A player’s value is often referred to as stock because of its tendency to rise and fall throughout the process, especially when it comes to the NFL draft. One player whose stock is headed in the right direction is Utah defensive back Eric Rowe.

While Rowe’s stock has been rising as of late, he has known for a while that he was ready to make a real contribution to an NFL team.

“This past season when the coaches moved me to corner, they said I had huge potential to make the jump from college to the NFL just with my size and speed,” Rowe said. “And then they said once I put in the work for the whole season that you’ll see a difference and they were right.”

The work that Rowe put in allowed him to have his most productive year of his career, despite a position change and facing some of the most prolific receivers in the country such as Ty Montgomery, Nelson Agholar and Devin Funchess. He ended the year tied for 12th in the nation with 13 passes broken up to go along with an interception and 59 tackles.

Those great numbers help paint some of the picture as to how effective Rowe can be once het gets onto an NFL roster. Despite playing cornerback his senior year, he has more experience playing at the safety position.

“I played safety my whole high school and first three years of college and just had one season at corner and I guess I excelled at it,” he said. “Toward the end of the year, or midseason, I could really tell that I could really do this.”

In his four years at Utah, Rowe has been able to stand out at safety and cornerback. These two skill sets are why Rowe will be an extremely valued commodity once the NFL draft rolls around. Much like Jimmie Ward last year, Rowe will rise based on the fact that he can play in any defense and multiple positions.

He can play single-high safety for a team that employs a great deal of Cover-1 and Cover-3 defenses because of his ability to cover a lot of ground very quickly. He can also come down and cover tight ends and outside wide receivers in base defense when teams utilize three wide receivers, which allow the defense to not have to sacrifice versus the run to match the personnel of the offense.

He also has the ability to be a bump and run coverage as a cornerback on a team that uses a lot of Cover-2 defense as he has the physicality to press and the hips and footwork to turn and run.

When he arrived at the Senior Bowl, Rowe had a couple goals in mind.

“To set myself apart as me being a physical, aggressive corner maybe more than usual and a corner that has coverage skills, especially for my size,” he said.

However, it was that physical and aggressive style that allowed him to prosper as he was mostly utilized as a safety in Mobile, Alabama.

It is hard to compare Rowe to a single player because you see so many different players’ skill sets in his game. This could be, in large part, due to some of the players that Rowe patterns his game after.

“I like to emulate people such as the aggressiveness of Kam Chancellor, or the coverage skills of Vontae Davis or Joe Haden,” he said.

Rowe’s ability to thrive not only in coverage, but also in run support are the reasons why he may even pass Alabama’s Landon Collins as the top safety taken in the NFL draft.

The key to making money and prospering in the stock market is to buy low and sell high. The same can be said with evaluators or “draftniks” that value a player’s stock correctly early in the process.

Currently, one of the best values in the NFL draft stock market is Eric Rowe and it’s about time evaluators across the media and NFL start to buy in.