacks the recovery speed to carry vertical routes and the size to win contested throws. The signature is versatility with maturity attached, a fourth-year player who finally started and looked ready.
A multiple sub-package defense that rotates safeties by matchup and wants a communicator who can cover a tight end from the slot on one snap and fill the alley on the next.
Year 1 special-teams starter and third safety in dime packages, with a ceiling as a versatile starting strong safety in a rotation-heavy secondary.
A static two-deep shell that asks its safeties to carry the deep half alone against vertical speed with no help underneath.
Terrell Burgess Film Analysis
Snap-by-snap breakdown of the senior tape scouts used to grade the versatility.
Terrell Burgess Utah Utes Career and L.A. Rams Draft Pick
Career overview covering the three reserve seasons and the breakout year.
Terrell Burgess will Make an Impact on Gameday in Many Different Ways | Inside the Draft
Team-produced evaluation explaining how Los Angeles planned to deploy him.
Burgess spent three seasons waiting. He arrived in 2016 and sat behind a secondary that produced NFL picks in Marcus Williams and Marquise Blair, contributing on special teams while briefly splitting time at receiver early on. Across 2016, 2017 and 2018 he played 31 games and recorded 35 total tackles.
Then the 2019 season arrived and he started all fourteen games at strong safety. He finished third on the team and first among defensive backs with 81 tackles, added 7.5 tackles for loss and a half sack, recovered two fumbles to rank second on the roster and fourth in the Pac-12, and broke up five passes with his first career interception. His biggest game was the biggest stage: twelve tackles and a pass breakup against Oregon in the Pac-12 Championship. He earned honorable mention All-Pac-12 and was a two-time Pac-12 All-Academic selection who graduated in kinesiology.
The evaluation was a one-year sample against a strong athletic testing profile and universal praise for preparation. He was the third member of that Utah secondary drafted in 2020, after Jaylon Johnson and Julian Blackmon, the first time in school history three defensive backs went in one year. Los Angeles took him at 104 without deciding whether he was a safety or a slot corner.
- 01
Positional versatility
Played deep safety, box safety and slot corner at Utah, giving a coordinator a chess piece for sub packages.
- 02
Downhill trigger
Finished third on a Pac-12 championship team in tackles as a defensive back by reading run action and arriving on time.
- 03
Reliable tackler
Consistent form and angles in space, with a career-high twelve stops against Oregon in the conference title game.
- 04
Football intelligence
Two-time Pac-12 All-Academic selection, praised throughout the pre-draft process for preparation and recall.
- 05
Special-teams resume
Three seasons of core coverage work before he started, a ready-made path to a roster spot as a rookie.
- 01
One year of starting tape
Just fourteen career starts, with only 35 tackles across his first three seasons on the roster.
- 02
No vertical recovery speed
Cannot carry fast receivers down the seam, which caps him as a true single-high free safety.
- 03
Frame and length limits
At barely 5-11 and 202 pounds he loses contested catches and struggles to disengage from bigger blockers.
- 04
Position undefined
Teams could not agree whether he was a safety or a slot corner, which risks him becoming neither at the next level.
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
- 4.46sp50
- Vertical
- 33.5inp50
- Broad jump
- 122inp50
- Three-cone
- —s
- Shuttle
- —s
- Bench
- 20repp50
| Yr | Team | G | Tkl | Sk | Int | PD | FF |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2016 | Utah | 4 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| 2017 | Utah | 13 | 18 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 2018 | Utah | 14 | 16 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 0 |
| 2019 | Utah | 14 | 81 | 0.5 | 1 | 5 | 0 |
| Career | — | 45 | 116 | 0.5 | 1 | 9 | 0 |
Sports-Reference totals with bowl games included; the four seasons sum exactly to the 45-game, 116-tackle career line. Utah official releases credit him with 7.5 tackles for loss and six passes defended in 2019, counting a half-tackle for loss and an interception differently from the conference-verified figures used here. His 2019 interception went for 29 yards.
A dash means the figure is not published by a source we trust — never a zero we invented.
A late-blooming Utah-style safety who parlays instincts and tackling into a long, steady starting role.
The ceiling: a positionless defensive back who becomes a defense's most trusted chess piece across slot, box and deep alignments.
A capable rotational safety whose availability keeps getting interrupted before he can hold a full-time job.
Everything above is the pre-draft evaluation. This section is what actually happened — updated year over year.
His rookie year ended in October. Burgess debuted in Week 1 of 2020 against Dallas, played 46 defensive snaps across seven games, then broke his ankle against Chicago in Week 7 and missed the rest of the season. He was active for all sixteen games of the Rams Super Bowl year in 2021 with two starts, and started the Wild Card win over Arizona and the Divisional win over Tampa Bay in that playoff run, which remains the high point of his career. Los Angeles released him in November 2022; the Giants signed him to the practice squad, elevated him once, then released him with an injury settlement in May 2023 after a failed physical.
Washington gave him twelve games and 25 tackles in 2023. He missed 2024 entirely, resurfaced in New Orleans for all sixteen games in 2025 with 22 tackles and three passes defensed, and opened 2026 in Tennessee. Six seasons in, the line reads 61 games, five starts and 77 tackles. In hindsight the versatility that got him drafted in the third round is exactly what has kept him employed, but the broken ankle in year one cost him the developmental window, and he never became more than a backup and special-teams body.