Taking a look at college football's best FS.

[Cat'sGrowl]

Robert Lester, #37 FS, University of Alabama

Bio Blast: 6'2", 210

Pro Comparison: Nick Collins

40 time: Hi:4.68 Lo: 4.46

Player bio, per Crimson Tide website.

OUTLOOK: Robert Lester earned second-team All-America honors from Walter Camp after his 2010 season ... a ball-hawking safety that flourished alongside Mark Barron ... the junior has 60 career tackles and eight interceptions ... has seen action in 21 games at Alabama, making 13 starts.

2010 (SOPHOMORE): Lester started all 13 games at the safety position for the Crimson Tide in 2010 ... second-team All-SEC choice ... Walter Camp second-team All-American ... totaled 52 tackles, including 29 solo stops to rank tied for sixth on the team ... recorded one sack for a loss of nine yards ... tallied a SEC-best eight interceptions, which ranked second nationally and ties Harry Gilmer (1946) for the second most in a single season in school history ... returned those eight interceptions for 102 yards ... returned a fumble 89 yards ... was named the Bronko Nagurski National Defensive Player of the Week and the Jim Thorpe Defensive Back of the Week following his two-interception performance at Arkansas ... finished second nationally with .62 per game. San Jose State: Recorded a sack and intercepted a pass in his first game of the season. Penn State: Registered five tackles and returned a fumble 89 yards against the Nittany Lions ... added his second interception in as many games. Duke: Tallied four solo tackles against the Blue Devils. Arkansas: Turned in a career performance in the Tide's comeback win against the Razorbacks ... tallied a career-best seven tackles and two interceptions ... was named the Bronko Nagurski National Defensive Player of the Week and the Jim Thorpe Defensive Back of the Week ... returned his second pick 33 yards to set up Alabama's go-ahead touchdown late in the fourth quarter. Florida: Earned the start and registered five tackles, including two solo stops. South Carolina: Recorded three tackles, including a solo stop against the Gamecocks. Mississippi: Tallied five tackles, including two solo stops ... registered a quarterback hurry and broke up a pass. Tennessee: Registered his fifth interception of the season and returned it 20 yards ... tallied two tackles, including a solo stop. Mississippi State: Notched his second multiple interception game of the season with two picks in a 30-10 win over Mississippi State ... also made four tackles two of which were solo. Georgia State: Made one solo tackle in a 63-7 win over the Panthers in roughly a half of play. Auburn: Totaled four tackles with one solo stop as the Tide limited AU to 324 total yards, more than 200 below its season average. Michigan State: Thwarted a scoring drive on Michigan State's first possession with his eighth interception of the season deep in Crimson Tide territory ... finished with a team-high five tackles -- four solo stops ... returned the interception 22 yards to set up Alabama's second touchdown ... also broke up a pass.

2009 (FRESHMAN): He garnered playing time in eight games ... played in his first contest in a Crimson Tide uniform against North Texas ... tallied eight tackles on the season, including six solo stops on the season ... named the Alabama Special Teams Player of the Week against Tennessee-Chattanooga. North Texas: Came off the bench and recorded two tackles, including a solo stop. Arkansas: Saw action off the bench to record one solo tackle. South Carolina: Came off the bench but did not record any statistics. Mississippi State: Found time off the bench but did not record any stats. Chattanooga: Tallied a career-best three tackles, including two solo stops against the Mocs was named Special Teams Player of the Week by the UA coaching staff. Auburn: Again was a big contributor on special teams with a solo stop and solid coverage. Florida: Registered a solo stop on special teams. Texas: Played on special teams but did not record a tackle.

2008 (REDSHIRT): He redshirted during his freshman season at the Capstone in 2008.

