Part of why I asked this question, Okudah played safety and OLB in high school. One of the player comparisons they gave for Okudah was Eric Berry, steong, big hitter with loose hips that can turn and run. A comparison I thought of was Charles Woodson. Why did Woodson switch from CB to S?
And WR. He was a really good WR in high school. Certainly during his junior year at least. Some recruiting services took the cop out and out him at athlete.
Short answer is yes he could do it and do it well.
Long answer is his skill set in press and his physicality make him ideal to be a CB1. He’s a little slower than I like at CB. In fact his speed would be better suited at S.
But we’re going to run a ton of sub packages and depending on what package we’re win will determine which LBer, S or DB package will be in.
I suspect we will add another body to the group but I think I know what we’re planning to do and we have the bodies to do it right now.
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You are seeing him listed at corner for the Lions by 247.
I follow Iowa Hawkeye Recruiting pretty closely. Okudah was most definitely a Safety in HS. He was down to Iowa v OSU. He was going to be the biggest recruit in Iowa history.
He changed positions in college.
Buckeyes suck.
If you add .1 to Horn and Surtain’s times to account for the pro day factor then you basically get El Jefe’s time. There are the Farley/Henderson types but high 4.4s for a big physical corner is solid.
Ok, even if he did play safety, he played corner in college, and was so good at it that he was the number 3 pick in the draft. We drafted him to play corner. We spent the number 3 pick on him to play corner. We didn’t spend the number 3 pick on him to play safety. He wasn’t a top 3 caliber player at safety.
So why should we play him at a different position than the one we picked him 3 overall to play after a subpar rookie year under the worst circumstances ever to play a 3rd round rookie at that corner spot.
And 247 doesn’t have a visit logged of Iowa for him. They’ve been wrong on that before, but they don’t make it look like Iowa was a player in that recruitment.
I believe you on that though. And for the record, I started really following recruiting last year during the 2021 cycle.
Ok, that’s probably the case on his personal profile, so go look at the rankings I linked I the post below that one. He’s clearly listed as a corner there, and they don’t ever change those positions.
For the record, as an example, Demario McCall for OSU was recruited as an APB. He plays DB now at OSU, but he hasn’t ever been listed as a DB on 247’s rankings.
I was thinking this too. At the end of the day, does it matter that we picked him as a CB? He’s on a rookie deal. If he plays safety, he won’t get as much on his second deal. Really, I hope the kid blows it up this year, and there’s no question that he’s our #1 shutdown corner. But what if he doesn’t? After the draft and FA, corner is a strength, safety is not. Just put him where he can excel, esp. if it makes the team better.
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I think he looked slower than he is bc his head was swimming as a rookie. He’s not a burner by any means but he’s definitely not slow for a bigger CB.
He’s a corner as much as Roy Williams was a WR…Goofy as all F***
I’m not worried about it but it does require more fundamentally sound football because they don’t have the speed to make up for mistakes.
Slay was a great corner but he got out of position a lot early in his career and relied on his speed to bail him out. Okudah doesn’t have that luxury.
The other thing lack of speed does is it forces a DB to take less chances. That could be a good or bad thing I guess.
Here’s his recruiting profile, which is the one I meant to link.
Again… corner.
He was definitely bad last year. I still have high hopes though. He’s never going to be a big Int. guy though. That why Samuel was intriguing
.
He put a lot on himself. A lot. His calling around and getting input from so many different corners and stuff… man, he just needs to do what got him here. Watch the film, put in the practice and play instinctively. I think another part of his problem is what was talked about here a few days ago… who was his mentor on the team? Who was in the locker next to him? Tracy Walker? AO? Was a newly hired, often injured Trufant supposed to provide veteran leadership? And what about coaching? Steven Gregory is still out of work. Evidently the rest of the league is as impressed with his efforts as we are. A couple years coaching at Syracuse then he’s the Safeties coach here, then promoted to Defensive Backs. Here’s the #3 pick in the draft, get him ready.
/rant
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Max preps lists both which is probably closer to the truth. Though it really doesn’t matter now where he played in HS.
JeffreyOkudah
South Grand Prairie High SchoolGrand PrairieTX
6’2"190 lbsSenior
Graduated in 2017
Plays Football
16-17 Varsity Football
Jersey
#1
Position
CB, FS
OverallDistrict
6-54-3
Nat. RankTX Rank
Again, I prefer he play corner, he was drafted #3 to play corner. Completely agree, he has the skill set, play him at corner. My question was could he play FS to make room and get the rookie on the field simultaneously or for that matter the FA we signed.
Let me rephrase - would we be better playing 4 CBs simultaneously to get our best cover guys on the field? Ignore the safety designation.
247 > MaxPreps
Heck, he might have even edited his own MaxPreps profile to say that.
Your debating something that’s silly. Let me explain.
Every kid is listed as a recruit at multiple positions.
A kid could be a 5star athlete and be recruited by one team to play LB, another team to play QB.
This is the same silly argument in the DT thread. Their both DT’s.
Okudah is a DB and I’m sure some schools thought he could play CB and some thought he would be a safety.
But I do know this. OSU recruited him to be a versatile DB who could play both.
Here’s an article on him when he first came out. Maybe it will shed some light on who he was when he came out. Read it … it’s a decent read.
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Now do the rant but with his current coaches 
That’s the unknown. We think our coaching staff was wretched. But it’s possible that is was worse then we even knew. Guys with too much on their plate (enter patty cakes joke here), not allowed to be themselves, worn out, not having any fun at all …
And that’s before we even get into scheme.
If we surprise as a team this year it’s bc our core returnees excel on account of having better coaching but more importantly a different outlook on work life and life in general.
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That’s why there is the “ATH” label. For those types of guys, who are being recruited to be more than one thing. The other guys are not. They are being recruited to play a certain position.
Also, big schools don’t recruit “most 5 stars” to play multiple positions. There are 5 star "ATH"s, but those guys also generally have a position that they are being recruited to play in college.
It’s also a reason you see the “ATH” label dropped throughout the year as guys leak more info about their recruitment and the position they’ll be playing in college.
Take Emeka Egbuka. He was listed as an “ATH” on 247 for most of his 2021 recruiting cycle. Then, about a couple of months before he signed (he hadn’t committed yet), his position got changed to WR, because the schools that were recruiting him were recruiting him to play WR.
That’s just one of hundreds of the same example. Every guy isn’t Jabrill Peppers. There’s a reason there’s so little of those guys.
Don’t see how your logic works out here. I think there’s a clear difference between the gap between a NT and a 3 tech DT, and a LB and a QB.
That article is great and all, but how many snaps did Okudah take at safety at OSU? If he was recruited to do both, then he would’ve done both, don’t you think?