Georgia safety Malaki Starks will be one of the top defensive backs off the board in the NFL Draft.
[Benjamin Wolk](https://247sports.com/user/Benjamin Wolk/)
247Sports Embed Resource
ATHENS, Ga. — When Kirby Smart spoke about Malaki Starks on Tuesday, he used a tagline not often used to describe players.
"Malaki is a very futuristic safety," Smart said.
He can't teleport, and he's not using artificial intelligence to read defenses, but with as much as Georgia asked him to do, it might seem like he could. It's rare you see a defensive back step into Georgia's roster and immediately insert themselves into the starting rotation. Starks did exactly that.
The reason for that? A further dive into what Smart said above: Starks in the type of safety the NFL needs nowadays.
"He can play nickel, he can play man-to-man. More and more, the safety is not what the safety was. The safety has evolved in the NFL because they're in open sets, they're playing more middle field coverage. He has to be able to play man-to-man, he has to be able to cover people, match up on tight ends as they bring more and more tight ends to the league," Smart said. "Like, he fits what teams wanna do, so he has a lot of value in the National Football League in terms of matchup and cover. Because every game comes down to matchups in their league, so everybody's asked about that, and more teams are intrigued at his versatility."
Starks had already shown at the NFL Combine that his speed numbers were more than satisfactory. If the prototypical tests — like the 40-yard dash — didn't do enough to prove how fast he plays, the GPS numbers he posted during on-field workouts certainly did.
It was such a confirming performance in Indianapolis that it wasn't always a sure thing he'd participate in the Pro Day.
But Starks wanted to, at the very least, do on-field workouts.
"I think it's just my versatility. I compete at the highest level, and I think I want to compete against the best," Starks said. "Everything's not always going to go my way, but I never give up. I just wanna go out there and be the best version of myself, wherever I'm at, whatever position that may be."
Now the question becomes: Has Starks cemented first-round status in the upcoming Draft?
In Starks' mind, that's a minor detail that only matters for pride and ego.
"Does it matter? Yes and no. I think you want to be. That's the goal. Everybody wants to be a first-round pick. But it doesn't matter what number you get picked," Starks said. "When you get to a team, it doesn't say second round, whatever pick. It says the team and your name on the back. We're all going to have different journeys. Somebody's gonna get picked early. Somebody's gonna get picked late. Like, it doesn't matter. When you get there, how do you stay there?"