Tale of the Tape

Staking The Plains Staff

Brian: I’ll preface this by saying that the CB hydra of Bethel – Nelson – Madison is one position group that I’m very excited about. Nelson is a terrific experienced player, and it will be impossible to keep him off the field with his versatility (something Gibbs intimated in an LAJ article last week). However, it’s hard to not be quite encouraged about what Madison was able to accomplish as a true freshman (56 tackles, 7 PBU’s and a pick in 12 appearances). He consistently displayed great ball awareness last season, and while he certainly wasn’t perfect, I believe he was able to keep up with most WR’s and put himself in position to make a play more often than not; it was just a matter of finishing them. With Gibbs’ tutelage and the emphasis on turnovers and ball-hawking, I like Madison on the outside with Nelson bouncing around at nickel and dime. I believe we’ll see all 3 of the top CB’s on the field quite often VERDICT: Madison

MeestahRogers: I really like the tall frame of Nelson covering the outside receivers in this league. We’ve seen a resurgence in the tall, rangy receivers lately and a corner to match that size is always welcome. But don’t take anything away from Madison. While Nelson has a year of experience on him, Madison is fighting right there with him to start. Also, Madison is making a screaming comeback from where he wasn’t even in the two deep in the spring game, to being listed as a co-starter going into fall camp. We saw both Nelson and Madison make great plays, but we also saw times where they both looked lost. For me, I’m going with size and experience here as I’ll take Nelson. VERDICT: Nelson

Seth: If anything, I’m expecting big things from the secondary now that Gibbs has taken over and maybe the biggest thing will be the form tackling, something that I think Nelson has never been very adept at making big tackles. It’s not that I expect him too, but at 6-2/177, he’s tall and lanky, without my power, something I think Madison has, even though he’s more compact. Where Nelson is really terrific is the 16 PBU’s, the problem is that he didn’t convert a single one of them into an interception. Nelson has to do a better job of that. There were also times last year, and I tend to get jaded by the end of the year, where I felt that Nelson was just missing too many things. He wasn’t making enough plays. While Madison also missed things at times, I felt that Nelson missed more. No statistical data to back that up, just remembering what I thought. I really like Madison and I’m at the point that I think both have some terrific qualities, I think I’m going to go with Madison here, but I wouldn’t hesitate for a second to let Nelson play if Madison isn’t getting the job done. VERDICT: Madison

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