(Editor's note: The Tampa Bay Buccaneers drafted Winfield in the second round of the 2020 NFL draft. This story was originally published April 9, 2020.)
Antoine Winfield Jr. knew the call.
The No. 17 Minnesota Golden Gophers were sending a six-man blitz against Penn State, meaning Winfield would line up as a single-high safety. He understood his primary responsibility was to guard the post in the middle of the field.
He recognized something else, though -- a clue that would help him make a big play in the most important game of his college career, a 31-26 upset of the No. 4-ranked Nittany Lions. Penn State's star receiver, KJ Hamler, was lined up in the slot on third-and-9. Against single-high looks in those situations, Winfield recalled from film study, the Nittany Lions liked to throw a deep route to Hamler, who would fade toward the sideline and away from the safety. Quarterback Sean Clifford would throw the ball over Hamler's outside shoulder, further guarding against a safety getting over to break up the pass, and often get a big play.
So at the snap, Winfield sprinted away from the post and toward Hamler. Clifford's pass was a bit short, but Winfield was already in position for an interception -- his second of the game -- that would end a Penn State scoring threat and continue a monster performance that solidified his status as one of the best safeties in the 2020 NFL draft class.
"His anticipation and understanding of where the ball was going made that play happen," Minnesota defensive coordinator Joe Rossi said. "I mean, he got there with time to spare. He gets to balls that other people can't get to."
Many of us consider that skill a matter of instincts. But for Winfield, it is the consequence of a life lived alongside one of the NFL's most studious defensive backs in recent memory. His father, Antoine Winfield Sr., made it through 14 seasons as a 5-foot-9, 185-pound cornerback largely because he was a mental step ahead of most opponents. Winfield Jr., born during his father's college career at Ohio State, saw his father studying film on a laptop every night before bed and understood that game-changing plays are more preparation than impulse.
Playmaking safeties are always in demand, and Winfield offers positional versatility with experience as a slot cornerback. ESPN draft analysts Mel Kiper Jr. and Todd McShay both projected him as a first-round pick in their most recent mock drafts.
But Winfield's complicated résumé makes him one of this year's more enigmatic high-end prospects. His 5-foot-9 height measurement at the scouting combine will provoke pause for some teams. He was a unanimous All-American after recording seven interceptions in 2019, but he had previously lost most of his sophomore and junior seasons because of injury. And his freshman season ended in a suspension that was ultimately overturned.
"He's a really instinctive player," said NFL Network analyst Daniel Jeremiah, a former scout for three NFL teams. "I love watching him. But having been in those draft rooms, there's going to be some pushback when you say, 'OK, he's 5-9 and he's missed [most of] two seasons.' As a first-round pick, there will be teams that push back on that."
No matter. The Winfields, as it turns out, are skilled in defeating conventional wisdom.
'It's all about the ball'
It has been 21 years since a defensive back was drafted in the first round with a listed height of under 5-foot-10. That player was Antoine Winfield Sr., who measured 5-foot-8 6/8 and 176 pounds at the 1999 combine and went on to be selected No. 23 overall by the Buffalo Bills.
Short cornerbacks have been scorned throughout the modern history of the NFL. According to research by the Elias Sports Bureau, only five other defensive backs who were 5-foot-9 or shorter have been first-round picks since the common draft began in 1967. Winfield Sr. proved the exception, however, and his path is instructive for a son whose own height is likely to be rounded up to 5-foot-10 on his NFL roster.
Both at Ohio State and in Buffalo, Winfield Sr. excelled because he was one of the game's most fundamentally sound tacklers. He had a linebacker's physicality and reliability by utilizing his simple three-step formula: "Come in as hard as I could. Get low. Grab onto something and hold on," he said recently by phone. Whether against the run or in pass defense, his sure tackling prevented manageable gains from becoming big plays.
After signing a free-agent contract with the Minnesota Vikings in 2004, however, he moved to a new level.
"I honed in and started taking the game seriously," he said. "Every coach I had there in Minnesota, they preached turnovers, turnovers, turnovers. So I had to study. I told [Winfield Jr.] at a very early age that that's how you make a name for yourself. That's how you separate the good players and great players. Guys who create turnovers. It's all about the ball."
While he was still best known for his tackling skills, Winfield Sr. intercepted 11 passes during his first three seasons in Minnesota. The Vikings utilized him as a classic No. 1 cornerback, meaning he matched up twice yearly against the likes of 6-foot-5 Calvin Johnson. The experience cemented one defensive principle among all others for Winfield: learn the offense.
