What I want to see are corners and safeties who are physical, who play the run and who can tackle wideouts in the open field. I think the best player we have in our secondary right now is Jamal Carter. He's the only one returning from 2015 who showed any kind of toughness
Elder and especially Jenkins are wallflowers, and that ain't gonna work. I think Elder is a naturally good football player, and with good coaching he could take a step. Jenkins, I just don't think has the instincts to play safety IMO. Can't have a safety who avoids contact.
I think Johnson could be good, I haven't looked at film of him from last year, but give me an undersized guy with instincts and football toughness who isn't scared to mix it up over a tall fast wallflower all day. Dude was a high school hero and everyone says a leader. I'll be watching him this year...in my mind I think he could be a great one
Did you watch the games? Jamal Carter constantly missed tackles or took bad angles to try and make plays. He has not shown much in his time here. I don't understand the hate on Cornelius being that he stood out not only at Corner but as a ridiculous return man last year (had multiple TD's called back off "penalties". From what I've seen Corn is a stud. As far as instincts Jenkins is a ballhawk back there as he covers a lot of ground when healthy, but he is injury prone and my only knock on him would be his tackling ability. I just don't consider Carter all that great with the scheme he was dealt in past years, but hopefully with the new scheme everything will be head and shoulders better than what we've been tortured with the past too many years.
Here's how each did last year against Georgia Tech, you can watch and draw your own conclusions. I think Carter showed the most, followed by Elder, and I was not impressed with Jenkins.
I agree with you that Elder is a good all around football player and athlete, so I think with some good coaching he can learn to be aggressive on defense. I really think that kid can be taught. Jenkins IDK.
[video=youtube_share;JosfufjlHbw]https://youtu.be/JosfufjlHbw[/video]
[video=youtube_share;40KiRZ4XOqk]https://youtu.be/40KiRZ4XOqk[/video]
[video=youtube_share;rgcbp_NVZt8]https://youtu.be/rgcbp_NVZt8[/video]
