A review of the safety performance for the 2024 season
With the 2024 season officially over, it’s time to break down the performance of the team position by position. We’ll look at the stats for the year, the departing players, new additions, and some predictions for what we’ll see in 2025.
To conclude the defensive portion of this assignment we take a look at the safeties, a group with that dipped in effectiveness in ‘24 but has some of the most fun new pieces in ‘25.
Last year I tempted fate by asking “Does it feel like Missouri has been on an unsustainable-level of good safety play?”. And while I do think that was true, last year was not a data point to add to that statement.
To be fair, Daylan Carnell was dynamic as ever: he improved on his QBR allowed, average yards per catch allowed, forced a higher level of incompletions than previous years, and broke up the same amount of passes. But replacing an NFL-level safety who allowed a sub-40 QBR and replacing him with a guy who allowed a not-nice 69.1 QBR gave opposing quarterbacks legitimate options in the passing game. In ‘23 that wasn’t the case, as every secondary defender kept QBRs under 50. Pairing an obvious safety liability with an obvious corner liability opened up the passing game enough to give opposing offenses big plays in the passing game, an aspect that was lacking previously.
And now Mizzou loses another three-year starting safety and 66% of the rotations safeties as well. But they return two starters and added some REALLY fun pieces from the portal. Let’s review:
The Departed
Photo by Jacob Kupferman/Getty Images
Missouri said farewell to three graduating safeties, all of whom began their career at a different school.
Joseph Charleston was the first and most prominent of the transfer safeties, arriving on campus before the ‘22 season and holding down his safety spot for three straight years. He wasn’t the most disruptive guy on the roster but was pretty good in pass defense, improving his Defensive QBR in ‘24 to an excellent 14.1.
Tre’Vez Johnson and Sidney Williams were transplants from schools in Florida who were added as depth pieces in ‘23 and immediately entered the rotation. While they didn’t fill the stat sheet they offered very little drop off from the starters and provided a deeper corps for the defense to pull from, and losing both at the same time required enough demand that the staff had to immediately replace them from the portal.
The Returners
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Two starters, one backup, and two second years players return to the fold for ‘25.
You know Daylan Carnell by now. A havoc dealer in his early years, Carnell has developed into quite the full-tool-kit safety, developing a talented pass defense repertoire to supplement his hard-hitting disruptive natural talents. Of the defensive secondary that was picked on more than 15 times, Carnell had the second best defensive QBR with 44.2, only behind Dreyden Norwood’s 37.8. That improved pass coverage led Corey Batoon to hold off on sending Carnell on blitzes and have him roll back in coverage, finishing with a career low 10 blitzes for the ‘24 campaign. But, given the lack of quality pass defenders in the secondary, this move made a ton of sense.
So let’s talk about Marvin Burks, Jr. Local guy, blue chipper, havoc distributor…pass defense liability. Which is to be expected! Much like Carnell, Burks’ natural talents lend him to blowing stuff up but, also like Carnell, he needs some time to season and learn how to effectively play the pass. To wit, he finished last season with a 69.1 Defensive QBR and 9.5 yards per attempt allowed, nearly identical to Toriano Pride. Additionally, he only forced an incompletion on a team low 5.9% of passes defensed, and allowed a team high 58% completion percentage on 10-17 passing for 162 yards and a touchdown. The most damning stat: 5 passes allowed that went for 20+ yards, second only to Pride’s 6. But he stayed on the field because he had the second-most tackles on the defense with an 82% tackle accuracy rate, complete with 4 havoc plays and 3 run stuffs. He plays a lot like a younger Carnell and, if he can emulate Carnell’s development, should be an effective weapon over the next few years.
Caleb “I’m not just Corey’s brother” Flagg was a walk-on from FCS Houston Christian who wound up contributing to the safety depth, earning 144 snaps as a rotational piece. He wasn’t very disruptive but contributed 21 tackles on an 84% tackle accuracy rate and forced a fumble. No one is asking him to be a star but it’s nice to have yet another guy entering into another year with this defense and this coordinator.
Trajen Greco earned a few snaps on defense but mostly was a special teams contributor, while Jackson Hancock did not see the field in a redshirt year.
The Transfer
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The Drinkwitz staff has mostly used the portal to beef up on defensive linemen but, this year, they turned the portal hose on to “safety” and, woo boy, brought in same bangers.
Santana “Beans” Banner was a standout safety at Northern Illinois who still has three years of eligibility remaining. Ol’ Beans racked up 54 tackles, a TFL, 3 run stuffs, 3 passes broken up, an interception, and a forced fumble in his first full year of starting and it seems the world noticed as his services were in high demand. But what of his pass defense, you ask? A pertinent inquiry, I say! It’s mixed! He was only targeted 14 times which isn’t a massive data set to pull from, but because we’re going to look at it anyway, here it is: 7-14 (50%), 132 yards allowed, 0 TDs, 4 passes defensed, 1 interception, 2 completions allowed over 20+ yards, 28.6% forced incompletions (elite!), 81.1 Defensive QBR (terrible!), 9.4 yards per attempt. The short answer: boom or bust. But, much like Marvin Burks, it was his first year starting and he has some clear talent to build on. Also: his nickname is Beans. Beans!
Former Virginia Tech Hokie Mose Phillips III was the second safety to bring his talents to CoMo and his stat sheet immediately screams “Daylan Carnell”: 63 tackles, 3.5 TFLs, 1 sack, 2 passes defensed, 1 INT, 1 forced fumble, 6 run stuffs. Classic Carnell stuff right there. But let’s take a peak at the pass defense: 11-18 (61%), 158 yards, 1 TD, 11.1% forced incompletions, 2 completions over 20 yards, 8.8 yards per attempt allowed, 70.8 Defensive QBR. So…more of the same. But he also has multiple years to play at Missouri if he wants so there’s room for improvement!
And the crown jewel is, of course, Jalon Catalon. A man who started playing football in 2019. And is still going! Catalon was a menace at Arkansas for four years before transferring to Texas for an unsubstantial year, before being unleashed by Barry Odom at UNLV. Catalon is a tackle machine with a decent amount of havoc sprinkled in. But the interesting aspect is his pass defense: somehow – as a safety, mind you – he was targeted 43 times, allowing 24 completions, 368 yards, 2 TDs, and 5 passes over 20+ yards allowed. Not great, huh? But look at this: 6 passes defensed, 5 interceptions, 20.9% forced incompletions. Extremely hit or miss for Mr. Catalon in pass coverage, you can say. But he’s experienced and adds yet another weapon to be deployed in a position group that is super young but has high upside.
The Freshmen
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C.J. Bass 2024 stats: 105 tackles, 1 TFL, 1 sack, 1 INT
And then there’s the lone high school addition: Charles Bass.
Like most East St. Louis stars, C.J. hails from St. Louis but crossed the river to play for the local power house program that has produced recent local stars Luther Burden and Toriano Pride, among many, many others. Bass was a tackling machine for the Flyers, logging over 100 tackles in his senior year while throwing in an interception and a sack for good measure. He seems to project more as a pass defender than a havoc agent but certainly has enough high upside that he could develop into any type of safety the team needs.
2025 Forecasted Depth Chart
Two returning starters, three portal imports, three upside pieces…there are a lot of fun options here that can go a lot of different ways. While I assume that all the upperclassmen are going to get decent reps, for depth chart purposes I’ll list them in this order:
- Starters: Banner, Burks, Carnell
- Backups: Phillips III, Catalon, Flagg
- Rotation: Greco, Hancock, Bass