Hello, fan of an NFL team. MGoBlog excruciatingly scouts every Michigan play, and scores them to inform our coverage. Since mi atleta es su atleta now, here we share what we're sharing.

Previously: RB Hassan Haskins, OL Andrew Stueber, DT Chris Hinton, DE Aidan Hutchinson, DE David Ojabo, LB Josh Ross, S Daxton Hill

Quickly: Brainy, sure tackling safety who's been with Michigan as long as Harbaugh. Not fast. Leader.

Draft Projection: Undrafted free agent.

NFL Comp: Tony Jefferson. UDFA who was a highly rated CB out of high school but didn't have the speed to stick there. Linebackerish strong safety who gets by on smarts, has helped a lot of very good defenses.

What's his story? If you start looking at Twitter for Brad Hawkins takes you'll surely come upon a genre of "Brad Hawkins is so old…" jokes. They're all true: Hawkins committed to Michigan before Harbaugh had ever coached a game, and played in more games than anyone in history, quite an accomplishment when you consider Michigan is the only FBS program still around from the time before playing careers had term limits. Also if you search MGoBlog history you'll quickly learn that "boring" is one of the nicest things we say about safeties.

Hawkins was a novel recruit for Michigan: the first guy in 50 years to commit, miss qualifying, then go to prep school and still make it to Michigan a year later. Dude was serious (and proved over an exceptional academic career that Michigan needn't have worried).

Over the year he also watched a metric ton of receivers commit to Michigan, arriving in the 2017 class with Nico Collins, Donovan Peoples-Jones, Tarik Black, and Oliver Martin, plus the three guys (Kekoa Crawford, Eddie McDoom, and Nate Johnson) from Hawkins's original 2016 class. Hawkins came in as a safety, and joined the safety rotation with Tyree Kinnel and Josh Metellus in 2018. The first game proved a bit ominous for the former receiver's ball skills, as Hawkins, in position for a pick, gave up Notre Dame's winning touchdown to a walk-on who jumped over his head.

Fans were nervous when Hawkins assumed a starter's role in 2019, but he was fine…boring even! But there were bad blips, and not many big plays to make up for them. Michigan fans chanted "Ron-nie Bell!" at the receiver who dropped the winning touchdown against Penn State in 2019, but were far less understanding when Hawkins got caught rolled down on KJ Hamler, then burned.

There was also that one time in 2018 when Isaih Pacheco dusted him. For some reason those plays stand out more than the million good tackles at 8 yards that could have been so much worse.

Hawkins ceased being boring in 2020, forgetting simple things like how to set an edge during the odd late Don Brown transition to two-high zones. He was hurt before he could get comfortable. His 2021 season was a return to solid, with Hawkins directing traffic in the backfield and usually coming in slightly in the positive with two glaring exceptions: Michigan State, and Ohio State. The latter, okay, those receivers just went next to the guy they chased out of Columbus in the 1st round. The former…okay, MSU had a couple of skill players who were pointed right at Hawkins. But if you're wondering why coaches and PFF loves him and Michigan fans seem ambivalent, it's a question of all plays versus things that fan brains store away.

Positives: Doesn't bust—twice last year Hawkins gave up TDs to ineligible receivers the refs missed and he was pointing at, and those were the only two "coverage busts" he had all year despite Michigan completely changing its coverages. His two missed tackles were at the hands of Treveyon Henderson and Kenneth Walker III…understandable.

Negatives: Below-average speed: The first thing Michigan fans will tell you, thanks to a handful of bad memories, is Hawkins isn't fast. His Pro Day forty time was 4.57, where 4.55 is the NFL average. The below-average acceleration might be more of an issue. Weirdly below-average ball skills for a former receiver: dropped so many interceptions at some point I stopped counting and switched to saying "He'll get one." Was a magnet for bad calls. Rough performances in rivalry games.

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What others say: The Athletic's safeties list goes 32 deep and Hawkins was #31, but that low nobody gets more than a blurb. His:

Overall, Hawkins is missing suddenness and playmaking instincts, but he was the definition of steady during his Michigan career and offers special teams value.

Pro Football Network's Tony Pauline calls Hawkins a "smart, tough safety with an underrated game," with a very short negatives section:

Negatives: Not smooth flipping his hips and loses in transition. Lacks great deep speed.

Those are not positive negatives.

On the other side was Pro Football Focus, who just looked at college production, and put Hawkins in their Top 25 players IN THE COUNTRY at the end of the 2021 regular season:

Hawkins is enjoying a career year after making the move to playing free safety more than anywhere else. He is one of six FBS safeties with a grade above 80.0 both against the run and in coverage. Hawkins has made minimal mistakes in the latter facet, with just 19 yards allowed all year long. As such, he is the second-most valuable safety in the Power 5 — behind only Alabama's Jordan Battle.

