Part 2: Strengths
Many experts have suggested that Lutmer is the next Cooper DeJean (2nd round 2023, 40th overall, Eagles, Iowa). I don't agree with this. I think that Lutmer is a better prospect than DeJean. He has Pro Bowl potential.
As part of my process for assigning a grade to Lutmer, I went back and watched Dax Hill, the 31st overall pick in 2022, one of my favorite DB prospects from that draft. Hill was viewed as a S or slot CB prospect in his draft but after bouncing around between different spots appears to be finding a home as an outside CB for the Bengals. Hill has better length and timed speed than Lutmer but in multiple other areas (such as instincts and anticipation) I think that Lutmer has the edge over Hill. Similar exercise with Budda Baker, another one of my favorites. Baker was taken very early in the 2nd round in 2017. IMO, all 3 of these players are on the same tier and if they were in the same draft, it would be difficult to choose between them.
Most experts view Lutmer as only a slot DB. Particularly since the Rams are primarily a zone coverage defense, I don't agree that Lutmer is limited to playing in the slot. One of the highest ranked CBs in the draft class is Ellis Robinson IV from Georgia. PFF ranks him as the 2nd best CB and the 11th overall prospect. If we were drafting an outside CB for the Rams, I'm not joking, I'd draft Lutmer ahead of Robinson. I think that McDuffie and Lutmer could play on the field together, even though they are suited for the same position, because they have flexibility to play other spots as well. Just because LeBron James and Luka Doncic are similar doesn't mean that it was a bad idea for them to be teammates.
Game tape is shockingly good for a player who was a 3-star recruit. Elite against both the run and the pass. It was challenging to come up with enough weaknesses about this player, I had to exaggerate some of his flaws just to find things to add to the list.
Didn't get cheap, inflated stats off of bad QBs; he earned his numbers. Drake Lindsey could be one of the top QB prospects next year and Lutmer got him for a pick 6 by recognizing the formation, anticipating the route combination and peeling off the TE to jump under the wheel route. Got INT off of Fernando Mendoza. His FR was a product of hustle, jumping ahead of an opponent who had superior positioning to the football. Instincts and football IQ put him in position for other possible INTs and it was just a function of things like the QB not throwing the ball or the ball going over his hand that prevented him from getting more picks. His production translates to the pro level.
Perfect blend of size, agility, physicality and ball skills to be a slot DB. Hyperactive, but always under control and with sound technique. Super twitchy, like he's moving at a faster speed than almost all the other players on the field.
A force multiplier who made the other players around him better and more effective. Posterchild for the concept of defending as a unit and how 11 players working together are stronger than one. Consistent habit as zone CB of squeezing route and effective jam at top of route paid off in helping to create INT for different DB off of Dante Moore.
Disciplined, consistent and polished technique in all areas of his game. Tremendous competitive effort and instincts. Plays bigger than his size, heart of a lion. A pure football player. Very well coached and schooled in his technique. Iowa knows what they're doing in producing NFL defensive backs. Very good stamina and consistently the same player every snap, no variation or highs and lows in his performance level, just consistent highs. Tougher than almost every TE he faced. Has a physical mentality, just in a smaller body.
Excellent hip fluidity to turn or swivel. Precise footwork, smooth pedal and sudden click and close COD. Moves with low COG, corners like an expensive sports car. Runs fast side saddle, so he can look back at the QB as he's running vertically with the WR. Elite agility.
Phenomenal make-up speed, doesn't panic. I don't care what his Combine speed might be, because his football speed on the field is excellent. Dante Moore broke into open field and was racing down the sideline, but Lutmer turned on emergency rescue pursuit burst and long speed, gaining pursuit angle that convinced Moore to go out of bounds instead of gaining even more yardage or potentially scoring TD. Was put in trail position on shallow crossing route in red zone, but fantastic make-up speed to gain 2 steps and challenge catch helped to prevent TD pass. WR jet sweep motion pre-snap, CB accelerates with elite speed and great peripheral vision to navigate traffic so that he matches the WR and doesn't fall out of phase.
USC gives the ball to Makai Lemon on a reverse. Lemon is already up to speed when he gets the ball and is 6 yards behind the LOS. Meanwhile, Lutmer is in the middle of the field when he sees the reverse, his shoulders parallel with the LOS, 2 yards past the LOS. Lutmer turns and runs with impressive speed all the way from the middle of the field to the numbers and tackles Lemon only 1 yard past the LOS. Lemon ran 4.5 seconds in the 40 at his Pro Day. That is pretty impressive pursuit speed to beat Lemon in the race to the corner, where Lemon had a head start.
