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The 2026 NFL Scouting Combine came and went over the weekend and three standouts from Arizona’s secondary shined underneath the bright lights of Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis. Safeties Genesis Smith, Treydan Stukes, and Dalton Johnson all aced their job interviews with electric testing performances and seemingly good meetings with NFL teams.
Football and Arizona haven’t always played nicely together. In fact, it’s a program often overshadowed by the illustrious men’s basketball program. For good reason too as it frequently keeps the Wildcats on the map nationally speaking, but sometimes us football fans in Tucson are craving that same recognition, and it definitely feels like that trajectory is starting to shift.
Genesis Smith
Back in July, Arizona defensive coordinator Danny Gonzales called his shot when asked what would happen if everything clicked for Smith in 2025 saying, “he probably won’t be here next year.” That’s definitely checking out as the former Wildcats safety declared for the draft after earning 2025 Third Team All-Big 12 honors for his productive season.
Smith entered the year as Arizona’s best NFL prospect for his rangy 6-foot-2, 204 pound frame with unteachable instincts. He didn’t run the forty, but he jumped out of the gym with an explosive 42.5-inch vertical jump, which was the best mark for safeties this year and sixth all-time for the position. He also recorded a 10-foot-8 on the broad jump.
The hottest commodity in team meetings out of the Wildcats appeared to be Smith who met with seven confirmed teams, having informals with the Steelers and Vikings, alongside formals with the Buccaneers, Chiefs, Texans, Raiders, and the Panthers as a reunion with Tetairoa McMillan could be down the line for the safety.
Before the Combine, Smith was generally seen as a player projected to go in the late Day 2 to early Day 3 range, but his testing confirmed his long frame is paired with elite athleticism surely enough to make a team fall in love with the intangibles and make him a round 2-3 lock come April 24.
Dalton Johnson
Johnson’s time at Arizona will be remembered for two things: showing what it means to be loyal in a college football era where transferring is the norm and playing with reckless abandon from the defensive back position.
He was actually recruited by Kevin Sumlin, and although he never played for Sumlin through those dark times in Tucson, he stuck it out with two entirely new staffs that came in afterwards with Jedd Fisch and Brent Brennan coaching during Johnson’s career. Johnson’s position was listed at safety, but Wildcats fans know that he played with the tenacity of a linebacker.
Making it all the more impressive is that he was only listed 5-foot-11, 192 pounds at the Combine. It’s a little undersized for the strong safety position he’ll likely play at the next level due to his physical impact near the line of scrimmage, but that doesn’t mean he lacks heart.
He first burst onto the scene in 2023 when he recorded 86 tackles, six for loss, two sacks, an interception and four forced fumbles. Johnson even played a lot of linebacker for the Wildcats in 2024 due to injuries at the position. I’m comparing apples to oranges here, but he reminds me of Arizona Cardinals safety Budda Baker who is known for playing bigger than he is. Johnson epitomizes that mindset.
The testing backed up the tape as the 2025 First Team All-Big 12 honoree ran a fantastic 4.41 second forty-yard dash, which was seventh fastest for the safeties in 2026. Johnson also posted a 36-inch vertical jump and a 9-foot-11 broad jump. Before the weekend, he was projected in the late Day 3 to undrafted range but athletically speaking, he did enough at the Combine to firmly put him as a Day 3 lock while showing NFL teams that the speed will translate – teams like the Detroit Lions, who held an informal meeting in Indy with Johnson.
Treydan Stukes
One of the best stories in college football is when a walk-on player that nobody had any hope for, proves everyone wrong through consistent production and work ethic. Stukes pulled that off tenfold, joining Arizona as a preferred walk-on in 2020, one of its most challenging years in program history under Coach Sumlin. Fast forward four years and Stukes became a stalwart defensive back that you didn’t have to worry about when a ball was thrown his way.
Every year Stukes got better, but he really broke out in the 2023 season when Arizona went to the Alamo Bowl. He totaled 55 tackles, four for loss, an interception and 10 passes defended. The next season wouldn’t go to plan as Stukes would suffer a season-ending tear to one of his right knee ligaments after the win at Utah. It granted Stukes one more year of eligibility by way of the medical redshirt and made the comeback tour that much more anticipated.
Stukes blew up as one of Arizona’s best players altogether in 2025 after making a Week 3 return and affecting the game in multiple ways accumulating 52 tackles, one tackle for loss, one sack, 10 passes defended, and four interceptions. One of those was Arizona’s highlight play of the season where Stukes floated over the back of Arizona State wide receiver Jaren Hamilton, “Mossing” the wideout for the turnover.
He may have been the lowest-rated prospect out of the trio heading into the 2025 season, but his production definitely gave NFL teams a stamp of approval on him, and his testing at the scouting event sparked some of the most buzz surrounding a player in general.
One of Stukes’ best traits as a player is his ability to match receivers’ hips and stick onto them like a bee in pollinating season, so his quickness wasn’t a question, but the long speed was definitely a box needing checking that would help his case. Stukes absolutely obliterated those expectations when he ran a blazing 4.33 second forty-yard dash, which was third best for safeties in 2026, and fourth best all-time at the Combine for the position. He put up excellent numbers in the jump testing as well posting a 38-inch vertical, and a 10-foot-10 broad jump.
Seeing a player like Stukes rise out of the woodshed, go through adversity with a serious knee injury, and now cement himself into potential Day 2 conversations at the NFL draft is completely storybook and is continuing to represent Arizona on the biggest stage of them all.
NFL players being drafted with premium capital (a top-100 draft pick) out of Arizona has traditionally been unheard of. A decade-long drought hit the program from 2013-2023 where the last player picked in the Top 100 was quarterback Nick Foles in 2012 who went to the Philadelphia Eagles 88th overall. Luckily, the sun started to shine on the football program the last two years as Jordan Morgan, McMillan, and Jonah Savaiinaea each were selected in the first and second rounds of the 2024 and 2025 NFL Drafts.
If any one of the three defensive back prospects are selected in the Top 100 in the 2026 NFL Draft, it’ll mark three years in a row with a premium selection for Arizona, the longest stretch since the Foles pick that ended a six-year streak.
Of course, these players weren’t recruited by Brennan, so how can the future be optimistic that this run can continue? It’s arguably up to the player to show out and earn their own draft stock, but Smith, Johnson and Stukes each flourished with career-bests all under Brennan’s tutelage. It might be a while for Arizona to receive its dues as a “football school” but the national recognition this gives the program surely provides assistance in future recruitment and perceived image in general.
“That’s the goal, right?” Coach Brennan said, “To get as many players that come through here a chance to play in the National Football League.”
Arizona’s quietly building an NFL pipeline, and the next crop of talent from Tucson might just be the most earned yet.
For in-depth scouting profiles on all the Wildcats prospects, check out ALLCITY NFL draft expert Fran Duffy’s 2026 Diehard Draft Guide!
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