Jt
Woods.
Jt
Woods.
Baylor· 6'2"· 195 lb· 4.36s 40
Woods is a free safety built on straight-line speed. He ran 4.36 at the combine at 6-2, 193, and he plays with that number: deep-third range that lets a defense keep a single high look, and the burst to close on throws that should be completions between the numbers.
The ball production followed from the range. He led the Big 12 with six interceptions as a senior and finished with nine for his career, most of them on balls he tracked from depth rather than jumped from underneath. The problems are everything closer to the line. He is a thin, high-cut player who tackles with his shoulder, takes poor angles in run support, and struggles to redirect when a route breaks under him.
Single-high free safety in a zone-heavy defense that keeps him on the back end and never asks him to play in the box
Year 1 as a rotational deep safety and full-time special teamer, with the ceiling of a starting center fielder in a Cover 3 defense that pairs him with a physical strong safety
A quarters or match-heavy defense that rotates both safeties into the box and asks each to fit runs, take on pulling guards and match tight ends man-to-man
Baylor Safety JT Woods - Obscure Prospect Series
Full pre-draft film study of his Baylor tape, covering the deep range and the tackling concerns.
The Rookie that allows the Chargers to be their best...
Post-draft breakdown of how Los Angeles planned to deploy him alongside Derwin James.
JT Woods is the best ball-hawking DB in the draft
Short cutup of the senior-season interceptions that drove his Day 2 grade.
Woods was a track sprinter who became a starting safety, and both halves of that description show up on tape. He played 50 games at Baylor with 28 starts and grew into the deep-middle centerpiece of a defense that won the Big 12 and the Sugar Bowl in 2021.
The senior year was the reason he went on Day 2. He posted 57 tackles, five tackles for loss and six interceptions, leading the conference in takeaways and returning one for a score, plus a 97-yard fumble return touchdown. Then he ran 4.36 in Indianapolis, which turned a productive Big 12 safety into a coveted athletic profile. Against that, evaluators listed the same three concerns every time: a 193-pound frame, tackling that got worse the closer he was to the ball, and a game that depended almost entirely on playing deep in a single-high structure.
The projection was narrow but real. A defense that wanted a center fielder with true range and did not ask him to fit runs or cover the slot had a starter. A defense that asked him to play in the box, match tight ends or take on blocks was buying a specialist at a Day 2 price. He came off the board to a team with an established strong safety who could absorb the dirty work.
- 01
Deep range
A 4.36 sprinter at 6-2 who covers the deep third sideline to sideline and lets a defense stay in single-high looks without exposure.
- 02
Ball production
Nine career interceptions including a Big 12-leading six as a senior, most of them tracked from depth rather than jumped underneath.
- 03
Return threat
Turned takeaways into points with a pick-six and a 97-yard fumble return touchdown in 2021, real value on the back end.
- 04
Experience
Fifty career games and 28 starts across four years in the Big 12, including the deep-safety role on a Sugar Bowl-winning defense.
- 05
Testing profile
Elite timed speed and length for the position, exactly the athletic profile defenses look for in a true center fielder.
- 01
Tackling
Leaves his feet and leads with a shoulder instead of wrapping, which turns short completions into long gains in the open field.
- 02
Frame
At 193 pounds he gets moved by blockers and cannot hold up in the box, limiting him to one alignment in most defensive structures.
- 03
Run fits
Takes inconsistent angles downhill and arrives late or out of position when asked to fill against outside-zone runs.
- 04
Short-area quickness
High-cut and slow to redirect, so routes that break underneath him create separation his straight-line speed cannot recover.
— — — positional median (p50)
- 40 yd
- 4.36sp50
- Vertical
- 39.5inp50
- Broad jump
- 128inp50
- Three-cone
- —s
- Shuttle
- —s
- Bench
- —rep
| Yr | Team | G | Tkl | Sk | Int | PD | FF |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2018 | Baylor | 13 | 18 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 0 |
| 2019 | Baylor | 14 | 36 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 2020 | Baylor | 9 | 46 | 0 | 3 | 1 | 0 |
| 2021 | Baylor | 14 | 57 | 0 | 6 | 2 | 0 |
| Career | — | 50 | 157 | 1 | 9 | 5 | 0 |
Season-by-season from Sports-Reference; tackles sum exactly to the 157 career total. cfbstats confirms the 2020 and 2021 interception and tackle lines, listing 58 tackles and 4.5 tackles for loss in 2021 against Sports-Reference's 57 and 5.0. The Giants' team release credits him with 14 career pass breakups, well above the five passes defensed in the season-by-season source used here.
A dash means the figure is not published by a source we trust — never a zero we invented.
A speed-first safety who never tackles well enough to hold a starting job and survives as a backup and special teamer.
The ceiling: a long, rangy safety who becomes a multi-year starter once the tackling technique is cleaned up.
A track-speed defensive back whose lack of physicality washes him out of the league within a few seasons of practice-squad stops.
Everything above is the pre-draft evaluation. This section is what actually happened — updated year over year.
JT Woods played one season for the Los Angeles Chargers as a safety, primarily contributing on special teams. He missed his second season due to illness.
It never happened in Los Angeles. Woods played 10 games as a rookie with one start, 31 defensive snaps and three tackles, then appeared in three games in 2023 before a reserve/non-football illness designation interrupted the season, finishing with five tackles. The Chargers waived him in August 2024. Since then he has been on the practice squads of the Eagles, Bears, Seahawks, Raiders and Jets, and he signed with the Giants in August 2026 after a workout. He has not played a regular-season snap since 2023, and his career line is 13 games, one start, eight tackles.
This is a straightforward miss, and a useful one to study. The traits that made him a third-round pick were real and testable, and the flaws that kept him off the field were also visible on college tape. A safety who cannot tackle reliably or handle underneath coverage needs his range to be elite enough to erase the rest, and at the NFL level it never was. Special teams work kept him employed but never made him a roster lock. Everything the pre-draft report warned about became the reason he could not stick.
Data note: Imported from Wikipedia 2022 NFL draft player selections table.