If he's in coverage and the pass goes underneath to a different WR, Lutmer can peel off of his man and close downhill very fast to make the tackle and limit YAC.
High football IQ. Identifies shifts and pre-snap motions and instantly communicates with other DBs verbally or with hand signals. Sorts out coverage vs stacked WRs. Sometimes calls out fake words just to confuse the opponent pre-snap.
Got INT where he read pick play coming, come off the WR to jump RB's route.
Excellent plan and instincts to undercut routes with fantastic awareness of route combinations and reading the QB. Almost got Dante Moore. Some of his best plays don't show up on his highlight video, because he undercut routes with great technique and the pass wasn't thrown, but in the NFL that trait will lead to INT and PBU ball production. Very exciting coverage potential for the pros.
Very patient in coverage. Carries routes vertically without falling out of phase. Doesn't gets manipulated and pulled out of leverage against the route. Flips hips easily from press to run with the WR. Extremely balanced in his posture in route stem, able to flow like water to match angle changes by WR inside of the route.
Very good blitzer vs pass or run. Disguises and times the blitz well. Fakes blitz when he's not coming just to keep offense guessing. Very fast blitzer. Nice swim and shake move on pass rush.
One of his best traits is that he's a true "safety" in his approach, because he helps the defense to limit big plays. Adamantly refuses to lose leverage on the football. He might be the best defender in the entire draft at maintaining leverage on the ball, really outstanding. Takes smart angles when he's far away from the football.
Athleticism that isn't reflected by 40-yard dash times, vertical jumps or bench presses. He has elite phone-booth explosive agility, both laterally and forward, to make almost instantaneous adjustments to get himself in proper relationship with the WR so that he can smother the route or contest the catch point. Sudden athlete with zero wasted movement. High-quality PBU talent in intermediate and short areas of the field. Very sticky coverage with well-timed challenges on the pass. Excellent lateral movement against slot WR allowed him to make immediate tackle right at the catch point.
Versatile in man coverage, because he has great agility to stay with small slot WRs but his sound technique allows him to effectively cover TEs that are taller than him. Against deep over by slot WR, glued tightly to hip of WR like the 2 players are attached by a rope. At the top of the route, if the WR flashes his hands as if he's about to push off the CB, Lutmer mirrors but doesn't lunge, staying balanced over his feet so that he can match the break.
In zone coverage, shows precise footwork toggling between routes against complex route combinations.
Iowa moves him around to accommodate other players in their secondary and his NFL team could do the same thing, which provides valuable roster flexibility, similar to an OL who could start at 4 different positions.
Buzzes around the box and disrupts runs. Aggressive downhill run support, attacks forward like a demon to minimize yardage. Reliable setting the edge against the run against TE, WR and even some OL blocks.
Physical and aggressive tackler despite slight build and average size. Textbook heavy hit on Makai Lemon. Nice leg tackle on Lemon. Made a critical tackle on Lemon on 4th quarter drive. Reliable 1 vs 1 tackler in space, drives through his target, good fundamental technique. Enters his tackle attempts with sound body positioning. Effective form tackle on RB from LB position.
Attacks blocks with precise body positioning and always the correct shoulder. Super quick and accurate hands against blocks. Punch and pull moves deconstruct blocks by bigger TEs, helping him to set the edge better than you'd think given his small size. Excellent contact balance if flowing wide while engaged with blocks. Reloads hands very quickly, his 2nd punches shed WR blocks.
Wide toss, fantastic lateral scrape, then shoulder dip against TE's block, defending the run better than most LBs. Wide pitch, explosive 2-step speed-to-power burst into the TE to set the edge, forcing the RB back into traffic, then CB spins off of the TE to help make the tackle.
Refuses to stay blocked. Urgency to get to the ball like it is an emergency situation. Skilled at stacking and shedding blocks. Got "extra" tackles outside of his assigned area by getting away from blocks and taking good pursuit angles to the ball. Elusive and crafty beating blocks, then can blow up plays at the POA. Quick and decisive with his approach beating blocks, with good technique. Doesn't even have to think about hand fighting technique, it just reflexively happens, like a kung-fu martial artist. If a play is winding down and a WR or TE tries to shove him just to get an extra shot in, CB doesn't even have to look at the WR, his hands automatically respond as if controlled by AI. Rarely stays stuck on a block, almost always disengages at some point during the rep, often almost immediately. Holding penalty on WR trying to block him wiped out a long run.
