What is the ideal definition of a value pick in the NFL draft? There are all kinds, but let’s go with the prospects who are selected in the third day of the draft, and turn into impact starters in their rookie seasons. Every year has a few such examples, and in the 2025 season, there were 11 players who started at least 10 games (including the postseason) in their inaugural NFL seasons after they were selected in the fourth through the seventh rounds.
- New England Patriots safety Craig Woodson started 19 games
- Buffalo Bills DL Deone Walker started 18 games
- Miami Dolphins DL Jordan Phillips started 16 games
- Tennessee Titans WR Elic Ayomanor and New York Jets DB Malachi Moore each started 14 games
- Baltimore Ravens LB Teddye Buchanan started 13 games
- Cincinnati Bengals LB Barrett Carter started 12 games
- Houston Texans RB Woody Marks (Secret Superstar Woody Marks, to be exact), Tennessee Titans WR Chimere Dike and TE Gunnar Helm, and Carolina TE Mitchell Evans each started 10 games
Who might break through and beat the odds from the 2026 class? Here are six prospects on the defensive side of the ball with the right combination of talent, potential, scheme fit, and opportunity.
Kaleb Proctor, DI, Arizona Cardinals
Opportunity is a big deal for any Day 3 pick trying to bash through the barriers and find a starting role, and that could work well for Southeastern Louisiana’s Kaleb Proctor, who the Cardinals selected with the 104th overall pick in the fourth round. Right now, the Cardinals’ defense under Nick Rallis has 2025 first-round pick Walter Nolen and 2024 first-round pick Darius Robinson on the interior defensive line, along with veterans Roy Lopez and Andrew Billings. Nobody in that group has really set themselves up as a force multiplier just yet, though Nolen showed some things in his rookie year when he was healthy.
Now, here comes the 6’2”, 291-pound Proctor, who in his fourth season with the Lions had nine sacks, 39 total pressures, 18 solo tackles, 22 stops, and two tackles for loss. If you’re worried about strength of competition as it transfers to the NFL, the Cardinals aren’t, and you shouldn’t be either. Just watch the LSU tape, when Proctor racked up two sacks and five stops, and looked like a destruction machine throughout.
“The good thing is he played against LSU this year,” Cardinals assistant general manager Dave Sears said of all that after Proctor was picked. “Obviously, that’s the tape that everybody is going to go to, but he did play against other schools in the past. FBS schools and stuff like that. Then you have him in an All-Star game, so you get to watch him for multiple practices against bigger schools. It’s a case where the kid succeeded in each one of those opportunities, and he’s also been able to stack weight. I think at his Pro Day, he was up into the 290s, so he still tested very well. You’re seeing some growth potential as well as being able to compete when you put him on the same level as some of those bigger school guys.”
Maybe Proctor gets a lot of preseason reps, and based on that, he could find himself as an integral part of the interior rotation sooner than later. Because in today’s NFL, with its increasing use of two-deep safety shells and lighter boxes, you need credible rotations of interior wreckers who can do their thing.
Jadon Canady, DB, Kansas City Chiefs
The Chiefs made it very clear which side of the ball they wanted to improve in the 2026 draft, as defensive players went with their first four picks — LSU cornerback Mansoor Delane with the sixth overall pick after a trade-up deal with the Cleveland Browns, Clemson interior defensive lineman Peter Woods with the 29th overall pick they got from the Los Angeles Rams in the Trent McDuffie trade, Oklahoma edge-rusher R Mason Thomas with the 40th overall pick in the second round, and Oregon defensive back Jadon Canady with the 109th overall pick in the fourth round.
Of the four players, Canady’s ultimate role may be the most interesting. Last season for the Ducks, the 5′ 10½”, 181-pound Canady had 30 solo tackles, 12 stops, five quarterback pressures, one tackle for loss, two forced fumbles, and in coverage, he allowed 17 catches on 37 targets for 104 yards, 61 yards after the catch, one touchdown, two interceptions, four pass breakups, and an opponent passer rating of 39.4.
Based on his skill set, Canady could see reps at times as a McDuffie nickel replacement, and he could also provide serious value as the kind of overhang safety defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo has always liked to tie his defense together.
“Just however Coach Spags sees it, or [head] coach [Andy] Reid,” Canady said on May 2, when asked how he estimates he’ll be deployed in his new defense. “Personally, I’m comfortable at corner or nickel, you know, but just seeing how Coach Spags and Coach Reid will use me this year.”
It’s likely that Canady will be used all over the defense, which is how his starting-level snap count could be tabulated by the end of his rookie season.
Gracen Halton, DI, San Francisco 49ers
Beyond the epic number of injuries that ultimately saw them run out of gas in the postseason despite coaching which did as much as it could to offset that, the 2025 49ers had some serious issues with the effectiveness of their defensive line, especially when Nick Bosa wasn’t on the field. First-round defensive lineman Mykel Williams only played nine games of his own, and overall, San Francisco’s D-line just wasn’t up to where it needed to be.
In the offseason, the 49ers made two moves to hopefully become more dynamic in the interior of that line. They traded for ex- Dallas Cowboys game-wrecker Osa Odighizuwa, and they picked Oklahoma’s Gracen Halton with the 107th overall pick in the fourth round.