"The only advantage you've got, especially with so many receivers in the NFL now being the size of Calvin Johnson, is to put yourself in the best position to play the ball," Winfield Sr. said. "You can't win every battle, but you can win your share if you have a good idea of where the ball is going to go. You only know that by studying what they've done and what their tendencies are. I knew I couldn't run and jump with them, so that was the only chance I had."
Following Winfield Sr.'s retirement in 2013, the family moved to the Houston suburbs. Winfield Jr., the oldest of three sons, was 15. He had played varsity football as a high school freshman in Minnesota, but the transition to Texas-style football meant it was time to get to work.
"High school football down there was a whole different world," Winfield Jr. said.
He had no doubts about his desire to enter the family business, and work began in earnest after arriving in The Woodlands, Texas. His mother, Erniece, remembers Winfield Sr. conducting ladder drills in the backyard with her oldest son. More than anything, though, Winfield Sr. and Jr. would talk offense and study tape.
"I would watch and listen to them, and it was wild," Erniece remembers. "I assumed every player watched film the way Antoine did, and he was like, 'No, not everybody does that.' He taught all of our boys to know what you're up against. I had been around football since I was 18, and I didn't know that a safety needs to learn the quarterback. Those are the kinds of things they were doing when [Winfield Jr.] was in high school."
Even after Winfield Jr. returned to Minnesota for college, he would send his father cell phone clips of practice and game video.
"At a young age, I just always was watching my dad do the things that he needed to do to be a great player," Antoine Jr. said. "The No. 1 thing was always film study. You have to learn what offenses do, who they're throwing to. You have to know who is getting the ball, how running backs carry the ball. And you have to know it in practice, not just games. So my goal is to get one takeaway in practice every day. If you make it a habit in practice, you'll do it in a game, and that's how you get on the map."
It happened in a hurry for Winfield Jr., who entered his final season at Minnesota having played in only 18 games during the previous three years. Along with his seven interceptions, including one he returned for a touchdown, came two forced fumbles, 85 tackles and a 76-yard punt return that suggested he could moonlight as an NFL returner, as well.
"His preparation unlocked what are undeniably innate abilities," Minnesota's Rossi said. "He understands splits, tips, checks and all the things that go into playing at a high level. When you see how polished a player he is, you don't appreciate it until you realize the limited number of games he had played. He basically lost two years in a row."
Injuries and a suspension
Those lost years will be a crucial part of Winfield Jr.'s final draft evaluation. After starting as a freshman in 2016, a hamstring injury ended his 2017 season after four games. His 2018 season also ended after four games because of a more serious Lisfranc fracture in his foot.
NFL teams got their usual chance to examine him at the combine, but league rules during this unusual offseason prevented the full opportunities they usually have for further evaluations at team facilities. More broadly, teams will have to decide whether to apply a long-held scouting maxim -- college players who struggle to stay on the field can experience similar issues in the NFL -- or if they consider Winfield's injuries a fluke.
"That's where you've got to rely on your doctors," said Jeremiah, who has mocked him as a second-round pick, "and they have to give you a thumbs up or a thumbs down. ... It's not something that you just throw away and say, 'OK, he's a great player, we'll take him.' [Injuries] are going to factor into the discussion."
Confined to a wheelchair after undergoing surgery on his foot in 2018, unable to play football past September for the second consecutive year, Winfield told his parents he was fine. Erniece knew better. She flew to Minnesota and brought him back to Houston for a week of love.
"He's such a mama's boy," Erniece said. "He was like, 'You don't have to come up here, I'll be fine.' I was like, there is no way I'm letting you go through this all by yourself. After the fact, he was like, 'Mom, thank you for coming to get me. I appreciate it. I needed this time.' He wanted to be home."
Winfield emerged from that dark time more determined than ever to demonstrate what he could do over a full season.
"My mindset behind last year was to stay healthy," he said. "I had been hurt and had to sit out. My mindset was that if I stay healthy, I was going to ball."
Said Winfield Sr.: "Anyone who has been around football or knows football knows that injuries happen. His injuries, we couldn't control them. Foot, hamstrings, you recover from. I told him last year that if he was on the field, he would perform. Scouts and people at the next level, they know how to spot talent. He's where he is today because he put in the work to do that."
Relive some of the key highlights that make former Minnesota safety Antoine Winfield Jr. a top prospect in this year's NFL draft.
