Former Iowa safety Kaevon Merriweather believes his ceiling is ‘definitely high’ in NFL after productive 2022 season

IOWA CITY — As Kaevon Merriweather saw Pittsburgh Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin and former defensive back Ike Taylor, he was a bit star-struck.

“I was like, ‘Whoa,’” Merriweather said. “That was a pretty cool moment for me.”

It’s part of the former Iowa safety’s “once-in-a-lifetime opportunity” as he prepares for the NFL Draft.

Merriweather — one of five Hawkeye football players invited to the combine and one of two to participate in the Senior Bowl — has been “in touch with quite a few teams.”

Iowa’s track record of producing NFL defensive backs is part of his pitch to NFL teams. At least one Iowa defensive back has been drafted in five of the last six seasons.

“We’ve seen throughout the past couple of years the type of caliber players that Iowa produces,” Merriweather said. “I think I’m definitely one of them.”

From an Xs and Os standpoint, Merriweather is optimistic about how his work in Phil Parker’s defense will translate to an NFL defense that uses quarters coverage.

“If a team wants a quarters system, I’ll be pretty comfortable playing that,” Merriweather said.

Merriweather believes his “ceiling is definitely high,” especially considering his relatively late switch from basketball to football in high school.

“Even though I was a late bloomer in the game of football, look at how far I’ve progressed in the past couple of years,” Merriweather said. “I think that progression is still going to continue in the next coming year, especially once I get into an NFL locker room.”

The Belleville, Mich., native had his most productive season at Iowa as a senior, earning second-team All-America honors from Sporting News and the Associated Press.

Merriweather’s three interceptions in 2022 did not stand out nationally, but opposing quarterbacks rarely threw in his direction.

He took 423 coverage snaps in 2022, according to Pro Football Focus, yet quarterbacks targeted his receivers only 26 times, or on about 6 percent of throws.

“If teams actually threw the ball to me a little bit more than what they were, I think my ball production would have been way crazier than what it was,” Merriweather said. “Even when the ball wasn’t thrown my way, I was pretty much hip-to-hip with a lot of people in my area.”

When quarterbacks did throw toward Merriweather, it usually did not go well for them. His receivers completed only 42.3 percent of passes — the lowest rate among any Iowa players with at least 200 coverage snaps — according to PFF.

He held quarterbacks to an NFL passer rating of 11.7 — the lowest among FBS defensive backs with at least 200 coverage snaps.

Merriweather is not going into the draft with the highest outside expectations, though.

Pro Football Focus ranked him after the combine as the 276th-best player in this year’s draft and the 24th-best safety. NFL teams drafted 20 safeties in 2022 and 21 safeties in 2021.

However, pre-draft rankings come with a big asterisk.

“You read the mock drafts, all those kinds of things,” Iowa Coach Kirk Ferentz said. “Nobody really knows right now what's going to happen in the draft.”

Comments: john.steppe@thegazette.com