Tulane Green Wave Defenders To Show Strong Traits and Fundamentals at Senior Bowl

Two Tulane Green Wave star defensive backs will highlight their skills in the Reese's Senior Bowl game on Saturday.

Kim Klement Neitzel-Imagn Images

The Tulane Green Wave has two defensive backs at the 2025 Reese's Senior Bowl, as the week in Mobile, Al., reaches its crescendo with game day.

Tulane Safety Caleb Ransaw and cornerback Johnathan Edwards are set to participate in the showcase after a week of practice and meetings with NFL scouts and front offices at one of the top pre-draft events in college football.

Arguably, they've already completed the most challenging and rewarding part of the Senior Bowl with the way the game is truncated and played.

For one, it's a football game featuring 11 players on both sides who have never played a down of football together outside of maybe one teammate. The line of scrimmage is frequently a group of offensive linemen in different positions than they've played their entire college football career.

There are only three offensive personnel packages available; 21, 12, and 11.

The defense can only deploy four rushers, with five-man pressures and secondary blitzes not permitted. They can either be in 4-3 or 3-4 personnel. The defense can only use a nickel package when three wide receivers are out on offense.

Quarterbacks and other key players will rotate every few series.

It's a difficult game to show off any skill set that translates to league play.

However, it does give the players a strong opportunity to show their coachability and apply things learned in the week of practice. For players in coverage like Edwards and Ransaw, they can still highlight their traits of being able to mirror receivers, show good footwork in backpedaling and keep eye discipline.

For both secondary players, speed is a strength. Coverage limitations don't affect that.

Especially at cornerback, a short memory is critical. Body language is quite obvious, and the way players interact with teammates and coaches following poor practice plays is what many are looking at in the week of practice.

Players in coverage will get burned.

How do they recover and how is their effort in chasing down an explosive play?

Edwards notably stopped several breakaway touchdowns for the Green Wave last season in foot races.

Ransaw is playing safety in Mobile after spending his time at Nickel or Slot Corner for most of college with some work outside. His trajectory may match that of New York Jets rookie Jarius Monroe, who was moved to safety at the Shrine Bowl last year and found a way into the NFL because of it.