Alex Donno discusses the players and positions he is looking forward to watching most during spring football.
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00:00 Andrew from Chicago. He says, "Hey, with spring practice coming up, what position battles are you
00:05 most excited for and who do you think will be the breakout player?" He says, "For me, I'm most
00:10 excited to see how the left side of the offensive line plays out and my breakout player is Chris
00:16 Johnson." And guys, yes, we will get to Cam Ward and the quarterbacks. I like your shout out for
00:21 Chris Johnson because I think when Gio and I were talking about running backs yesterday, we had on
00:27 Gio Milian. I think that we both, not on purpose, believe me, neither of us mentioned Chris Johnson
00:33 and people were asking us in the comments, "Is Chris Johnson still on the team? Is he still part
00:37 of the rotation?" Yeah, and he's got a big opportunity to step up this spring and we'll
00:43 talk more about the running back group in a second. But yeah, you talk about the left side
00:46 of the offensive line, Andrew. Left guard is going to be something that I watch closely.
00:51 As goes for spring football and fall camp, media availability is limited. I don't know how many of
00:57 the team drills and full contact that we're going to be allowed to actually watch, but I always look
01:04 at who appears to be getting first team reps, second team, and so on. That gives you a clue
01:09 who's doing well in practices. And even in the individual drills, if I spend a little time
01:14 watching the offensive line, you can get a pretty good idea of who looks the part and who doesn't.
01:20 So yeah, I'm going to be watching players like Tommy Kinsler. I'm going to be watching Matthew
01:26 McCoy. I'm not sure what his status is going to be coming off injury. I think he's okay now.
01:32 Assuming he's okay, Samson Okunlola is someone that I'm really going to be watching. And I'm
01:37 also going to be watching to see how much cross training is going on, because that's something
01:41 that Cristobal and Mirabal like to do. And if, let's say, first day of practice, if Jalen Rivers
01:48 lines up at guard instead of tackle, people are going to read a lot into that. Doesn't necessarily
01:52 mean he's moving inside. And also with Francis Maui-Noah, probably going to miss most, if not
01:59 all, of spring. He had his shoulder cleaned up. So did his brother, the linebacker. With CeCe,
02:04 going to miss some time. Who's going to be the de facto starting right tackle if CeCe isn't around?
02:10 And how many reps is a guy like Markel Bell going to get? So left and right side, I'm going to be
02:16 watching the offensive line. I'm going to be watching the defensive backfield like a hawk,
02:21 Andrew. This is going to be the first time I get to see transfer safeties Mish Powell from
02:26 Washington, who could also play at the star position, and Savion Riley, the transfer safety
02:32 from Vanderbilt in person. I want to see Jadis Richard and Demetrius Freeney, if they're going
02:37 to make a jump and look good in spring. Damari Brown, will he be locking down first team reps
02:43 in spring? How much is Jaden Harris going to step up? I thought he did a good job last year as Cam
02:49 Kinchin's understudy. Zaquan Patterson, early enrollee freshman. He's been the talk of the town.
02:55 People are saying he looks like a freak in offseason workouts. And I haven't forgotten
02:59 about Caleb Spencer either. Caleb Spencer is a true freshman. Last year, you know, didn't really
03:04 play, but he looked good in spring and fall camp. So can he make a jump this year? Another group,
03:09 and we are going to take a deep dive and I'll give you my tiers, tier one, two, three, and so on,
03:14 on the linebackers later on today. But let me talk about that for a second. I'm going to be
03:19 watching the young linebackers specifically. I'm definitely going to be watching Wes Besaint
03:24 because we've been talking about how he needs to step up and he needs to be the alpha of that group
03:29 in the spring. Kiko, I mentioned CC had a shoulder cleanup. Apparently Kiko did as well. The linebacker
03:36 Maui Noah, he's going to miss time this spring. So Wes Besaint needs to be the alpha dog of that
03:41 group. Bobby Washington is someone I'll be watching. He bulked up to 230 pounds at six foot
03:46 three. That's a guy physically who seems to be ready to take the next step.