The 2024 NFL Draft is getting close, making it an excellent time to highlight some of the class' best players with scouting reports. Each report will include strengths, weaknesses and background information.
Here's our report on Cole Bishop.
Based on a detailed evaluation of his 2022 and 2023 tape, Bishop is one of the best safety prospects in the 2024 draft class due to his size/movement/versatility/competitiveness/savvy/intelligence profile, and his active communication with teammates in the pre-snap phase.
Bishop has excellent size with a desirable combination of physicality and athleticism that consistently showed up in his outstanding play speed and range to make plays all over the field. Bishop is extremely versatile as a coverage safety with his tape showing that he can play post safety in Cover 1 and Cover 3. He also can play half field safety in Cover 2 and all variations of Cover 4. What stood out in coverage was his smooth, fluid transitions and direction changes and his quick downhill when planting and driving on routes in front of him.
In Utah’s defense, Bishop played significant snaps in the box and on the ball on the edge, and he was a strong run defender with excellent key and diagnose. He was also a physical tackler who wrapped up rather than throwing his body at the runner. Keep in mind very few NFL safeties are elite athletes, and Bishop is without question on the higher end of the athletic spectrum. He also plays with a high football IQ that shows up in all phases of his game.
Bishop has the physical and mental traits to become a starter early in his career. He can play in a variety of defensive schemes, including the big nickel packages that are becoming more and prevalent in the NFL. Bishop can be an interchangeable safety with the ability to play on the back in multiple coverages and in the box depending on the defensive scheme.
Bishop was a 3-star recruit as a linebacker from Georgia, and he became a starter midway through his freshman season. He finished his Utah career as a three-year starting safety.
In 2022, Bishop was deployed as a versatile safety playing in the box, on the back end, over the slot, man-to-man on tight ends and receivers and as a blitzer. Bishop predominantly lined up in the box on the tight end side of the offensive formation when Utah went to single-high safety coverage. He played on the back end in split safety coverages on third down and selected down and distance situations.
In 2023, Bishop was deployed in multi-dimensional ways again, including man-to-man on tight ends, which led to an interception vs. Oregon State, and at times blitzing off the edge, when he had a sack vs. Florida in which he beat the running back. A sack vs. Weber State came on green dog when he was matched man-to-man on a tight end who stayed in to pass protect.
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