HIGH SCHOOL AND PERSONAL DATA: Lester was rated by Rivals.com as the No. 33 safety in the nation ... also rated as the No. 13 player on the Alabama Top 35 list by Rivals.com ...three-star defensive back by Scout.com ... rated No. 36 on Scout.com's list of prep defensive backs ... the No. 19 player in the state according to SuperPrep magazine ... listed on The Atlanta Journal-Constitution's Super Southern 100 ... No. 145 player on the Scout.com Southeast 150 list ... talented defensive back who is also a threat on special teams because of his size and speed ... first-team All-State selection by the Alabama Sportswriters Association ... named ScoutSouth.com Stars of Alabama ... totaled 143 tackles, 10 interceptions and 15 pass breakups during 2006 and 2007 seasons at Foley High School ... had 74 tackles, including one TFL, as a prep senior ... led team with six interceptions and 82 return yards ... also added 11 pass break-ups, two forced fumbles, two blocked punts and one fumble recovery ... had six punt returns for 86 yards and four kickoff returns for 214 yards (53.5 average) and one TD ... recorded 73 tackles, four interceptions and nine pass break-ups as a junior.

Why the Panthers should draft him:

Free Safety is the most underrated position of need on this team, hands down. I get that we all love Sherrod Martin, but it would appear that the coaching staff isn't as fond. Jordan Pugh is seeing lots of reps at the FS position, and that really speaks volumes when you see that Jordan Pugh has been utterly terrible so far. Free Safety WILL be considered for our 1st round selection in next year's draft-and this guy is at the top of his position. As much as i hate the Crimson Tide, they have one heck of a Secondary. Mark Barron, Kirkpatrick, and Lester are all considered by some to be the best at their respective positions. The fact that he is surrounded by talent in the Secondary could help contribute to his success, but the guy's talent is undeniable. Nick Saban players typically don't have the best track record in the NFL, but history can't keep you from at least giving this guy a look. While the CB and Tackle positions each have young talent with players who have looked promising this season, the same can't be said for FS, which is pretty bare of bodies. MOST IMPORTANTLY- he has experience blitzing from his S position-an enormous need for a Safety in the Jim Johnson 4-3 that we run, not to mention, experience in Zone coverage. He is EXACTLY the type of personnel that we will be looking for, for the defensive system that we run- look for this guy to be a candidate for our selection year.

Robert Lester highlights:

[Cat'sGrowl]

The more I look into this guy-the more I like him.

[chubs2496]

I just don't see us drafting a safety when we have glaring holes at cb, lb, ol. And not as much a the rest but wr isnt too great either. I like Godfrey obviously, but Martin and Pugh I'm not too high on. If Rivera an company think he will fit and be really good then that could be great. When u look at great defensive teams, the majority o them have play making safeties. IMO if you take polamalu of the steelers defense it begins too look rather unimpressive. Look what Ed Rees can do.

I'm not gonna lie, it would be nice to have one of those guys back there. But I just don't see it

[Cat'sGrowl]

We don't have glaring holes at CB or OL. and LB is no more a need than S.

Gamble is having a career year, Munnerlyn and Butler have both been very impressive. Would you honestly consider Guard an important to use a first round pick on?

[JawnyBlaze]

I'm definitely open to the idea, especially if we're picking in the middle of the first round. I'm mostly against picking a LB in the first anyway, and I don't think it's that big of a need. We'll get Beason back, probably not Davis, but our backups have been performing admirably. As has been stated in other threads, LB is easier to address in the 2nd and later.

If Jeffrey or Blackmon are available at our pick (considering what public opinion of them is now, who knows what could happen come draft time) it would be really hard to pass on either. We all love Smitty, and he hasn't lost that step YET, but we should address the future #1 spot sooner rather than later. I'd rather have one of those two guys with a couple years under their belt when the time comes for Smitty to retire than have to draft a WR THAT year and have a rookie as our #1.

If a good value CB is available, I think that's our best target considering our current situation. I don't think Captain has been doing as well as some people do. He often looks lost, in my opinion. Besides that fact, a similar situation exists with our CB1 as WR1. Gamble is looking damn good right now, but in a few years he'll probably begin to slow down and I'd rather have a top tier CB drafted soon and have a few years experience when it comes time to replace Gamble than have to draft based on immediate need and have a rookie with too much responsibility.

