Ravens Safety Among NFL's Most Versatile Players

Versatility is one of the greatest strengths a player can have in the modern NFL, and in that department, few can hope to match Baltimore Ravens safety Kyle Hamilton.

The No. 14 overall pick in the 2022 NFL Draft, Hamilton is widely considered the league's best safety in large part due to how versatile he is. He can line up just about anywhere on defense, be it as a deep safety, a nickel cornerback and even an off-ball linebacker.

Hamilton is truly the NFL's version of a Swiss Army knife, and those around the league know it. The Athletic's Ted Nguyen recently named Hamilton as one of the league's 10 most versatile players, with a very strong case to be the most versatile.

"Hamilton is the poster boy for this list," Nguyen wrote. "He was drafted to the perfect team to develop and deploy his skill set. He does everything well, and Mike Macdonald, who was the defensive coordinator in Baltimore when Hamilton was drafted, had a vision for how to use him. He was a tight end eraser, could cover slots decently and was a monster against perimeter runs and screens. Macdonald’s system is at its best when he can move his players all around his defense, and Hamilton can line up everywhere in the second and third levels and excel."

Though Macdonald may have been the perfect defensive coordinator for Hamilton, he's not the only one who can bring out the safety's full potential. When Zach Orr, who replaced Macdonald after he became head coach of the Seattle Seahawks, found his footing in the second half of last season, Hamilton continued to play like his usual self.

"When the Ravens defense was struggling last season, Hamilton had to stay deep at free safety more to stop teams from beating them over the top," Nguyen wrote. "After giving up 41 points to the Buccaneers and 29 points to Cleveland’s listless offense, Hamilton lined up deep on 56 percent of snaps from Weeks 9-18 — an increase of 32 percent from his deep alignment rate from Weeks 1-8. He almost immediately solidified the secondary and stopped the hemorrhaging.

"Obviously, Hamilton wasn’t the sole reason the defense improved, but he was a big part of it. For Hamilton, who played most of his snaps near the line of scrimmage, to effortlessly transition into a mostly deep player shows his immense value. There aren’t many players in the league who can shut down the perimeter plays near the line of scrimmage, cover different body types, and then line up in deep zones and take away that part of the field."

Unfortunately, the Ravens having such little safety depth forced Hamilton to play deep far more often, so the hope is he can get back to being a Swiss Army knife this season.