The Broncos selected Boise State safety JL Skinner, 22, in the sixth round of the 2023 NFL Draft. Skinner is a hard-hitting prospect with freaky size at 6-foot-4 and 209 pounds.
Here’s what you need to know about him:
His first name is just JL
Usually, a couple of initials for a first name means those letters stand for something else.
Not in JL’s case. JL Skinner III is his full name. His father and grandfather are also named JL.
He fell in the draft because of a torn pec
Most analysts expected Skinner to come off the board well before the Broncos selected him in the sixth round.
“If you can get a guy like Skinner in the late second or early third, then I think you’re getting a steal and a player that’s going to be around the football more often than not,” ESPN’s Todd McShay said on the First Draft podcast.
Skinner tore his pec warming up for the bench press a few days before the combine, which meant he couldn’t test in front of scouts. He fell in the draft but should be back to full strength in the next month.
He had a go-to surgeon as a child
When Skinner was 9, he broke his arm while playing football with his friends. Instead of heading home, he played through the injury for about an hour until the pain was unbearable. He told his mom, and they visited Skinner’s go-to orthopedic surgeon.
“Dr. Frost, that’s his name,” his mother told the Idaho Press.
Not only was Skinner so reckless that he paid frequent visits to his surgeon, but the surgeon also didn’t trust Skinner to let his injuries heal. Even minor injuries eventually required full casts instead of slings so that Skinner wouldn’t be able to ignore his injury.
His favorite player is Kam Chancellor
Skinner has been adamant about his admiration for former Seattle Seahawks safety Kam Chancellor since high school.
Chancellor was a fifth-round draft pick in 2010 and played eight years in the NFL. He made a name for himself as one of the league’s biggest, most physical safeties on his way to four Pro Bowl appearances and two all-pro nods. He was a key piece of the Legion of Boom defense that led the Seahawks to a Super Bowl 48 win.
“That’s really who I want to be like right there,” Skinner told KTVB in 2021. “Just all around the ball, making plays around the ball. Hard-hitting, solid tackler. Doing things like that, that’s really who I try to model my game after,” Skinner said.
Skinner doubled down at the NFL Combine..
“The main guy I really watch is Kam Chancellor,” Skinner said. “Like, I watch a lot of Kam Chancellor film because he was so dominant and really was able to cover tight ends, cover all types of positions, and he was just so versatile to where I feel like I can be that same way in the NFL.”
Senior Bowl director Jim Nagy gave Skinner about the highest-possible praise by comparing him to Chancellor.
“Skinner isn’t the same physical presence as Kam yet, but he has more length and range, and he’s probably a little faster at this point,” Nagy told the Idaho Statesman. “When you see him in pursuit, that’s when you get really excited.”
Skinner’s teammates would later vote him the practice player of the week for his Senior Bowl team.
He played offense in high school
Playing both sides of the ball isn’t uncommon in high school, but Skinner stood out when he took the field on the offense. Given his size, high schoolers struggled to bring him to the ground. He primarily played receiver and wildcat quarterback.
See him in action—including a long touchdown catch-and-run—in this mic’d up video:
Mark Wahlberg wanted him in Foxboro
When Mark Wahlberg ran into Skinner at a grocery store in Boise, he made a case to Bill Belichick to draft Skinner.
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