Maybe teams didn’t know how to fit the 6′ 2⅝”, 292-pound Halton into their fronts, which could be why he slid out of my range — I thought of him more as a third-rounder at worst — but he absolutely demolished the drills at the scouting combine, and the speed/movement skills very much show up on tape. Last season, Halton had five sacks, 30 total pressures, 17 solo tackles, 19 stops, and three tackles for loss. Moreover, Halton can line up anywhere you want; 46% of his snaps last season were at nose tackle, 45% of his snaps were as a 3-tech, and the rest of the time, he was on the edge.
“Plays the style that we like to play,” 49ers general manager John Lynch said of Halton as the draft came down. “Plays in the opposing offenses’ backfield. Attacking style, team captain, really impactful player. And you talk to the people at Oklahoma; they rave about him. We’re really surprised he lasted that long, and really thrilled to pounce on him when he got there.”
The 49ers should be even more thrilled when Halton starts zooming though blocks as he does, with an eye to staying on the field because he’s just too disruptive to avoid.
Keionte Scott, DB, Tampa Bay Buccaneers
It would seem that Todd Bowles has been unhappy with his pass rush since he became the Buccaneers’ head coach in 2022, and it’s not as if the team hasn’t tried to throw talent at the problem. The addition of Miami EDGE Rueben Bain Jr. with the 15th overall pick in the draft should help quite a bit, and with the 116th overall pick in the fourth round, Tampa Bay went back to Miami for a secret weapon in the pass rush.
That would be defensive back Keionte Scott, the 5’11¼” wunderkind who lined up all over Miami’s defense last season, and played multiple roles very well. In 2025, Scott had 51 solo tackles, 36 stops, eight tackles for loss, two forced fumbles, and in coverage, he allowed 39 catches on 56 targets for 332 yards, 214 yards after the catch, no touchdowns, two interceptions, four pass breakups, and an opponent passer rating of 69.9. He also ran a 4.33-second 40-yard dash at the scouting combine, and I’m quite surprised that Scott lasted as long in the draft as he did.
Perhaps the most important numbers for Bowles and the Bucs? Scott’s five sacks and 20 total pressures as a blitzer. Further, it’s important to note that all five of Scott’s sacks came when he was lined up on the same side of the formation as Bain was.
“I think you’ve got to shout out Rueben Bain there, being on the same side,” Scott said after the draft. “You’ve got to kind of worry about him a little bit, so that allowed me to be freed up. We work with each other, and that’s why this is so special to me and so special to him because we’ve built something already, so getting to build on that… But then, ultimately, I would just say understanding that at the end of the day when you get sent on a blitz, your brothers are [back there]. I play defensive back, so I understand how it is when you’re blitzing and you’re waiting [like] somebody better get home. So, I just take that in mind that I’ve got my brothers back there, and when I get that call to go, I take that with me on the way.”
Overall, Scott has the attributes and the attitude to force his way into a big role with his new NFL team. The connection with Bain is just some lovely icing on the cake.
Kyle Louis, LB/Safety, Miami Dolphins
Given the ways in which the Dolphins have decided to take every bit of their salary cap medicine in the 2026 league year, the roster that’s left gives starting opportunities to just about any draft pick, regardless of position.
But I’m especially interested in how new head coach/defensive play-caller Jeff Hafley utilizes the unique talents of Pitt’s Kyle Louis, who the team took in the 138th overall pick in the fourth round. Every team is now looking for its own do-it-all “safetybacker” if they don’t already have that guy, and the Dolphins actually took two swings at this in the fourth round — they also took Texas’ Trey Moore 130th overall — but Louis’ tape just had me in its thrall from Day 1.
Last season, the 6’0”, 220-pound Louis had three sacks, 18 total pressures, 60 solo tackles, 30 stops, seven tackles for loss, one forced fumble, and in coverage, he allowed 47 catches on 60 targets for 429 yards, 391 yards after the catch, three touchdowns, two interceptions, three pass breakups, and an opponent passer rating of 99.2. As the metrics would indicate, Louis probably isn’t a guy you want dropping into the deep third to take away seam routes, but he can do everything you want from the box to the slot to the line of scrimmage.
Hafley, who used Javon Bullard as a box/slot enforcer last season when he was the Green Bay Packers’ defensive coordinator, would have an easy transition with Louis’ help. One thing’s for sure — as Hafley said at the end of the draft, his defensive players had better get used to showing their versatility.
“It excites me,” Hafley said. “I think anytime you can draft a player who can do multiple things, it’s our job as coaches to have a vision for him and figure out where to play him or play him in multiple spots. What’s the down-and-distance? What’s he going to do on early downs? Is he going to be a stacked ‘backer on early downs? Is he going to be a sub rusher on second-and-7-plus, third down? Is he a guy that can line up as a spinner and pick guards and rush?
“The great part about our conversations is if you find a really good football player, and I mean smart guy, tough guy, a productive player that jumps out on tape, I think it’s our job as coaches to have a vision for him. Then, I think it’s our job schematically to figure out how to make it work for him.” That’s fun for me and these are really good players that mixed in with the players that we have, now it’s our job to go to work and go through the OTAs and go through training camp and by preseason, we’ll see what we can do with them.”
Well, Hafley now has a serious Swiss Army knife to add to that philosophy.