PFF loved him. notably he was name 1st team all-BIG and 2nd team All-America after last season. He also made their All Big Ten team as a sophomore:

Hawkins was one of the most balanced defenders in the BigTen, with grades hovering around 80.0 in run defense (80.6), tackling (83.9) and coverage (80.3). The longest catch he allowed on the season went for only 25 yards, and it was the only catch of 20-plus yards he allowed all year.

But they were realistic about how that translated to the NFL, pegging Hawkins to be drafted at #207 (late 6th round), and then the 24th best UDFA. They were also wondering aloud if he might grow into a linebacker.

Hawkins is a throwback 221-pound safety who may end up at linebacker in the NFL with how comfortable he is playing in the box. He was one of the highest-graded safeties in the country against the rushing attack this year, earning an 84.9 run-defense grade.

I doubt he has the frame for it; he has the head.

Our Scheme/Best Scheme: Hawkins was passable as a Cover 1 strong/slot safety in 2018 and 2019 next to Josh Metellus, who caught on as a 6th rounder with the Vikings. In 2020 Michigan switched to mostly Cover 2 and some Cover 3 as a panic move to deal with a huge dropoff in cornerback quality, and Hawkins got lost along with everyone else, though not as badly as Dax Hill. Hawkins had things figured out by Game 4 and was lost for the rest of the year shortly after. In 2021 he was the field general of a defensive renaissance, with Michigan playing all sorts of complicated coverages and entrusting Hawkins to tell everyone where to be on them. In the NFL he probably has to be protected in a switchable Cover 3 or dedicated Cover 2 scheme, since you don't want him coming down on NFL ninjas in the slot or trying to cover all the airspace that NFL QBs can exploit when you play Cover 1. He's a great weapon if you can keep him over tight ends.

Pees is mostly a Pattern Match guy—he got his start as Saban's DC at Toledo and helped develop the system under him at MSU. If Hawkins sticks with the Falcons it'll probably be as a SS who takes that curl-flat zone.

2021 Grading

The following numbers are based on my 2021 charting in Upon Further Review. One point is roughly equivalent to an action that affected the play by 5 yards, i.e. zero points are awarded for simply filling an assignment. Certain scores require context, e.g. defensive linemen are expected to score 2 to 1 to the positive because of their greater opportunities to make plays, and rarely get negative individual grades when pass-rushing, since those are handed out through a team metric. Team defense charting.

BY PLAY TYPE:

Versus Play Type:	+	-	Total
Inside Zone	13	10	+3
Power	6	3	+3
Stretch	3	6	-3
Other Run	9	3	+6
Screens	3	5	-2
Pass Deep	10	10	0
Pass Short	8	5	+3
PA Pass	1	3	-2

Breaking even on deep passes is pretty dang good for a safety. Ideally those numbers are really low and even or higher—fellow safety Dax Hill was a +16/-14—because those targets aren't supposed to be thrown if the safety has a play on it. Earlier in his career Hawkins had some trouble with power run games but he figured that out, and Michigan didn't let much leak through anyways. The "Other Run" category was mostly end-arounds and Hawkins mostly shut those down.

Short passes were another thing he got right most of the time; Michigan's answer to getting crossing routes in the face all the time in 2018 and early 2019 was to start having Hawkins double the most dangerous receiver, and slam down while the cornerback took over his deep zone, and Hawkins, for his part, paid that strategy off until Ohio State punished the strategy by throwing at a cornerback who wasn't exactly Brad Hawkins in deep coverage.

Facing forward he could move.

CAREER CHARTING:

Brad Hawkins played in more games (56) than anyone in program history. Get ready for a lot of charting (note: we only started counting snaps in 2019):

