Cockrell the Free Safety

[Jeremy Igo]

Looks like he may grab the starting FS spot since Gaulden isn't looking too great.

 

How are you feeling about that ?

 

I could not find any mention of him ever playing safety previously. But he is a Duke guy, have to think he has the smarts to put it together.

[The Lobo]

2 minutes ago, Jeremy Igo said:

Looks like he may grab the starting FS spot since Gaulden isn't looking too great.

 

How are you feeling about that ?

 

I could not find any mention of him ever playing safety previously. But he is a Duke guy, have to think he has the smarts to put it together.

He was a very good zone corner, maybe we will use him in a lot of zone as a safety. He may thrive playing center field as a FS.

[Daeavorn]

What about Gaulden made them think he was a good player when hes extremely unathletic.

[LinvilleGorge]

I like it. I just like that we're exploring all of our current options. Why not?

I will say though that I don't put too much stock into being a *insert particular elite academic college* guy. The reality is that unless we're talking Ivy League, if you can pass the NCAA minimums you can probably get admitted just about anywhere as a revenue sport athlete. And even the Ivy League bends the rules. A buddy of mine played TE for Brown. He was a good student but he freely admits he would've had ZERO chance of getting into an Ivy League school without playing football.

[LinvilleGorge]

1 minute ago, Daeavorn said:

What about Gaulden made them think he was a good player when hes extremely unathletic.

Athleticism isn't everything, but we draft too many athletic outliers IMO. Funchess ran a 4.7 40 as a WR. Little had a 25" vertical and poor agility drill showings. Gaulden tested as one of if not the poorest athlete among his DB class. I get it, you get a feeling for a particular guy every now and then and take a chance, but IMO we do it too often.

[KillerKat]

If Cockrell is better, then fine. But Rivera and the FO has had plenty of opportunities to upgrade there but have refused to do so. If the position becomes a hindrance to the team, it's all on them.

[rayzor]

If the front 7/pass rush is as good as it seems, we should be fine back there. I want more than fine, but it doesn't seem like it is/has ever been much of a priority so...

[Thama]

Duke stopped having different admission requirements from the rest of the ACC when they hired Cutcliffe. Cockrell might be a smart guy but it wouldn't have anything to do with where he went to play college football.

[Daeavorn]

24 minutes ago, LinvilleGorge said:

Athleticism isn't everything, but we draft too many athletic outliers IMO. Funchess ran a 4.7 40 as a WR. Little had a 25" vertical and poor agility drill showings. Gaulden tested as one of if not the poorest athlete among his DB class. I get it, you get a feeling for a particular guy every now and then and take a chance, but IMO we do it too often.

I completely agree, we do this wayyy to often.

My issue with drafting non-athletes is they often have zero room for error.

Im not too keen on drafting guys that have to play perfectly in order to be successful.

 I was unaware of Little having bad agility and vert jump scores. That definitely shakes my confidence in him.

 

[mc52beast]

Looks like Ron and Marty are putting their faith in the front 7 and are hoping in this new hybrid scheme that they will put enough pressure on qb’s that we just need someone average at FS.

I hope they’re right

[Tepper's Chest Hair]

24 minutes ago, KillerKat said:

If Cockrell is better, then fine. But Rivera and the FO has had plenty of opportunities to upgrade there but have refused to do so. If the position becomes a hindrance to the team, it's all on them

if the FS position becomes that much of a hindrance, then I would be putting more blame on our front 7 than Cockrell.

[OldNorthPowell]

They should just sign Tre Boston and roll with it to be honest. Using Gaulden and Cockrell for backups. Which, to be honest, would be mediocre. However, mediocre in the back-end of the defense is perfectly fine with our front seven.

[WarPanthers89]

45 minutes ago, Jeremy Igo said:

Looks like he may grab the starting FS spot since Gaulden isn't looking too great.

 

How are you feeling about that ?

 

I could not find any mention of him ever playing safety previously. But he is a Duke guy, have to think he has the smarts to put it together.

I feel like we need a couple vets signed soon for depth if that is the case. We also need to sign Cockrell now to a cheaper 2-3 year deal so he can be a valuable depth piece in the future before he becomes a free agent and his price goes up. 

[LinvilleGorge]

6 minutes ago, Tepper's Chest Hair said:

if the FS position becomes that much of a hindrance, then I would be putting more blame on our front 7 than Cockrell.

Unfortunately, that's Ron's mentality too. His mentality is that if a deep safety has to make a play then everyone else failed. The thing is though that sometimes everyone else does fail and that's why you have that guy back there.