Demarcco
Hellams.
Demarcco
Hellams.
Alabama· 6'1"· 203 lb· 4.57s 40
"Alabama's 108-tackle tone-setter — a downhill box safety with real thump, average coverage range and SEC pedigree, exactly the profile of a classic day-three special-teams-to-starter bet at pick 224."Pre-draft read
Hellams is a downhill, tone-setting strong safety who spent four seasons at Alabama, rising from special-teams freshman to the Crimson Tide's tackle leader. He plays with a striker's mentality: quick to diagnose run action, aggressive to insert near the line, and a reliable wrap-up finisher who led Alabama with 108 tackles as a senior, sixth in the SEC.
The coverage side is where the profile thins. He is at his best in zone windows in front of him and as a robber, using instincts and route recognition (four career interceptions), but his long speed and change of direction are average, which makes him a liability matched on slots or tight ends vertically. The signature is physicality: he brings real thump in the alley and on special teams.
Downhill, split-safety scheme that keeps him near the line of scrimmage — Cover 2/quarters structures where he can rob routes and trigger against the run
Year 1: core special teamer and rotational box safety; ceiling: starting strong safety next to a rangy free safety
Single-high defenses or man-heavy systems that isolate safeties on slots and tight ends in space
His entire value case lives within 15 yards of the line of scrimmage.
DeMarcco Hellams 2022 Highlights | Alabama DB
Senior-season reel from his 108-tackle, team-leading 2022 campaign.
DeMarcco Hellams — Hard-Hitting Safety Highlights
Compilation of his trademark alley hits and run support at Alabama.
DeMarcco Hellams Makes a Play on Defense | Falcons
NFL clip of Hellams making a defensive play for Atlanta.
Hellams built his resume the Alabama way — DeMatha Catholic product, four-year contributor, and a starter on the 2021 SEC championship defense before becoming the Tide's leading tackler in 2022 with 108 stops, 3 tackles for loss, a sack, an interception and seven pass breakups. He earned a Reese's Senior Bowl invitation as a senior and finished with more than 250 career tackles, production stacked against the hardest schedule in college football.
The scouting case splits cleanly down the middle. In the box he is everything a team wants: instinctive against the run, physical taking on blocks, and a tone-setter whose hit power shows up weekly. In space the questions pile up — average deep speed, stiff hips in man coverage, and a profile that funnels him toward strong-safety-only deployment. Senior Bowl week reinforced both sides: he flew around against the run and struggled isolated in one-on-ones.
The board reflected the split. Hellams graded as a day-three box safety whose floor was special teams and whose ceiling was a starting strong safety in a downhill scheme. Atlanta, rebuilding its secondary around Jessie Bates III, took him at 224 as a developmental run-first safety and immediate coverage-unit ace — a classic seventh-round bet on SEC pedigree and special-teams value.
- 01
Alley enforcer
Diagnoses run action quickly, inserts near the line with authority and finishes as a reliable wrap-up tackler in traffic.
- 02
SEC-proven production
Led Alabama with 108 tackles in 2022, sixth in the SEC, after 88 stops as a first-year starter in 2021.
- 03
Instincts in zone
Reads route combinations well in front of him, using anticipation to jump windows and arrive as the ball does.
- 04
Hit power
Brings genuine thump as a striker, separating ball carriers with clean, explosive contact in the alley and flat.
- 05
Special-teams wiring
Came up as a core coverage player at Alabama, giving him immediate fourth-unit value while the defense develops.
- 01
Limited range
Average long speed restricts him to split-safety or box deployment; he cannot hold up as a single-high eraser.
- 02
Man coverage stiffness
Tight hips and modest change of direction make him a target when isolated on slots or athletic tight ends.
- 03
Ball production
Four career interceptions at Alabama; he plays the man more than the ball and rarely creates turnovers.
- 04
Positional ceiling
Strong-safety-only profile narrows his path in a league that increasingly demands interchangeable safeties.
— — — positional median (p50)
- 40 yd
- 4.57sp50
- Vertical
- 31inp50
- Broad jump
- 121inp50
- Three-cone
- —s
- Shuttle
- —s
- Bench
- —rep
| Yr | Team | G | Tkl | Sk | Int | PD | FF |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2019 | Alabama | 13 | 4 | 0.5 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 2020 | Alabama | 13 | 62 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 0 |
| 2021 | Alabama | 15 | 88 | 0 | 3 | 6 | 0 |
| 2022 | Alabama | 13 | 108 | 1 | 1 | 8 | 1 |
| Career | — | 54 | 262 | 2.5 | 4 | 17 | 0 |
Season tackle/TFL/sack lines verified against cfbstats (2020-22) and Alabama's official bio (2019); pass breakups and interceptions combined as PD. cfbstats totals (88 in 2021, 62 in 2020) differ by one from Alabama's published figures (87/56) — cfbstats game-by-game sums are used.
A dash means the figure is not published by a source we trust — never a zero we invented.
Big, run-first safety whose coverage limits made him a rotational box player and special teamer.
Instinctive, physical late-round safety who grew into a long-term starter next to a range partner.
Physical college safety whose athletic ceiling in space capped him as a hybrid sub-package piece.
Everything above is the pre-draft evaluation. This section is what actually happened — updated year over year.
Hellams made the pick look smart almost immediately. He began 2023 as a special teamer, earning defensive snaps after Atlanta's Week 11 bye and starting his final three games opposite Jessie Bates III, finishing the year with 40 tackles in 15 appearances and four starts — real returns from the 224th pick. Then the floor fell out: an ankle injury in a 2024 preseason game against Miami cost him the entire season on injured reserve.
The comeback in 2025 was modest — 11 games, 10 tackles and a fumble recovery, primarily on special teams, before another injury ended his year. The honest retrospective: the draft-day thesis was right and the body betrayed it. A rookie season that ended with him starting opposite Bates suggested a starting-caliber box safety; two injury-shortened seasons turned him back into a core special teamer. For a seventh-round pick, a rookie year with four starts and a roster spot held through 2025 is a win, if a fragile one.