2021 NFL Draft profile: DB Chris Brown

Despite an extra season of eligibility thanks to the COVID-19 shortened 2020 season, Texas Longhorns redshirt senior safety Chris Brown declared for the 2021 NFL draft in December. He isn’t the largest guy, listed at 5’11 inches, 210 pounds, but don’t expect that to keep teams from taking a second look at the prospect this week.

As a senior at Texas, Brown was awarded second-team All-Big 12 honors after putting together a season that amounted to 47 tackles, seven pass deflections, one interception and one forced fumble, as well as one fumble recovery across 2020’s nine-game season.

That amounts to an admirable effort by most accounts. Even so, Brown comes with his fair share of areas for improvement. That is, if a professional team gives him the practice time.

First of all, Brown has previously shown fits of success in his ability to wrap up when tackling. His angles are solid for the most part and his testing at the Texas Pro Day was strong — he ran a 4.53 40-yard dash and posted a 4.20 shuttle. He’s also shown an ability to stick to his coverage when in man, forcing receivers to go up for the ball.

He also packs a punch as a tackler, as you’ll see below:

How well does that translate to the professional level? Well, that’s not entirely clear. Likely Brown’s main problem if he’s to find success at the next level — a team must be willing to invest the time and patience in developing him. That, however, isn’t a guarantee.

Brown was recruited to Texas as a consensus three-star prospect in the 2016 recruiting class, emerging as a solid starter during his redshirt junior season in 2019.

Most analysts have Brown landing somewhere late in the sixth or seventh round as a special teams or depth player, at best, or signed as a free agent once teams wrap up the draft.