Amari
Burney.
Amari
Burney.
Florida
"A safety who kept growing into a linebacker: five years of position changes at Florida ended with one loud senior season, and the play everyone remembers is a diving interception in the end zone."Pre-draft read
A converted safety who finished at Florida as an every-down inside linebacker, Burney kept sliding down the position ladder — nickel and STAR early, off-ball linebacker as a senior — and the coverage background is still the reason to watch him. He plays with his eyes up, matches tight ends and backs without panic, and closes on the throw from depth rather than trailing it.
The senior year added the part scouts doubted: physicality. He blitzed with timing and turned nine tackles for loss into real disruption. He is not a stack-and-shed thumper — guards reaching the second level wall him off — so the projection rides on range, instincts and the special-teams value that comes with a former defensive back's body.
Multiple front with heavy nickel and dime usage, where the third linebacker is asked to cover more than he is asked to take on blocks
Year 1 core special-teams player and third off-ball linebacker in passing situations; ceiling is a starting WILL in a coverage-first defense that keeps him off guards
A two-gap, downhill 3-4 that plays its inside linebackers behind big nose tackles and asks them to spill lead blockers on every early down
He is a coverage defender wearing a linebacker number, so the scheme has to protect him in the run fits to get the passing-down value.
AMARI BURNEY SEALS THE W FOR FLORIDA ON A DIVING PICK
The signature play of his career: the diving end-zone interception that beat No. 7 Utah in the 2022 opener.
Florida Football Film Study: Amari Burney Linebacker Preview
All-22 breakdown of his move from nickel and STAR to full-time inside linebacker.
Tale of the tape: Amari Burney just might find a role on the Raider defense
Post-draft study of how Las Vegas projected his coverage traits into their sub packages.
Burney arrived in the 2023 class as one of the more experienced defenders available: five seasons at Florida, 58 games, and a body that kept adding weight without losing coverage feel. He was recruited as a two-way high school athlete, played his freshman year as a reserve defensive back and special-teams core, then worked through STAR and nickel before landing at inside linebacker as a full-time starter.
The senior tape was the argument. He started all 13 games in 2022 and posted 79 tackles, 9.0 tackles for loss, four sacks, two forced fumbles and two interceptions — including the diving end-zone pick that sealed the biggest win of Billy Napier's tenure, plus an eight-tackle, two-sack night at Tennessee. The flags were the age and the profile: he turned 23 during his final season, his 2021 year was mostly rotational with two starts, and there was only one season of high-volume linebacker production to grade.
Boards read him as a late Day 3 linebacker with special-teams certainty and a coverage backup's ceiling. His pro day put a 4.51 forty and a 7.00 three-cone on paper, athletic enough to defend the role without changing the grade. Las Vegas, restocking a rebuilding front seven, took him at 203.
- 01
Coverage instincts
Five years of nickel, STAR and inside linebacker reps show up in zone drops: he reads the quarterback from depth and undercuts throws instead of trailing routes.
- 02
Ball production
Four career interceptions and 11 pass breakups from a linebacker's body, capped by the diving end-zone pick that beat Utah in the 2022 opener.
- 03
Blitz timing
Nine tackles for loss and four sacks as a senior, most of them earned by hitting the gap on time rather than by beating a blocker one on one.
- 04
Special-teams pedigree
Broke into the program as a freshman core teams player and never lost that role, which is exactly the resume that survives a 53-man cut.
- 05
Positional versatility
Has taken real snaps at safety, nickel, STAR and both inside linebacker spots, giving a defensive staff a sub-package chess piece.
- 01
Take-on strength
Gets covered up by climbing guards and tight ends; when he has to hold a gap against a downhill run game he is displaced rather than stacking and shedding.
- 02
One-year sample
Only the 2022 season is high-volume linebacker tape, so the projection leans on a single year of production at the position he would play in the NFL.
- 03
Age
Turned 23 during his final college season and 24 in his rookie year, leaving little development runway for a player who needs to add play strength.
- 04
Tackling consistency
Arrives with the range but not always the finish, and misses come from shooting a shoulder into contact instead of wrapping through the ball carrier.
| Yr | Team | G | Tkl | Sk | Int | PD | FF |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2018 | Florida | 12 | 11 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 0 |
| 2019 | Florida | 8 | 37 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| 2020 | Florida | 12 | 52 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 0 |
| 2021 | Florida | 13 | 44 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 0 |
| 2022 | Florida | 13 | 79 | 4 | 2 | 4 | 2 |
| Career | — | 58 | 223 | 7 | 4 | 0 | 0 |
cfbstats.com publishes only three of his five seasons and those are used verbatim: 2020 (12 G, 52 tackles, 2.5 TFL, 2.0 sacks, 1 INT, 2 PBU, 0 FF), 2021 (13 G, 44 tackles, 2.0 TFL, 3 PBU, 0 FF, no sacks or interceptions listed) and 2022 (13 G, 79 tackles, 9.0 TFL, 4.0 sacks, 2 INT, 4 PBU, 2 FF). cfbstats has no player page for 2018 or 2019, so those two lines come from his official Florida biography: 12 games with 11 tackles, 2.0 TFL, 1 sack and 2 pass breakups as a freshman, and eight games with three starts, 37 tackles, 0.5 TFL, one interception and one fumble recovery as a sophomore. Categories the bio does not state are left null rather than zero: 2019 pass breakups and forced fumbles, plus fumble recoveries in 2018, 2020 and 2021, since cfbstats does not track fumble recoveries. Career games (58) and career tackles (223) sum exactly across the five verified seasons, as do 16.0 TFL, 7.0 sacks and four interceptions; career pass breakups, forced fumbles and fumble recoveries stay null because at least one season is unverified in each. Documented discrepancy: Wikipedia, citing Sports-Reference, lists 224 career tackles and 15 career sacks; the 15-sack figure does not survive a season-by-season check against cfbstats and the official bio, so the verified totals above are used.
A dash means the figure is not published by a source we trust — never a zero we invented.
Former safety who grew into a linebacker body and earns snaps in sub packages while carrying special-teams value.
Undersized instinct linebacker who became a full-time starter by diagnosing fast and playing the pass better than his frame suggests.
Convert linebacker whose NFL contribution stays on the kicking units and never turns into a defensive role.
Everything above is the pre-draft evaluation. This section is what actually happened — updated year over year.
Las Vegas used him exactly as drafted. He made the roster as a rookie in 2023 and played seven games with one start, taking 89 defensive snaps against 76 on special teams and finishing with 15 tackles. In 2024 he was healthy all year: 17 games, no starts, 101 defensive snaps but 384 on the kicking units, roughly 81 percent of the special-teams work, with 17 tackles, one sack, three tackles for loss and a forced fumble. That is a full-season core teams player who happens to be the fifth linebacker. The Raiders waived him in May 2025 during a roster overhaul; Tennessee claimed him the next day and cut him at the end of August without a regular-season snap. Jacksonville signed him in August 2026 and released him at final cuts two weeks later.
Judged against the price, this is close to what a 203rd pick is supposed to return: two seasons of cheap, reliable special-teams labor and no expectation of more. Judged against the tape, the frustration is that the coverage trait that made him draftable barely got tested — 190 defensive snaps in two years, no interceptions, no sub-package role built for him. He is not a bust in any meaningful sense and he was never close to a hit either. He is the sixth-round linebacker whose NFL value lived on fourth down, and whose career now depends on a defensive staff that wants a former safety in its dime package.