Tutu may be ready to go. God I hope so. Skow's role really is more of a versatility and flex option so it would make sense for Tutu to finally be a regular out there. One issue here is that Kupp often plays in the slot. He can be moved out of course but to do that you'd want someone with some real threat. Tutu should be able to provide that by now and if he can that speed will really help us. So I think you're correct there.
Not so sure about Lake though. Yeast is the guy who worked his way into the lineup last year moreso. Lake I'm gonna need to see making some plays in preseason and pushing for playing time. It's possible you're right but idk man Lake just hasn't done much though maybe I've missed it. Not like I've been hyper focused especially last season when we sucked ass so badly.
And Jones will be the sole ILB on a ton of snaps. So the role next to him is going to primarily be a nickelbacker type deal. I think Hummel is ideally suited for that type of usage but yeah it'll be nice to see Square and maybe others give him a run for it.
I think Yeast seeing the field sooner and more often than Lake was mostly due to Lake being injured from the beginning of the season. Lake was hurt towards the end of his last season at UCLA and it carried well into his rookie year. I probably saw all of Lake's college games being a UCLA fan...which I'm always going to remember that the Bruins defense pretty much completely fell apart after he got hurt. But honestly if you took all the current safeties on our roster now, an argument could be made that Lake would be just behind Fuller in terms of overall talent. One thing I am excited about is that the competition at both safety spots is likely going to end with us having a really solid tandem, and a 3rd guy who is going to see the field a lot.
Speaking of a third safety seeing the field, I could actually see us using 2 ILBs more frequently now (back to 2 years ago when we had the #1 overall defense using a combo of Young, Kiser (and Reeder when Kiser got hurt)....mostly because with Rapp gone, it's not a given that a 3 safety look will be something we're quick to go to. Or maybe that's just me being hopeful, because I prefer it when we keep 2 ILBs on the field more.
As far as Skrow vs. Tutu, Tutu's ability to stretch the field may give him the upper hand..although Skrow is talented and will definitely be a factor for us. I'm also hoping McCutcheon steps up in that spot as well
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