2018 Opponent	Pos	+	-	Tot	Snaps	Notes
Notre Dame	SS	5.5	4	+1.5		One bad thing, lots of little good ones
WMU	SS	2	1	+1		Real rotation?
SMU	SS	0	3.5	-3.5		Bust on TD.
Nebraska	SS	0	0	-		DNC
Northwestern	SS	0	2	-2		Beat on drag, no tackle, on final drive.
Wisconsin	SS	0	0	-		DNC
Michigan State	SS	0	0	-		DNP
Penn State	SS	0	0	-		DNP
Rutgers	SS	1.5	7	-5.5		Crack replace, crack replace, crack replace, don't get outrun by Pacheco
Indiana	SS	0	0	-		DNP
2019 Opponent	Pos	+	-	Tot	Snaps	Notes
MTSU	FS	7.5	6	+1.5	74	Still a bit wobbly but could be worse.
Army	FS	3.5	0	+3.5	74	Almost had the fourth down.
Wisconsin	FS	1.5	4	-2.5	72	Got confused when asked to be a LB.
Rutgers	FS	3	1	+2	57	No takes.
Iowa	FS	4	3	+1	92	Pretty boring this year.
Illinois	FS	4.5	4	+0.5	90	Some nice tackles, couple poor coverage bits.
Penn State	FS	1	10.5	-9.5	67	Giant bust, man on Hamler
Notre Dame	FS	5	0	+5	70	Robbed.
Maryland	FS	1.5	0	+1.5	63	Nice space tackle against McFarland.
Michigan State	FS	1.5	0.5	+1	69	Could have been an issue on RPO near TD.
Indiana	FS	0	0	-	0	DNP
2020 Opponent	Pos	+	-	Tot	Snaps	Notes
Minnesota	FS	0.5	9	-8.5	82	Missed a few tackles and blew a coverage.
Michigan State	FS	3.5	1	+2.5	81	Couple of sticks.
Indiana	FS	5.5	6	-0.5	100	Committed a boggling PI
Wisconsin	FS	1	3	-2	76	-2 for late hit
Rutgers	FS	2	5	-3	50	Left in second half.
Penn State	FS	0	0	-	0	DNP
2021 Opponent	Player	+	-	Tot	Snaps	Notes
Western Michigan	FS	2	5.5	-3.5	55	Rough day in zones.
Washington	FS	9.5	1	+8.5	71	UW TEs were more his speed, got to shoot unblocked gaps on RPS wins.
Northern Illinois	FS	1	1	-	32	One of these days he gets to catch one.
Rutgers	FS	6	4.5	+1.5	74	Got bored. One coverage bust was way downfield.
Wisconsin	FS	3	1.5	+1.5	48	Boring.
Nebraska	FS	7	4	+3	64	+4 for the strip, +2 for the 4th down. Seems light?
Northwestern	FS	4.5	4.5	-	43	-3 for the 3rd and 1 with the open TEs.
Michigan State	FS	4.5	9	-4.5	75	Part of the reason miscues were points.
Indiana	FS	3	0	+3	49	Safe and boring.
Penn State	FS	3.5	2	+1.5	86	Bomb at the end of the half, otherwise boring.
Maryland	FS	0	0	-	5	Left early.
Ohio State	FS	5	8.5	-3.5	74	Played softer than usual, understandably.
Iowa	FS	5.5	1.5	+4	59	Is he a star? PFF seems to think so now.
Georgia	FS	5.5	6	-0.5	63	A -3 for the wheel TD when he thought the TE was ineligible.

In our scoring, breaking even for a safety is pretty good, since you usually only appear on screen when cleaning up a run (no points unless you made an open field tackle or came down really hard), or if the QB already thinks you messed up (big points if he's correct). Hawkins had a lot of rote stops, would pick up a handful of excellent tackles, and almost never produced a big play.

 

Brad Hawkins was fine for long stretches, but memorable plays against very fast dudes like SMU's James Proche, PSU's KJ Hamler, or Rutgers's Isaih Pacheco stuck in memory. His Ohio State performance last year is the worrying bit for projecting his future in the NFL. Hawkins spent most of that game giving up extra ground so they wouldn't get beat over the top by OSU's incredible speed.

There were only two games in his career remembered for mental busts: the first game of 2020, when they had just flipped to a new coverage and he hadn't been able to practice much before the season, and his sophomore year at Wisconsin, which loaded up on fullbacks and tight ends until Hawkins was asked to read like a middle linebacker. The 2020 Minnesota game's score is a bit unfair too because Hawkins played a big role in Michigan winning the chess game before the snap, which we don't score.

Mostly he was boring. As I said, "boring" is good for college, but our boring safeties have been hit or miss in the pros, with only the most talented—Jarrod Wilson—carving out a nice career. Josh Metellus is hanging on with the Vikings, but Jamar Adams and Tyree Kinnel were swiftly out of the league. Hawkins is probably closer to Kinnel than Wilson.

Video of All Varieties: (Collection)

More than a match for TE routes:

Reaction time/good burst/physicality to end edge attempts when they're still going sideways:

Good awareness but not speed is "has a nice personality":

Ballhawked when he was allowed to roll down:

Except when he got caught ballhawking:

(#14 is supposed to have help. Watch #20 on the top.)

Solid open field tackler:

Except that one dude…

WHY DIDN'T HE GET A DAMN INTERCEPION?

Tempo issues were a thing.

(pretty sure he thought this guy wasn't eligible)

Show this to the Nebraska fan you hate most:

Summary and Projection: Solid. Steady. Leader. In the right spot. Heady. None of these talk about Hawkins as a great athlete. The speed isn't awful, but he doesn't have the turnaround agility to get back if he comes up. I like him best if you can make him the #2 safety in a Pattern Matching system so he can cover tight ends up the seam or come down on the flats. The Falcons are a good fit, so long as Pees plays to Hawkins's strengths and gives him help if they roll him down over a slot pre-snap.