Baltimore Ravens: Three Safeties to Ponder in the NFL Draft

Oct 10, 2015; West Point, NY, USA; Army Black Knights quarterback

(17) runs with the ball past Duke Blue Devils safety Jeremy Cash (16) during the first half at Michie Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Danny Wild-USA TODAY Sports

Jeremy Cash is a redshirt senior who has shined at Duke as a starter for three years after transferring his sophomore year from Ohio State. Jeremy Cash’s film was honestly a blast to watch. He is just an all-round high energy football player.

His first strength I noticed was his run support ability, which was spectacular. He is not afraid to tackle anyone and is very quick in pursuit of the runner, and he is a very good tackler who rarely misses. Along with Jalen Ramey, he also showed very quick closing speed ability. At Duke Cash mainly played Cover 2 and Cover 3 zone coverage, but demonstrated the ability to cover most tight ends in man coverage. Duke used him as a blitzer quite often, which is definitely one of his strengths, and he provided constant pressure on the quarterback. His instincts were not quite as good as Jalen Ramsey’s, but he overall read quarterbacks well and diagnosed run and pass plays well.

Jeremy Cash’s best game in my opinion was against Miami in 2014. He created two turnovers and really proved himself as a player capable of making turnovers, which as Ravens fans all know has been a huge weakness this season.

Although free safety and strong safety have gotten blurred, mixed and matched in today’s NFL defenses, I definitely think Cash is a true strong safety. He is great inside the box as a run defender and his main weaknesses are in coverage.

My biggest issue with Cash is how it felt like he was blitzing a good amount of the game, rather than playing in coverage. In the ACC where he played the majority of his college career, there are many offenses which are run-heavy, causing him to be playing run rather than focusing on refining his coverage skills.

On his film, he definitely is not as comfortable in man coverage and showed some struggles there. Cash is a very quick runner, but on film he can over-pursue at times, and he lacks speed in lateral movement and is not as fluid at flipping as you would like.

Cash can definitely come and provide some physicality to the Ravens defense and consistent tackling that former safeties of the past few seasons like Matt Elam and Michael Huff have lacked.