Deionte Thompson

BIOGRAPHY

Deionte Thompson was born on February 11th, 1997, in Orange, Texas. He is a safety for the Arizona Cardinals in the NFL. 

He studied at the University of Alabama and is safety for the Arizona Cardinals of the National Football League. In his early years, Thompson attended West Orange-Stark High School where he recorded five interceptions with 120 return yards and two touchdowns and as a receiver, he caught 37 passes for 692 yards and four more scores. He was an honorable mention All-State as a junior and finished with 15 career interceptions. 

After finishing high school, Thompson committed to the University of Alabama to play college football. As a freshman, after redshirting in 2015, he earned regular time on special teams while rotating in for the Tide in the secondary. He played in 14 games in of the 2016 season and tied for the team lead with eight tackles on kickoff coverage as part of his nine total stops on the season. He made his first tackle taking down the Trojan return man on kickoff coverage against USC. As a sophomore in 2017, he was a talented defensive back who worked his way into the rotation on defense while maintaining a prominent role on special teams. He played in every game with two starts and recorded 25 tackles, one tackle for loss, a pass breakup and one interception which he returned 21 yards. He was named one of the UA coaching staff's special teams players of the week for his performances against Tennessee and Mississippi State and was selected as one of the UA coaches' defensive players of the week for his efforts against Mercer where he made his first career interception which he returned 21 yards. He also earned his first career start at safety and registered four tackles against the Tigers and nearly picked off his second pass of the season. 

As a junior in 2018, Thompson worked his way into the rotation on defense and started the final two games of the 2017 season before securing the starting safety spot this fall to lead the Tide secondary and was selected as a consensus first-team All-America honoree after earning the accolades from the Associated Press, The Sporting News and the AFCA. He was a second-team All-America selection by Walter Camp and the FWAA and also received first-team All-America recognition by Sports Illustrated. Thompson earned All-SEC first-team accolades from the conference coaches and second-team recognition by the Associated Press. He forced a team-high four fumbles to tie for second all-time on the Alabama single-season list in that category and ranked second on UA in tackles with 79 stops, including a team-high 48 solo stops and added 3.5 tackles for loss. He also registered six pass breakups, totaled two interceptions for a combined 65 return yards and added one fumble recovery in 2018 and was named a semifinalist for the Bednarik Award, presented annually to the nation’s top defensive player. He was selected as a Midseason All-American by The Sporting News and ESPN.com while earning Midseason First Team All-America accolades from the Associated Press and earned one of the UA coaching staff’s defensive players of the week accolades for his play against Louisville, Arkansas State, Ole Miss, and Arkansas.

After his junior season, Thompson entered the 2019 NFL Draft and was selected in the fifth round by the Arizona Cardinals.