South Carolina All-American in NFL Draft's first round range for ESPN's Mel Kiper
South Carolina football All-American Nick Emmanwori is one of the safeties in the 2025 NFL Draft. The Columbia-area native has seen his draft stock rise so much since the start of the 2024 season that some projections have put him firmly inside the first round.
A major name in the NFL Draft world, ESPN’s Mel Kiper, has been one of the voices high on Emmanwori. That continued this week as the veteran draft analyst put the former Gamecock on his updated top 25 big board.
According to Kiper, Nick Emmanwori is the 2025 NFL Draft’s No. 21 overall prospect. That puts him ninth among defensive players (if two-way star Travis Hunter counts) and second among safeties. At safety, he is only behind Georgia’s Malaki Starks.
Said Kiper about the USC standout: “Emmanwori is a former high-school middle linebacker, and you can tell; his size-speed combination is exactly what NFL defensive coordinators love on the back end. He jumps off the tape, and his ball skills are tremendous. Emmanwori had two picks against Oklahoma in Week 8, returning one for a touchdown.”
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Emmanwori has earned recent predictions as high as 14th in the draft and as low as the third round. Kiper recently mocked Emmanwori at pick No. 19 to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. As the offseason has progressed, it has seemed more and more likely, though, that he will come off the board somewhere in the draft’s top 50 picks. A first-round selection is realistic for the well-rounded safety.
In an interview this week with GamecockCentral’s Mike Uva, NFL Draft analyst Field Yates argued that Emmanwori should be a first-rounder. In fact, Yates believes Emmanwori could overtake Starks as the No. 1 safety off the board.
If taken in the first 32 picks, Emmanwori would be the second Gamecock safety ever selected in the first round. Rick Sanford, who played both corner and safety during an All-American career at South Carolina, was a full-time safety in the NFL after the New England Patriots drafted him with the 25th overall pick in 1979.
