The last Bearcats from last year’s draft class that earned a starting spot before Sunday’s opener is cornerback Coby Bryant. Bryant came into Seahawks camp battling for the nickel cornerback role. He outplayed Justin Coleman and earned the spot. Bryant earned the Jim Thorpe Award at Cincinnati last year. The Jim Thrope award is an award given out to the best corner in college football that year. In the Bearcats crazy defense last year everyone talked about Ahmad “Sauce” Gardner. But the person who they weren’t talking about as much was the guy opposite of him who earned all the throws because they didn’t look Sauce’s way. That was Coby Bryant, without Bryant who knows where the Bearcats would have ended up the last couple of years? He immediately impressed the coaching staff in Seattle. He impressed them so much he earned the opportunity to face some of the toughest wide receivers in the NFC South. The Seahawks have lost a lot of pieces on their defense so the question at hand is what will the Seahawks defense look like on Sunday and how often will we see Bryant on the field?
The Seahawks parted ways with Bobby Wagner, but still held on to a talented secondary that includes Jamal Adams and Quandre Diggs. The Seahawks will have plenty of corners that will slide in to keep the whole unit refreshed. Bryant will be playing the nickel mostly covering the slot wide receivers and tight ends on the inside. The Seahawks will run a bunch of corners on the outside that will include Mike Jackson, Sidney Jones IV, Tariq Woolen and Justin Coleman who was brought back after they released him once the preseason was over. The Seahawks have a very young defense that will have a lot of players shifting around. Coby Bryant will be one of those young players and Bryant will be given the opportunity to show what he can do on coach Pete Carroll’s defense. Bryant will jump in Week 1 against Russell Wilson and the Denver Broncos on Monday Night Football. This will give Bryant the chance to go up against young wide receivers Cortland Sutton and Jerry Jeudy. This will be a game to watch and hopefully will be the first of many chances for Coby Bryant in the NFL.