Winfield Sr.'s advice carried weight in part because he and Erniece had already helped their son navigate a far more serious situation. In December 2016, when Winfield Jr. was still a freshman, he was among 10 Minnesota players suspended in response to an internal school investigation into allegations of a sexual assault. Minneapolis police had declined to press charges after the initial allegations in September, and the school initially did not provide the evidence it used to hand down the discipline.
Both Antoine Sr. and Erniece were furious and scared. Their son had never been in trouble, and Erniece recalled the phone calls she received from parents of his high school classmates, telling her how Winfield Jr. had helped their own children through difficult moments.
"I'm from Akron, Ohio," Erniece said, "and I had seen what it was like when the future of somebody's child is up to a jury. I had seen people selling drugs, and the next thing they knew, they were in jail for the next 30 years. And the mother just cries because there's nothing she can do. So it just hurt my heart to see Antoine go through that, because if you met two million kids, you're going to remember him because he's such a nice and pleasant kid."
Winfield Sr. was more direct.
"I know the young man that I raised," he said. "I knew there was no possible way he could have done that. When I first heard about it, I was on the first thing smoking."
The Winfields took a 7 a.m. flight to Minneapolis the day after the announcement and started knocking on doors -- literally -- to find out what their son had been accused of. Among their stops were the offices of athletic director Mark Coyle and school president Eric Kaler, they said. Neither would meet with them. (Coyle said at the time that privacy laws prevented him from talking about specific students or situations.) Winfield Sr. appeared on the local and national news, appealing for more information and criticizing the school for its handling of the alleged assault. The team's remaining players threatened to boycott the upcoming Holiday Bowl game, making national headlines.
"It meant a lot for them to come up right away after hearing the news," Winfield Jr. said. "It just shows you who they are. I was in a little bit of trouble with the news being out there, and they showed up right away and were behind me the entire process. It showed a lot."
Ultimately, a leak of the school's internal report to a local media outlet provided details. A woman had alleged that she was sexually assaulted by multiple football players after the team's first game of the season. Ten players, including Winfield, were identified as at least having been in the room where the alleged assault occurred.
According to attorney Ryan Pacyga, who was hired by the Winfield family, Winfield Jr. had been hosting a recruit that evening. The woman never accused Winfield of any sexual contact, Pacyga said, but the school's office of Equal Opportunity and Affirmative Action (EOAA) suspended him because his alleged presence was a violation of the student code.
Winfield did not play in the Holiday Bowl, but his case was overturned by an appeals panel. In his testimony, according to Pacyga, Winfield said that he spent part of the night looking for the recruit. He was directed to an apartment and then peered into a bedroom, where he saw a woman and a man engaged in what appeared be consensual intercourse. The recruit was not in the room, and Winfield left immediately to continue looking for him, Pacyga said. Winfield rejoined the team for spring practice in March 2017.
"After that," Erniece said, "he went from a boy to a man. It was just an instant change. He kept his circle very small and very tight. The problem with Antoine was that he was way too trusting. He wanted to be good to everybody."
'The lights are on'
And so it came to be that Antoine Winfield Jr., polished off the field and on, would enter the NFL draft. A telephone interview reveals the same genial confidence his father once carried, the kind that suggests he is as unlikely as any prospect in the draft to encounter an unexpected obstacle.
"Safety is the toughest position to evaluate, at least in my opinion," McShay said. "There is so much space, they're in the back end, and you've got to really look to figure out what they're seeing, what they're trying to do and how they're reacting. A lot of guys, they don't jump out, but Antoine just jumps out. He knows when to study the receiver, and he knows when to get his eyes on the quarterback. That's tough to teach. Anyone who has played defense at all knows that it's tough to teach their eyes to move from one to the other. He does such a great job with that."
"It helps to have a dad like Antoine Winfield Sr. grinding tape with you," McShay added, "but some of that, you either have it or you don't."
Skilled in both the physical and mental parts of the game, and hardened by injuries and experience, Winfield is just as prepared to be a scrutinized first-round pick as he is to be a steal in the second or third round. Minnesota's Rossi said he has referred to Winfield as "minus, not zero, maintenance" during conversations with NFL scouts. Winfield Sr. said he sees the kind of spark that ensures NFL-level success.
"I really do," he said. "I think he has that 'it' factor. He can visualize the play and see it before it happens.
"I look at him, and I know the lights are on."