Arizona’s Deone Bucannon, shown here upending Packers fullback John Kuhn in the NFC Divisional Playoff in January, is seen by many scouts as the safety/linebacker hybrid of the future in the NFL. Credit: Getty Images

Green Bay – In a traditional sense, this isn't regarded as much of a draft class for safeties.

Given the changing nature in how the NFL game is played, however, there are a handful of prospects that could fit perfectly into the safety-turned-linebacker model used so successfully by the Arizona Cardinals and St. Louis Rams last season.

Personnel people talked so freely this spring about finding a "Bucannon" player, it's almost as if it were a new position.

Deone Bucannon was drafted by the Cardinals with the 27th pick in 2014. The Green Bay Packers, looking for a more conventional safety, took Ha Ha Clinton-Dix six slots earlier.

Starting nine games as a rookie, Bucannon played 65% of the snaps and ranked third on the team in tackles with 75. The Cardinals discovered Bucannon was a little tight and had some coverage deficiencies in the open field.

Last season, coach Bruce Arians started him at strong safety for the first month. Then the decision was made to start Bucannon (6 feet, 211 pounds) at a linebacker position previously shared by several much heavier players.

It couldn't have worked better. Yes, the Cardinals' defense did get smaller, but with Bucannon's toughness the run defense remained firm and the overall explosiveness increased.

Defensive coordinator James Bettcher turned Bucannon loose as a key weapon in his blitz-heavy scheme while at the same time gaining improved coverage by having another pass defender.

Playing 95.1% of the time, Bucannon led the club in tackles with 127 and made a slew of game-altering plays.

At about the time Arizona decided to turn a safety into a base linebacker, the St. Louis Rams did likewise with Mark Barron (6-1, 217).

Tampa Bay, which used the seventh pick of the 2012 draft on Barron, wasn't satisfied with his back-half coverage and traded him to the Rams at the late October 2014 deadline for fourth- and sixth-round choices.

Barron was effective playing near the line on passing downs when weakside linebacker Alec Ogletree (6-2, 245) suffered a broken ankle in Game 4. Coach Jeff Fisher installed Barron as the starter in base and never looked back.

The Rams might have had a bad season but Barron didn't. Despite playing 237 fewer snaps than middle linebacker James Laurinaitis, Barron rolled up a team-leading 137 tackles and four forced fumbles. Aaron Rodgers' first interception of the season was batted at the line by Barron.

With offenses more and more wide-open, you know the idea of playing base downs with six "bigs" and five "smalls" has been thoroughly discussed across the league.

"Well, it worked for the teams that were doing it," said an executive in personnel for an AFC club. "I see teams doing that more than less. We've tinkered with it. It's becoming a little more fashionable."

There are half a dozen legitimate candidates in this draft to become the next "Bucannon," including Southern California's Su'a Cravens (6-0 ½, 223), Southern Utah's Miles Killebrew (6-2, 218), Florida's Keanu Neal (6-0 ½, 211) and Duke's Jeremy Cash (6-0 ½, 208).

Each player is a heavy hitter, runs 40 yards between 4.55 and 4.7 seconds and has the intellect to sort through changing assignments.

"Keanu Neal has to be that," an NFC personnel man said. "If you put him out in space it's going to be tough for him. He's got to be like a Kam Chancellor or a Bucannon-type player. Close to the line.

"Miles Killebrew has to be some sort of linebacker. DeAndre Houston-Carson is strictly a box guy. Jeremy Cash is another one. Su'a Cravens is another.

"You don't want to try to create that. It's not necessary. But we've talked about if we had a guy we could play with him."

Before his career was ended by a cervical injury, the Green Bay Packers employed Sean Richardson as a linebacker in some run-stop packages. They never considered Richardson good enough to pull a linebacker and start him, but the day when a lot of teams start a 210-pound man at linebackers can't be far off.

"There's so much spreading you out (on offense), it's become a space game," another executive said. "You're just trying to get guys that can run and hit.

"Credit to Arizona. Credit their coaches. We all want bigger, but I'm more concerned with good than big."

The ultimate chess piece in this secondary class is Florida State's Jalen Ramsey. In a survey of personnel people, not only did he finish one vote short of unanimity as the No. 1 cornerback but many scouts called him clearly the No. 1 safety as well.

"The best for him is still ahead because he really hasn't focused on one thing," said an AFC scout. "He's what Charles Woodson was his last couple years in Green Bay."

Woodson's measurables coming out of Michigan as the fourth choice in 1998 (6-1, 200, 4.43, vertical jump of 35 inches) are eerily similar to Ramsey's (6-1, 207, 4.38, 41 ½).

There is, however, a stark difference in their production as collegians for three seasons. Woodson won the Heisman Trophy due in part to his 18 interceptions and 30 passes defensed. Ramsey, with merely three picks and 23 breakups, didn't win a major trophy or award.

"Ramsey could bust," said one scout. "As a corner, sometimes the tape wasn't great in some of the man-to-man stuff. He's got all the ability in the world, but it always scares me when some people have a guy at one position and others have him at another.

"In the corner class, the top guys aren't what typically the top guys are. But there is some depth in the third and fourth rounds."

Nineteen scouts were asked to name their five top cornerbacks, with a first-place vote worth five points and so on. Ramsey fell one vote shy of joining Dee Milliner (2013) as the only cornerback in the last 15 years of Journal Sentinel polling to be unanimous.

Ramsey, with 18 firsts and one second, finished with 94 points. Rounding out the top five were Vernon Hargreaves (75, one first), Eli Apple (50), Mackensie Alexander (26) and William Jackson (20).

Following, in order, were Kendall Fuller (13), Artie Burns (four), Xavien Howard (two) and Cyrus Jones (one).

At safety, where 18 scouts participated, Karl Joseph led the way with six firsts and 60 points.

He was followed by Vonn Bell (56, six), Neal (40, three), Darian Thompson (29), T.J. Green (21, one), Cravens (20 ½, one), Killebrew (12), Justin Simmons (nine, one) and Tyvis Powell (five).

Also receiving votes were Cash (4 ½), Sean Davis (four), Deon Bush (two), Jayron Kearse (two), Jalen Mills (two), Kevin Byard (one), K.J. Dillon (one) and Howard (one).