Delano Hill (image via Detroit Jock City)
Name: Delano Hill
Height: 6’1″
Weight: 215 lbs.
High school: Detroit (MI) Cass Tech
Position: Safety
Class: Senior
Jersey number: #44
Last year: I ranked Hill #27 and said he would be the starting nickel safety with 25 tackles (LINK). He started eight games and made 46 tackles, 2.5 tackles for loss, and 2 pass breakups.
The second Hill in the countdown today, Delano earned a role as a part-time starting safety last season. To get an idea of how the safety position is played, with 13 games and two traditional starting safeties, Michigan handed out a total of 37 starts to safeties last year, including 13 to Jarrod Wilson, 12 to Jabrill Peppers, 8 to Hill, and 4 to Dymonte Thomas. It’s a position with a potential for a variety of roles. Hill was used largely as a strong safety who would play in the box, cover tight ends over the middle, or cover in the flat. He was mostly adept at supporting the run, making some nice open-field tackles, including a very nice one against Oregon State early in the year. His best game came against Indiana, when he made 10 tackles and a game-sealing pass breakup. On the flip side, there were a couple occasions where he trailed ball carriers on big plays and tried to punch out the football rather than making a quicker tackle attempt.
Hill is almost assured to start every game this season. With Wilson having graduated and Peppers moving to a SAM linebacker role, the safety position is rather thin. Thomas improved in the second half of last season and should combine with Hill to be the primary duo on the back end. Michigan also has sophomore Tyree Kinnel, who only played special teams last year but has earned some praise this off-season. Other options include freshmen Khaleke Hudson and Josh Hudson, along with a couple walk-ons in A.J. Pearson and Jordan Glasgow. I am not inclined to trust freshman or inexperienced safeties, so it’s important that Thomas, Hill, and Kinnel remain healthy. As for Hill himself, I have never been in love with him as a playmaker. He has a bit of a reputation as a workout warrior (occasionally, you hear the claim that he’s the fastest guy on the team), but that hasn’t necessarily translated to the field. When it comes to being around the ball, he has just 2 pass breakups and 1 fumble recovery in three years on the field. Still, it’s nice to have senior safeties, and I think he’s a solid player to have working in underneath coverages.
Prediction: Starting strong safety; 55 tackles, 1 interception
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Peppers defies categorization, but his primary duty was as a nickelback. When he got hurt his replacement was Lewis. When he played in conventional alignments with only 4 DBs, I don’t think he was ever at safety but he was sometimes at CB. In years past, the nickelbacks have been corners. When they flipped him to mess with teams it was usually with Lewis.
So, I think the safety count in the post is a little disingenuous. There’s positional fluidity here of course, but I think there is typically 2 safeties and 3 corners on the majority of meaningful downs.
If Peppers is forced away from nickelback/LB for whatever reason, I do agree his skillset is a better fit for safety than CB. It’ll be interesting to see how he is used this season and then beyond that in the NFL.
Peppers really makes the countdown order tougher to evaluate because he can fill so many holes at so many positions. I could make a strong argument for Stribling over Hill or vice versa, all depending on how Peppers is used.
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