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Who do you want to start at nickel?

LuCane said:
SpringsCane said:
After listening to the pod, seems like Bryce at Nickel is real. I’m confused as to why we would want our best ball hawking safety closer to the line of scrimmage and our most physical guy further away from the line of scrimmage. Wouldn’t we playing against Bryce’s strength and Omar’s strength ? Not sure if @Memnon has given his take but curious to here it on who fits where
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Maybe he'll play Nickel on early downs and slide over on obvious passing downs. That's not a crazy strategy. He'd still have to tackle better on early downs, but we blitzed the FARK out of the slot position last season.
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I’m glad you said that bc if I had to pick who’s better in run support or on the earlier downs, I’d go with Thornton as he’s more physical and a willing tackler than Fitz. I trust the staff just seems odd considering their strengths are both pretty obvious to me
 
SpringsCane said:
LuCane said:
SpringsCane said:
After listening to the pod, seems like Bryce at Nickel is real. I’m confused as to why we would want our best ball hawking safety closer to the line of scrimmage and our most physical guy further away from the line of scrimmage. Wouldn’t we playing against Bryce’s strength and Omar’s strength ? Not sure if @Memnon has given his take but curious to here it on who fits where
Click to expand...
Maybe he'll play Nickel on early downs and slide over on obvious passing downs. That's not a crazy strategy. He'd still have to tackle better on early downs, but we blitzed the FARK out of the slot position last season.
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I’m glad you said that bc if I had to pick who’s better in run support or on the earlier downs, I’d go with Thornton as he’s more physical and a willing tackler than Fitz. I trust the staff just seems odd considering their strengths are both pretty obvious to me
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I put a video together of Thornton
 
If Fitz can play with Scott’s physicality, Fitz. That position makes the defense go and if we can have our most physically gifted DB in that spot that’s a plus.

Thornton plays Thomas role.
 
PimpCane said:
Thornton for the way we use our nickel but I actually think Poyser would make a good nickel too. I think him and Fitz will be there situationally on occasions.
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Posher would actually be a monster at Nickel. That’s the position he played at Jacksonville State. Let’s Fits play the high safety and Thornton at boundary
 
San Amaro Dr said:
K. Scott
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Sad Vince Mcmahon GIF by Justin
 
I think Thornton is the natural fit for Jakobes role

Remember when Keionte got hurt and we barely missed a beat because of Jakobe? (Short term)

I don’t pretend to know the intricacies here but looks like they train at a few spots back there
 
Not gunna lie, literally anyone but OJ and Ethan O'Connor you can make an argument for.

Personally I like Fitzgerald in the single high safety role. But if you want him more involved I get putting him in the nickel, plus he's a great athlete.

Thornton is clearly someone who is better in run support and closer to the box. But imo out of the 3 main safeties, he's probably the worst one and the one we'd want to be rotating a bit more...

Poyser is the interesting one that probably ends up dictating things a bit though. He played Nickel at JaxSt pretty sure. But can he play the Jakobe Thomas role? If he can't then, that definitely limits options much more. Because then it means Fitz needs to either be the safety with Poyser at nickel or Poyser staying at same position as last year with Fitz down at nickel.

Damari and Antione if they want to get much more PT, should be all over trying to get into the nickel competition.

Xavier Lucas while maybe not being the every down nickel like Scott was, actually played over the slot a bit last year, and pretty sure at Wisconsin they had him doing this as well, as well as in HS him being a Safety like half the time.

Then of course there is Dunnigan who seems like is going to be the guy on defense as a freshman to get significant PT.
 
Thornton is clearly the guy they have in mind to fill Scott’s shoes, and I think he will do it well. You want him near the line of scrimmage because he just makes plays. Great tackler, forced 4 fumbles, added a couple interceptions. What he really is, is an enforcer, a tone setter. He’s gonna hit you so hard that your momma feels it. That intimidation factor is gonna make our defense that much scarier to go against.
 
Calinative said:
Not gunna lie, literally anyone but OJ and Ethan O'Connor you can make an argument for.

Personally I like Fitzgerald in the single high safety role. But if you want him more involved I get putting him in the nickel, plus he's a great athlete.

Thornton is clearly someone who is better in run support and closer to the box. But imo out of the 3 main safeties, he's probably the worst one and the one we'd want to be rotating a bit more...

Poyser is the interesting one that probably ends up dictating things a bit though. He played Nickel at JaxSt pretty sure. But can he play the Jakobe Thomas role? If he can't then, that definitely limits options much more. Because then it means Fitz needs to either be the safety with Poyser at nickel or Poyser staying at same position as last year with Fitz down at nickel.

Damari and Antione if they want to get much more PT, should be all over trying to get into the nickel competition.

Xavier Lucas while maybe not being the every down nickel like Scott was, actually played over the slot a bit last year, and pretty sure at Wisconsin they had him doing this as well, as well as in HS him being a Safety like half the time.

Then of course there is Dunnigan who seems like is going to be the guy on defense as a freshman to get significant PT.
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Surprised Damari hasn’t looked at how well Scott did in that role last year here and elevated his draft status and want to emulate that. Damari is physical and a willing tackler, he’d be a great fit at nickel. Damari reminds me of antrel rolle in a sense is best position in the league is probably at that nickel safety spot. With it being his last year, I woulda thought Damari would want to put as much tape out there as possible and play as often as he can. Nickel seems like the spot he can take over and play majority of snaps like Scott did last year. Not sure rotating at outside corner vs showing postion versatility and playing nickel is best for his draft status
 
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