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Grill Bill: First-round safety?

Depends on what you consider early. If you mean at No. 24, I’ll say no.

I talked a lot about this with Max Henson on the latest Panthers Podcast, but the abridged version is I think there are only two safeties worth a top-25 pick in this draft. And Derwin James and Minkah Fitzpatrick aren’t making it to 24.

If you’re going to spend a first-round pick on a safety – especially for a defensive scheme where that position is relatively low in the pecking order of importance – it should be on a tone-setter, a guy who’d immediately change the swagger of the backend.