Jl
Skinner.
Jl
Skinner.
Boise St.· 6'4"· 209 lb
"The biggest safety in the class hit like the position was a contact sport and slid to the sixth round anyway, because a torn pectoral in March took away every chance he had to prove the athleticism was real."Pre-draft read
Skinner played deep safety like a linebacker who happened to line up 15 yards off the ball. At 6-4 and 220 pounds he covered ground in straight lines and arrived with intent, and his best trait was the downhill trigger: read, plant, and detonate on the crossing route or the ball carrier in the alley.
The second skill was ball production out of the post — seven interceptions across three seasons, most of them on throws he read early rather than routes he ran with. Against the run he was a genuine force multiplier, adding 8.0 tackles for loss in 2021. The signature was the collision: few defensive backs in his class changed the temperature of a game with contact the way he did.
Single-high or split-safety defense that keeps him downhill — a box/robber safety in a scheme with a defined free-safety partner covering the deep middle
Year 1: core special teams and third safety while he learns the coverage details. Ceiling: a starting strong safety in a run-heavy division who plays the alley and matches tight ends.
A heavy man-coverage scheme that asks safeties to travel with slot receivers, or a two-high system where both safeties must rotate and flip hips on the same snap.
Give him a clear run/pass key and a partner who owns the deep middle; his value collapses when he has to cover grass laterally and rises when he is allowed to attack forward.
JL Skinner 2022 Highlights | Boise State DB | 2023 NFL Draft Prospect
Senior season: four interceptions from the post plus the downhill hits that defined his tape.
JL Skinner Boise State Safety! Best in the West! 2021 Highlights
The 92-tackle junior year, with the run fits and 8.0 tackles for loss that made him a Day 2 name.
New Denver Broncos Safety JL Skinner Highlights, Senior Bowl, Boise State
Senior Bowl week and college cutups, the reps that had scouts reaching for Legion of Boom comparisons.
Boise State's Skinner was the biggest safety in the 2023 class and played like it. He spent three years as the tone-setter of a Mountain West defense, moving between the post, the box and the slot, and he did his damage as an eraser — 193 tackles across his last three seasons, 8.0 tackles for loss as a junior, and seven interceptions from deep alignments.
The 2021 tape was the calling card: 92 tackles, two picks, two forced fumbles and a second-team all-conference nod, followed by a first-team season in 2022 with four interceptions. Evaluators loved the size, the range in a straight line and the physicality; the flags were the hips and the change of direction. He was stiff turning in man coverage, took false steps against double moves, and had a tackling radius that occasionally became a miss when he arrived out of control.
Then the injury rewrote the board. Skinner tore a pectoral muscle in pre-draft training and could not test at the Combine or work out for teams, and a player who had been discussed in the Day 2 range slid to the sixth round. Denver took him at 183 as an upside bet on size and violence, with the understanding that the rookie season might be about getting healthy.
- 01
Size and length
At 6-3 3/4 and 209 pounds with 32-inch arms he was the biggest safety in the class, with a tackling radius and catch-point reach few offensive players could work around.
- 02
Downhill physicality
92 tackles and 8.0 tackles for loss as a junior; he triggers fast on run reads and delivers real, game-changing contact in the alley and over the middle.
- 03
Ball production from the post
Seven interceptions across 2020-2022, including four as a senior, all of them earned by reading the quarterback rather than trailing a route.
- 04
Positional versatility
Boise State used him deep, in the box and over the slot, and he was comfortable enough in each alignment to stay on the field on every down.
- 05
Special teams profile
The frame, closing speed and willingness to hit are exactly what coverage units want, giving him an immediate role while the coverage details caught up.
- 01
Hips and change of direction
He is stiff opening and turning; quick separators and double moves get him leaning, which limits how much true man coverage he can be asked to play.
- 02
Tackling control
He arrives with force but occasionally out of control, and the misses come from overrunning the target rather than from a lack of willingness.
- 03
Pre-draft health
A torn pectoral muscle in the pre-draft window kept him from testing or working out for teams, leaving a real athletic profile unmeasured.
- 04
Coverage nuance in space
He plays fast when he reads it right and late when he does not; his eye discipline against play-action and route combinations needed NFL coaching.
| Yr | Team | G | Tkl | Sk | Int | PD | FF |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2019 | Boise State | 14 | 14 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 0 |
| 2020 | Boise State | 6 | 37 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 |
| 2021 | Boise State | 12 | 92 | 0 | 2 | 4 | 2 |
| 2022 | Boise State | 12 | 64 | 0 | 4 | 4 | 0 |
| Career | — | 44 | 207 | 0 | 7 | 12 | 0 |
2020-2022 verified season by season on cfbstats.com (Boise State id 66, player 1102742): 193 tackles, 10.0 TFL, 7 interceptions, 9 pass breakups, 2 forced fumbles and 1 fumble recovery over 30 games. cfbstats has no 2019 archive, so the freshman line (14 games, one start, 14 tackles, 0.5 TFL, three pass breakups) comes from his official Boise State bio; his 2019 forced fumbles and fumble recoveries are not published anywhere, so those two career totals are left null instead of assuming zeros. The four seasons sum to 44 games, 207 tackles, 10.5 TFL, 7 interceptions and 12 pass breakups.
A dash means the figure is not published by a source we trust — never a zero we invented.
Honors
- First-team All-Mountain West (2022)
- Second-team All-Mountain West (2021)
- Mountain West Defensive Player of the Week (November 2021)
- Reese's Senior Bowl and East-West Shrine Bowl invitee (2023)
The realistic path the injury created: a big safety who makes the roster on coverage units and takes years to earn defensive snaps.
The comp Senior Bowl evaluators reached for: an oversized strong safety who intimidates the middle of the field and becomes a defense's identity.
The floor: a big Broncos safety who lives on coverage units, never wins defensive snaps, and is gone once the rookie deal ends.
Everything above is the pre-draft evaluation. This section is what actually happened — updated year over year.
The injury cost him the runway. Skinner spent most of his rookie year getting healthy from the pectoral tear and appeared in just two games in 2023 with no recorded tackles. He stuck on the roster, and in 2024 he found the role Denver had really drafted him for: 14 games, nine combined tackles and a fumble recovery, almost all of it on special teams. In 2025 he took the next step in that role, playing all 17 games with 12 tackles and another fumble recovery. In February 2026 he revealed he had played the season through a torn labrum that required surgery, and he remains with Denver as he works back.
Three years in, he is exactly what a sixth-round pick is supposed to be when it works modestly: a roster player who earns his keep on coverage units and gives you a big, physical emergency safety. What has not happened is the defensive breakout — 21 career tackles through three seasons is a special teamer's line, not a rotational safety's. The hips that worried scouts have kept him from stealing sub-package snaps, and the injuries have taken a year and a half of development off the clock. The bet Denver made was reasonable at the price; the return so far is a useful role, not a starter.