McKewon: Husker DBs could be better than last year, despite several new faces

[Mavric]

Speaking of that secondary: I'm not so sure I count it as a weakness of Nebraska's defense. Yes, it lost Stanley Jean-Baptiste, Ciante Evans, Andrew Green, all seniors last year, and Harvey Jackson, who left the team. But the high caliber of athletes who replace them — Jonathan Rose, Charles Jackson, Byerson Cockrell and Nathan Gerry — makes me think that, by the end of next season, the unit could be better than the 2013 bunch.

 

Gerry could be special in run support, and somehow in the rush to exalt NU's young linebackers, Rose and Jackson's impressive athletic profiles have been forgotten. And don't worry about Cockrell fitting in. He does. Big hands. Good aggression. Accelerates as he reads the play. Nebraska offered him before some other more highly rated junior college cornerbacks for a reason.

OWH

[Mavric]

I tend to agree with him, and it might not be that close. We'll definitely miss SJB. Evans was very good at one specific task - covering within about 8 yards of the LOS - but wasn't great when he had to cover deep. We won't miss Green or HJax.

 

On the other side, Alexander was getting better every game after working into the rotation halfway through the year. He will easily be an upgrade over what we saw early in the year from Green and HJax. And I really like Gerry at Safety. I think he'll push for a lot of snaps as the year goes on.

 

At Corner, Mitchell was coming on strong by the end of the year and is really turning into a leader for the entire defense. He was the biggest puzzle for me last year - SJB was making a lot of plays but teams still seemed to rarely throw at Mitchell. He didn't make a lot of plays but he rarely got beat either. They just weren't challenging him much for whatever reason. That usually means you're doing your job pretty well. I think the combination of CJax and Cockrell will be solid at Nickel. So basically is someone can step up to man the other corner spot, we could be really good.

 

[True2tRA]

Good article. Lots of good info. I swear sometimes this guy reads my thoughts, because he damn near responds to some things I have recently questioned. I like the media having this access.

[True2tRA]

To me, Rose will be the best all around corner of the bunch, but I don't want to put CJ too far behind because what CJ might lack in experience at the position, he makes up in tackling ability. I really know nothing as far as what to expect from Cockrell or Gerry. Hope Alexander keeps improving, which sounds like is happening. We all know Cooper is a badass dude. Hope he gets healed up right and this "turf toe" doesn't end up dragging on like some other guy's recent "turf toe".

[Mavric]

Sounds like Rose has been getting most of the work with the fist unit so hopefully that means he's progressing. CJax seems locked into the Nickel spot and has been getting a lot of praise. It will be interesting to see what happens with Cockrell. Sounds like he's been working both at corner and Nickel. If CJax is coming along as well as it sounds like, perhaps Cockrell and Rose can split the corner duties and find (at least) one of them to be a solid play.

[NUance]

We got good athletes at CB. Lots of potential. But not a whole lot of experience. We're gonna miss Stanley and Ciante.

[zoogs]

Gonna have to start calling them Michael and Jonathan.

[Treand3]

Even though they are young the athleticism is on a much higher level this season. It really helps having two returning safeties in Bo's secondary. ..a lot. Rose isn't coming in completely green, no pun intended, but if he keeps developing we may like what we see. CJ at Nickel could be a great match, has the athleticism to cover and ability to to be a steady tackler. Cockrell's development is crucial as well.

[RockyMountainOySker]

My biggest concern at DB is depth. We have talent but a couple injuries could really hurt.

[Mavric]

My biggest concern at DB is depth. We have talent but a couple injuries could really hurt.

This is true. Not so bad at safety but we're pretty thin at corner.

[Redux]

O/U on thiz thread turning into a Bo cant recruit depth thread?

 

I really liked what I saw last year moving forward. Gerry just has a the look of a real game changer, cant wait to see how they look this spri g.