PicoBlog

The Washington Commanders selected Dominique Hampton in the fifth round with the 161st overall pick. Hampton played safety in college for the Washington Huskies and due to the Covid pandemic, spent six seasons with the Huskies, working his way up from a reserve all the way to a starter in their run to the National Championship game against Michigan this season. Hampton’s athleticism really stands out over everything else. He measured in at 6-foot-2, 215 pounds, which is a very good size for a safety, but his testing numbers were fantastic too. He ran a 4.51 40-yard dash and had some of the best numbers in the explosiveness and agility testing drills. 

That athletic profile alone makes Hampton an intriguing prospect to add on day three of the draft. The Commanders have a lot of bodies in the safety room right now, having added Jeremy Chinn in free agency and appearing to move Quan Martin back to free safety. Those two join the likes of Darrick Forrest, Percy Butler and Jeremy Reaves, meaning there’s no pressure for Hampton to play right away. He’ll likely have a big role on special teams early in his career, but there is a path for him to make an impact on defense as well. 

With his body type and having studied how Dan Quinn and Joe Whitt Jr. make use of their defensive personnel, Hampton seems like a prime candidate to shift down more into the box as a big nickel/dime linebacker type of role. He has the size to be able to handle playing closer to the box, but the athletic ability to still match up well in coverage against tight ends and running backs. In fact it’s that coverage ability that stood out to me when watching him. He can be a little inconsistent and too grabby at times, but he’s someone that can match up against tight ends in man coverage and hold his own. 

Here we see Hampton lined up across from the tight end, isolated to the right side of the formation. This is pure man coverage for Hampton and off the snap, you can see how the single deep safety works to the far side, leaving Hampton completely on his own against the tight end. But that doesn’t cause any panic. Hampton shows solid footwork to backpedal and stay on top of the tight end, refusing to bite on any fake as he releases. Once the tight end declares his intentions, Hampton then gets tight and sticks to his inside hip. The tight end breaks outside but Hampton is right there in a good position to undercut any throw and that takes the route away from the offense. 

Hampton likes to be physical with his coverage. He sometimes is a little too physical and has a tendency to grab onto receivers down the field that he will need to correct, but certainly the ability to line up and press a big athletic receiving tight end is a unique and appealing trait. 

On this play, Hampton lines up in press coverage over Texas tight end Ja’Tavion Sanders, one of the top rated tight ends in this draft class. Sanders is the point man of a bunch set, which could help confuse things as the receivers work into their releases, but Hampton helps keep things simple for the defense by pressing Sanders and allowing his fellow defensive backs to get cleaner reads on the other receivers. You can see the physicality as Hampton gets his hands on Sanders and forces him inside. The length is on display here too, with Hampton’s long 33-inch arms enabling him to get his hands on Sanders and disrupt his release. That jam forces Sanders multiple yards further inside than he would have liked and delays him from getting fully into the route, which is often all that is needed for a quarterback to move on to another read. 

You can see the bad tendencies a bit at the end of this play. After jamming Sanders inside, Hampton gets a little too handsy down the field, but by that point the ball was already out to another receiver. Hampton will need to be careful to not be too handsy in the NFL as that type of contact is only meant to be allowed inside the first five yards from the line of scrimmage. Savvy corners can get away with more contact further down the field, but Hampton goes overboard with it at times. 

That wasn’t the only good rep Hampton had against Sanders either. 

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