Way Too Early 2020 Depth Chart Projections: Defense

An early look at the Mountaineers defensive depth chart

With signing day in the rearview mirror, we now take a glance at what the West Virginia offensive depth chart may look like including the signees. Last week, we broke down the offensive depth chart. 

Defensive End

Jeffery Pooler Jr. or Quay Mays

Sean Martin

Nose Tackle

Darius Stills 

Jordan Jefferson

Defensive End

Dante Stills

Taijh Alston or Akheem Mesidor 

Jalen Thornton

Defensive Line Analysis: One of the biggest problems the Mountaineer defense had a year ago was lack of depth in the trenches. They had talent on the d-line, but not enough bodies to rotate to keep everyone fresh. Neal Brown and co. did a fantastic job not only bringing in a lot of new bodies, but quality talent. Look for the defensive line to become a strength for West Virginia in 2020.

Bandit

VanDarius Cowan

Eddie Watkins or Lanell Carr

MIKE

Josh Chandler

Jared Bartlett

Jake Abbott

WILL

Dylan Tonkery

Exree Loe

Charlie Benton or Taurus Simmons

Linebacker Analysis: There’s no doubt that West Virginia has a lot of youth in its linebacking corps. There is some talent, but I don’t think they are as deep as they would like to be. Give it another recruiting cycle or two and we may be talking differently. Although he only played in two games, look for VanDarius Cowan to be the leader of this group. He has NFL-type talent and can fly all over the field. If he stays healthy, this is a much better unit. 

SPEAR

Tykee Smith 

Jackie Matthews 

Dante Bonamico

Left Corner

Tae Mayo or Alonzo Addae 

Tacorey Turner or Daryl Porter Jr. 

Right Corner

Nicktroy Fortune

Dreshun Miller 

Jairo Faverus or David Vincent-Okoli 

Free Safety

Kerry Martin 

Jake Long or Osman Kamara

Cat Safety

Sean Mahone 

Noah Guzman

Secondary Analysis: The Mountaineers lost two solid corners in Keith Washington and Hakeem Bailey, both of which are going to be extremely hard to replace right away. There’s a lot of talent at the corner spot and many more bodies than we are accustomed to seeing - which is a good thing. Eventually, someone will emerge and lock down starting spots. Nicktroy Fortune showed flashes last year as a true freshman, but still has a ways to go. Sophomores Tykee Smith and Kerry Martin will be the proverbial leaders in the secondary.