We’ve gotten to the back end of the winter portal season, so I’m going to start diving into what I expect next season’s depth chart to look like in each position group.

We’ll kick off this series with the group that has had a significant amount of turnover, the safeties.

The Tigers have played a three-safety set with the inclusion of a hybrid safety/linebacker spot for the past few years and with the return of Daylan Carnell, I wouldn’t expect any change to that formula.

This year’s starting group was Carnell, Marvin Burks and Joseph Charleston.

Both Carnell and Burks are returning, but I wouldn’t say Burks’ spot is locked up at this point as the over-the-top safety.

He’s a candidate in my mind to move down to the hybrid slot once Carnell is off to the NFL following the 2025 season, but that spot isn’t available this year and Burks struggled mightily through this season, especially in pass coverage.

So we can lock in Carnell as a starter, leaving Burks as a likely starter and the Charleston spot as an open competition.

Who’s going to be part of that competition?

Part of the reason there was so much turnover this season is, along with Carleston, the Tigers lost Sidney Willaims and Tre’Vez Johnson to eligibility and Phillip Roche to the transfer portal.

So returning from this year’s group will be Caleb Flagg, who played 69 snaps in coverage through the 2024 season, Nasir Pogue, who played two coverage snaps, and Trajen Greco, who played 17.

You guys all know about Carnell, what do I have that's new information for you here?

He's going to be the likely leader of the defense and has the chance to rise into one of the best defensive players in the country.

He could have left for the NFL draft this offseason and maybe could have found his way to a Day 2 pick depending on his combine performance.

Instead he's back for a senior season with the chance to raise his stock significantly higher.

He'll play a major role in the Tiger defense.

Alright, a less certain one. Burks was a four-star safety coming out of high school and we had him as the No. 14 safety in the country in his class.

He was an instant rotational guy as a freshman, playing in all 13 games, then took the starting role as a sophomore.

Physically, he's fantastic. The issue is getting those physical gifts to translate onto the field, which as a sophomore, they did not.

Now, it's important to remember, safety is a hard role when it comes to football IQ. It makes sense that a true sophomore starting his first season had some trouble, learning to read an offense and fully understanding coverage assignments takes time.

I think there's a ton of room for development and Burks could turn into a fantastic safety, but there's also space for the floor to fall out if he and the coaching staff lose confidence.

I would say Burks has the highest disparity among the group when it comes to floor and ceiling for the 2025 season. He could be fantastic and have all that promise come together, or he could be on the bench.

Flagg played in 10 games and had his snap count grow significantly in the final third of the season. After averaging just a snap or two against non-cupcake opponents he appeared against, Flagg played 27 snaps against both South Carolina and Mississippi State, then 20 against Arkansas and 19 against Iowa.

He wasn’t overly successful in any performance, but did improve each game, especially in coverage, so continued development should get him into the rotation going forward.

Greco was a three-star recruit in the class of 2024 and played in eight games on defense and all 13 on special teams in his freshman season.

The most he played on defense was 14 snaps against Murray State and 12 against UMass. He totaled two tackles, including one for loss and mostly lined up at free safety when he entered games on defense.

Eli Drinkwitz likes to talk about young players earning their time on special teams and Greco likely did that with his time there this season.

The rotation has gotten deeper, but I expect to at least see Greco more in the cupcake games this season, if not as a regular back-end part of the safety rotation.

Pogue was a two-star recruit who redshirted for Troy in 2022, then did not play for Mizzou in 2023. He played two snaps against Murray State this season.

With the portal additions the Tigers brought in, I don’t see any reason Pogue would enter more into the rotation in 2025.

Speaking of portal additions, the Tigers brought in Santana Banner from Northern Illinois, Mose Phillips from Virginia Tech and Jalen Catalon from UNLV.

Catalon enters as the most likely candidate to slot right into the starting group as a free safety, probably taking the Charleston spot.

He has been in college football for a long time and has played at the top level of competition in the SEC before after playing at Arkansas for three years and appearing in 21 games, starting 16 from 2019-22.

He didn’t start much at Texas, just four starts in eight games in 2023, but then became a second-team All-American (according to College Football Network) in his year at UNLV. He was a semifinalist for the Jim Thorpe Award (awarded to the top defensive back in the country) and was first-team All-Mountain West.

Drinkwitz has talked a lot about how every player is clear on the fact that joining the Tigers means competing for their spot, but I don’t think a guy who had that type of year and is still in college after beginning his career in 2019 would go to a spot he doesn’t expect to start and raise any type of stock he has in his final season.

Phillips is entering his third year of college football and honestly, I’m not super impressed by his numbers past the basics.

The basics are good though, 65 tackles, 3.5 for a loss and a sack, three pass breakups, two forced fumbles and an interception looks good for a sophomore in his first full season starting.

At Virginia Tech, Phillips almost evenly split his time lining up deep and in the box, which is close to what Burks did this season. Burks had a slightly higher percentage of his snaps played deep.

If there is a chance Burks isn’t a starter next year, it’s because Phillips has a great spring and summer and beats him for the job, but I’m not sure I see much of a chance there.

I'm getting better at typing Banner's name the first time, but I still have trouble getting past Santana as a first name or solo name because of the band Santana.

Banner had a good amount of success in his redshirt freshman season at Northern Illinois and his PFF grades would line him up as the best coverage defender among the Tigers’ group going into next season.

Now, it’s important to remember it’s easier to grade well against lower levels of competition and jumping from playing Ball State and Western Michigan as conference opponents to Alabama is going to make that a bit different.

I think Banner is a great project add at this point, he spent most of last season lining up in the box, which is the Carnell role for the Tigers and like we’ve already talked about, that role isn’t open this season. But I think adding a guy with a few years of eligibility to take that role moving forward - unless the Tigers want to move Burks into it starting next season - is a great addition.

Finally the incoming freshman, Charles Bass.

There’s just not as much to talk about with Bass.

He is a four-star recruit and we have him as the No. 7 safety in the country. Whether that means he’s ready to jump right into the rotation is going to be determined in spring ball and summer.

Bass is an early enrollee and Drinkwitz has made clear that he expects early enrollees to contribute as freshmen, but whether that’s much more than a role on special teams is up to how Bass adjusts to college ball.

Something I will be keeping an eye on moving forward.

We're a long way away from determining the depth chart for the season opener against Central Arkansas, but here's what I think the safeties will look like right now.

At this point, I would say the starting three are Carnell at the hybrid spot and Burks and Catalon in the deeper backfield.

Then the next level of the rotation being Banner largely spelling Carnell when he needs a break, Phillips spelling Burks and Flagg spelling Catalon, while Greco works in some as a backup deeper down the depth chart.

I’d expect Bass and Pogue to play sparingly in the defensive backfield.

In my mind, the biggest chance for change to that setup would be Phillips or Greco working their way into the Burks role if the coaching staff doesn’t see any development in Burks’ coverage ability, and a chance for Bass to work his way into the rotation if he impresses early on.

Bass could also play some corner early on if necessary, but the staff sees his future at safety from everything I've heard.

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