Calling him a slot defender isn't accurate. He was an "everywhere" defender, making plays all over the field, in the box, at the LOS, outside, deep, and the slot. He played all over the formation, with wide variety of different roles and performed every task equally well. Lined up as WILL linebacker or over TEs as a hang defender like a SAM, as outside CB, slot CB, has played both FS and SS. If in the box as an ILB, attacks the run with technique and physical aggression of an actual LB, just in a small body.
Phenomenal closing burst to the QB when he triggers, shocking change-of-pace speed.
Some of his "bad" plays are also very good plays. Outside zone to the left, LG climbs up to CB. The RB appears to be going to the hole inside of the C. Lutmer reads this and with a sudden darting movement jumps to the other side of the LG so that he's in position to help close the hole. The RB sees a LB closing in on the POA and suddenly changes course, heading outside. Lutmer gets caught on the wrong side of the LG, opening up the door for RB to get to the sideline (though it looked to me like there was a holding penalty on the other LB that wasn't called) and races towards the end zone. Lutmer realizes the danger and pulls away from the LG and with a desperation speed burst chases down the RB and makes a diving tackle attempt with textbook form, his helmet properly positioned to the side, his arms trying to wrap up, but his arms slide off of the RB's legs and the RB scores. On one hand, Lutmer was at fault for this TD happening, because he left his gap open but this play also shows some excellent play traits.
It is true that Lutmer misses tackles and doesn't have great tackle finishing power. His stats, however, are misleading, because almost every missed tackle in the games that I watched was a "productive" missed tackle. He constricted the run lane and forced the runner into the rest of the defense, so when Lutmer missed the tackle, the next defender made the tackle. If there were some stat for "average yards after missed tackle", that number would be low for Lutmer. This is one reason why leverage on the ball is so important. Lutmer's positioning contained RBs and limited explosive chunk plays.
Lutmer is protecting the edge. He's perfectly positioned and forces the RB to hug tight inside instead of bouncing outside, so when Lutmer dives and misses the tackle, the RB collides with the back of a blocker and immediately gets tackled by the next defender.
Missed tackle on jet sweep on violent head-to-head collision against bigger opponent coming at him fast, good tackling form, not backing down from challenge, exploding upwards and into runner, wrapping up with 2 arms textbook form, but no grip power and the runner slips out of it. Since CB slowed down the runner so much, however, and forced him inside instead of getting to the sideline, the rest of the defense quickly made the stop.
RB breaks into open field and looks like he's on his way to a long TD, but Lutmer comes to the rescue with speed burst, misses his tackle attempt, but in doing so he forces the RB to spin directly into the arms of the S where he gets tackled.
DL is slanting to the right, away from the direction of the run. Gap run with pull blockers, plus the WR in a tight split is outside of the LB. Iowa is immediately in a bad situation, hopelessly outnumbered at the POA, with players moving the wrong way and getting sealed off from the run lane. If the TE wipes out Lutmer, this is a possible long TD. Lutmer makes a very quick adjustment, getting outside to the correct angle to get leverage on the block and on the RB, but doesn't go so wide that the hole towards the inside is too big. He uses his hands to engage the TE's block and disengages to constrict the run lane. Lutmer misses his diving tackle attempt at the RB's ankle, but by doing his job so well he forced the RB to run directly into the S for an easy and clean tackle to limit the gain. Perfect example of what I mean; that's a missed tackle that was a "50-yard" win for Iowa. It isn't a bad missed tackle; it is an outstanding missed tackle. If CB had gotten stuck on the TE's block, there would have been no missed tackle but it could have been 6 points for the opponent. Sometimes, stats lie.
Elite and extremely versatile special teams potential. Expected to be Iowa's punt returner in 2026. Very good ST player earlier in his career and continued to play ST on part-time basis in 2025. I noticed him as gunner and vise and on FG defense and he was very good at each task. Good quickness at LOS and excellent long speed running downfield. Obviously has tackling experience on defense. Even if Lutmer weren't a defensive starter for Iowa, he potentially could be a late round NFL draft pick purely based on his special teams ability.
Elite awareness. Almost nothing gets by him mentally, even on the fly or against delayed misdirection. Good luck finding plays where he's out of position, because in all the games I watched I couldn't identify a single time that happened. He might gamble and guess wrong, but he always has a keen sense of what the offense is trying to do, what the defense is doing and what he individually needs to do to anticipate or adapt to the situation. Very smart player on the field.
Has only been a starter for one season. I think he's already a great player but has the potential to get even better with additional development.