Ditto on Matt Kalil. Especially if Otah ends up just not being able to stay healthy. But even if he is, the suggestion that's been thrown out there of Kalil-Wharton-Kalil-Otah-Gross is tempting. We'd have to be a lot worse for the rest of the year than I expect us to in order to draft Kalil, though.

If the value is there, and this Lester kid looks like the real deal, I wouldn't be opposed. I'm not down on Martin, he still looks solid, but the position could benefit from an upgrade.

[jtnc]

Really don't see us drafting a FS in the first, I like Martin, but Pugh is meh, there's always 4th round to go after someone.

[JawnyBlaze]

To amend what I was saying about our CBs, Butler and/or Hogan could turn out to be our answer to #2, so CB might not end up being our top need.

[Ivan The Awesome]

I see us taking a WR, DT, LB with the first pick. Although this guy is a stud.

I know we took 2 DT's last year, but we're kinda lacking in that department.

[JawnyBlaze]

Eh, I don't really see us picking a DT high. With Edwards coming back, and the experience our two rookies will be getting, and Neblett proving to be at the very least serviceable we will have bigger needs probably. And there's still Fields and the other new guy from the Dolphins' practice squad to consider. They could prove to be solid too. We'll see, but I don't think DT will be a pressing issue. If there's a Suh or a Dareus to be had, I don't think we'll be picking high enough to take them, but if there is and we are then by all means.

[JawnyBlaze]

I'll say this about Lester, I don't know anything about him personally, haven't watched him play in particular, but just from the stat line 8 INTs with only 13 starts is nice.

[chubs2496]

We don't have glaring holes at CB or OL. and LB is no more a need than S.

Gamble is having a career year, Munnerlyn and Butler have both been very impressive. Would you honestly consider Guard an important to use a first round pick on?

Ok bro just bc gamble has played a couple good games dosent sure up the cb position. He's overpaid and gets injured from the wind blowing. Captain and butler have done ok. But it's not like we have done that great. Captain had gave up some real big catches. Ya know like that one against green bay that lost us the game.

And it's the same thing with offensive line. Jeff otah stays hurts. I mean he hurt his back this time. He is the softest man on the planet. Gross is getting older. And so is Wharton. But I'm

more worried about rt than these.

And i said that they probably won't even take a safety nor should they. But

for u to say that were fine and dandy at cb or ot is kinda goofy.

But I would like to see a game changing safety. But idk how good this guy is. I don't think that will happen

[Cat'sGrowl]

Really don't see us drafting a FS in the first, I like Martin, but Pugh is meh, there's always 4th round to go after someone.

I'm honestly convinced some of you don't read the OP before you post.

[Cat'sGrowl]

I see us taking a WR, DT, LB with the first pick. Although this guy is a stud.

I know we took 2 DT's last year, but we're kinda lacking in that department.

McClain has looked great so far. Fua's job is to be fat and in the way, so I can't really speak for him if he is doing that well enough.

[Cat'sGrowl]

Ok bro just bc gamble has played a couple good games dosent sure up the cb position. He's overpaid and gets injured from the wind blowing. Captain and butler have done ok. But it's not like we have done that great. Captain had gave up some real big catches. Ya know like that one against green bay that lost us the game.

And it's the same thing with offensive line. Jeff otah stays hurts. I mean he hurt his back this time. He is the softest man on the planet. Gross is getting older. And so is Wharton. But I'm

more worried about rt than these.

And i said that they probably won't even take a safety nor should they. But

for u to say that were fine and dandy at cb or ot is kinda goofy.

But I would like to see a game changing safety. But idk how good this guy is. I don't think that will happen

Except here's the thing-it doesn't matter what you think. Rivera has been very vocal about his admiration for the players at those positions. He relly doesn't care if you don't agree. Sorry to break it you, bro.