{"id":140484,"date":"2023-04-19T11:00:03","date_gmt":"2023-04-19T15:00:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/?p=140484"},"modified":"2025-09-25T12:07:42","modified_gmt":"2025-09-25T16:07:42","slug":"ronnie-hickman-2023-nfl-draft-profile","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/2023\/04\/19\/ronnie-hickman-2023-nfl-draft-profile\/","title":{"rendered":"Ronnie Hickman 2023 NFL Draft Profile"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Ronnie Hickman NFL Draft Profile<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Position: <\/strong>Safety<\/p>\n<p><strong>Height: <\/strong>6\u2019 \u00bd\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>Weight: <\/strong>203 lbs.<\/p>\n<p><strong>School: <\/strong>Ohio State<\/p>\n<h2><strong>2023 NFL Draft: Ronnie Hickman Scouting Report<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>Ronnie Hickman came to Ohio State after an All-American lacrosse and a stellar offense and defensive football career in New Jersey. He started for the Buckeyes for two years and showed his Lacrosse skills while excelling in a big nickel role. Hickman finished his first starting season with 98 tackles (54 solo, 44 assists), a sack, a forced fumble, and two interceptions. In his second season (2022), he finished with 53 tackles (26 solo, 27 assists), a forced fumble, and an interception.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.si.com\/college\/ohiostate\/football\/ohio-state-football-safety-ronnie-hickman-plans-to-enter-2023-nfl-draft\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Hickman is a strong<\/a> and sizeable NFL safety, playing above his weight class. He battles against bigger tight ends and is a rotational safety NFL teams sorely need. While his speed and finishing angle leaves NFL acumen desired, small refinements in his technique could dramatically improve his week-to-week play. He is certainly a project on defence, but he can dominate immediately in certain defensive schemes, making him worthy of a strong mid-round selection.<\/p>\n<h3><strong>Strengths<\/strong><\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li>Strong safety who plays above his 203-pound weight-class<\/li>\n<li>Physical safety who can defend against NFL tight ends<\/li>\n<li>Will fit immediately into a big nickel package<\/li>\n<li>Strong run defender; crashes the box in all situations<\/li>\n<li>Smooth hips with ability to move around field<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3><strong>Weaknesses<\/strong><\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li>A touch slower than desired<\/li>\n<li>Not a great open-field tackler<\/li>\n<li>Not great at making sure he is the finishing tackler on a play<\/li>\n<li>Reactionary play style for full-time starter<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>NFL Comparison: <\/strong>Marcus Williams<\/p>\n<p><strong>Teams With Need at Position: <\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/category\/nfl-teams\/ravens\/\" target=\"_self\">Baltimore Ravens<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/category\/nfl-teams\/bengals\/\" target=\"_self\">Cincinnati Bengals<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/category\/nfl-teams\/packers\/\" target=\"_self\">Green Bay Packers<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/category\/nfl-teams\/chiefs\/\" target=\"_self\">Kansas City Chiefs<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/category\/nfl-teams\/raiders\/\" target=\"_self\">Las Vegas Raiders<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/category\/nfl-teams\/dolphins\/\" target=\"_self\">Miami Dolphins<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/category\/nfl-teams\/saints\/\" target=\"_self\">New Orleans Saints<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/category\/nfl-teams\/buccaneers\/\" target=\"_self\">Tampa Bay Buccaneers<\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>Projection: <\/strong>Fifth Round<\/p>\n<h3><strong>Bottom Line on Ronnie Hickman<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>Ronnie Hickman is a nice NFL rotational safety with some potential to go beyond his role as a strong, big nickel defender. He does not necessarily possess the coverage skills needed to stick with NFL wide receivers and may struggle in a zone scheme. The way he moves around the field needs to have more of a sense of purpose than generalised zones; hence, a team with a downhill defensive style will best fit Hickman.<\/p>\n<p>Hickman\u2019s most immediately, however, fulfils a need for a team who utilises downhill safeties in a multi-safety and rotational system. He will provide needed depth to a defence, but beyond that needs to improve play recognition to go beyond a limited prototype player. Fundamentally, he needs to improve his tackling on an angle and fit better to incoming offensive players. However, his ability to attack the ball carrier is a skill that should get him decently far in the NFL. He will not take the ball away, nor will he be a flashy three-down safety.<\/p>\n<p>Hickman instead will play a vital role on a defence trying to take the next step by simply playing healthier and more consistent. His lacrosse-style play still will move him up in the NFL Draft, allowing him to play with a team that needs his style of a strong, physical safety.<\/p>\n<p>Main Image: Joseph Maiorana-USA TODAY Sports<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Ronnie Hickman is a big nickel safety who can meet tight end and running backs in the box, making an intriguing, day-three NFL Draft prospect<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2018,"featured_media":140485,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[54,10,7,25,16,17,4,28,1647,33760,29],"tags":[9546,2274,2030,9912],"class_list":["post-140484","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-editorials","category-ravens","category-bengals","category-packers","category-chiefs","category-raiders","category-dolphins","category-saints","category-nfl-draft","category-profiles","category-buccaneers","tag-2023-nfl-draft","tag-marcus-williams","tag-nfl-draft-profiles","tag-ronnie-hickman"],"modified_by":"Michael Kovacs, ADMIN","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/140484","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2018"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=140484"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/140484\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":248358,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/140484\/revisions\/248358"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/140485"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=140484"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=140484"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=140484"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}