Role Play: A.J. Green Set to be a Leader for OSU’s Secondary in 2018

A.J. Green is more than six feet tall, wears orange and black and is good at catching the football. That’s Cincinnati Bengals receiver A.J. Green.

OSU’s A.J. Green, a cornerback, also meets those requirements. He’s 6-foot-1, wears orange and black and –relatively speaking– is good at catching the football. Green led all OSU defenders and was tied for second in the Big 12 with four interceptions last season. Nobody else on the Cowboys’ roster had more than two.

After playing in nine games as a freshman, Green turned into an everyday starter as a sophomore in 2017. The pinnacle of his season came with less than a minute remaining against Iowa State in Ames. Green had a physical, contested interception in the back right corner of the end zone, which sealed OSU’s victory and kept their Big 12 title hopes alive (but we all know how that turned out).

Only four OSU defenders had more solo tackles than Green, who finished with 40. He also added five pass breakups and forced a fumble.

Green looks to be the veteran – we’ll use that term loosely here – of Oklahoma State’s secondary moving forward. Senior safeties Ramon Richards, Tre Flowers, Jerel Morrow and Darius Curry are gone, leaving Green and fellow cornerback Rodarius Williams as two of the longest-tenured and most experienced defensive backs on the team.

Cornerback play is a bit more difficult to evaluate than most other positions, simply because statistics aren’t readily available. A shutdown corner is going to get tested fewer times, which will lead to fewer interceptions and pass breakups. A cornerback who gets thrown at a lot will have more opportunities to intercept a pass or deflect a pass.

With that being said, creating turnovers will have to be the moneymaker for OSU in 2018. With your typical bend-but-don’t-break defense, the amount of yards you allow doesn’t matter as much as long as you can get an occasional stop and a turnover here and there. Say what you want about his coverage, but Green’s four interceptions, added with a fumble recovery, could translate to an extra win or two over the course of a season. We saw that with his heroics against ISU, as well as during his two-pick game against West Virginia.

I’d expect a sizable jump for both Green and Williams in 2018. Each of them played a heavy role in the nation’s pass-heaviest league last season, and they had their share of disappointment along the way. Pair that experience with their repeated reps against Mason Rudolph and star receivers in practice, and I think you have a formula for improvement at the cornerback position next season.