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Virginia Safety Jonas Sanker Invited to 2025 NFL Scouting Combine

Matt Newton

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Virginia safety Jonas Sanker has been invited to the 2025 NFL Scouting Combine, as announced by UVA football on social media on Friday (January 3). This year's NFL Combine will be held from February 27th through March 2nd at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis, Indiana. Defensive backs are scheduled to do their on-field assessment activities at Lucas Oil Stadium on Friday, March 1st.

This annual event brings the best draft-eligible college football players to meet with executives, coaches, and scouts from each of the 32 NFL teams, a pivotal step in the process leading up to the 2025 NFL Draft. Last year, Virginia sent wide receiver Malik Washington to the NFL Scouting Combine and he ended up getting picked No. 184 overall in the sixth round of the 2024 NFL Draft by the Miami Dolphins.

A 6'1" safety from Charlottesville, Sanker played in 43 games over four seasons at UVA, recording 273 total tackles, 176 solo stops, 13 tackles for loss, two sacks, 19 passes defended, four forced fumbles, and two interceptions. Sanker led the Cavaliers in tackles in each of the last two seasons and was named a First-Team All-ACC selection at safety in 2023 and 2024. This season, Sanker led the ACC in solo tackles with 66 and ranked fifth in tackles per game at 8.2, while leading Virginia in both total tackles (98) and tackles for loss (8.5). Sanker became the first UVA defender in program history to be named the ACC's Defensive Back of the Week four times in a single season.

Sanker was invited to both the Reese's Senior Bowl and the East-West Shrine Bowl and now can add an NFL Scouting Combine invite to his list of accolades. Over 300 of the best college football players will participate in the NFL Scouting Combine in Indianapolis, looking to improve their draft stock and make a good impression in front of executives, coaching staffs, and scouting personnel from all 32 NFL teams.

Multiple sports media outlets have Sanker ranked as one of the top 10-15 safety prospects in this draft class. According to the Pro Football Focus Big Board 2025, Sanker is ranked as the eighth-best safety in the class and the No. 96 overall prospect for the 2025 NFL Draft. Bleacher Report updated its 2025 NFL Draft Big Board a few days ago and has Sanker listed as the 11th-best safety in the class and the No. 127 overall prospect in the 2025 NFL Draft. NFL Mock Draft Database keeps a 2025 Consensus Big Board that compiles 77 boards and nearly 500 mock drafts into a single consensus Big Board. According to that database, Sanker is the No. 194 overall prospect and the 18th-best safety, with a peak draft selection of No. 98.

There's still a ways to go until the 2025 NFL Draft, which will take place in Green Bay, Wisconsin on April 24-26, but Jonas Sanker seems to be on a trajectory towards becoming the latest Virginia Cavalier to hear his name called at the NFL Draft.

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Matt Newton
MATT NEWTON

Matt launched Virginia Cavaliers On SI in August of 2021 and has since served as the site's publisher and managing editor, covering all 23 NCAA Division I sports teams at the University of Virginia. He is from Downingtown, Pennsylvania and graduated from UVA in May of 2021.