Dylan Barker is strong and fast and was a # 1 pick overall but my goodness he is so very tentative out there and always seems to be out of position . I actually think Beveridge was better I hate to say .I am not sure if he is getting any better either . i think he was great on specialty teams but has sucked ta safety so far. The only reason he is in there is because he was # 1 pick overall.
Look, you could have Garney frickin' Henley with those DBs surrounding him and he'd be in chase mode all day. Barker mops up for most of the breakdowns by his teammates. He's the best form tackler in the secondary. That does not translate into interceptions, but I digress.
For his learning curve, he's doing pretty well in spite of his surrounding cast. Hard to be overrated when you have Tisdale being burned on double moves, Bo Smith playing matador with receivers, Ryan Hinds looking like a deer in headlights lining up 10 yards off the receiver, etc. etc. Holding a mop for that? Hard to place a rating AT ALL, frankly.
Hard to be dominant at Little Bighorn at the safety position when you are in the middle of a cow pasture and you have one LB behind the opponent's bench and two guys at least whose idea of form tackling is to assume the position of a chalk outline.
Wrong guy to single out. You think Beveridge would have the wheels to cover Bo Smith's turnstile routine? Doubt it.
We have issues. Unless there is an upgrade in the secondary, this defence is done.
Oski Wee Wee,
Russ
I agree with most of what you say Russ maybe Dylan would look good of he wasn't having to attempt bail them out all the time
I still think he is not becoming the stud we had hoped for but it might just take a little more time .
He was our leading tackler this game! That, unfortunately, says something.
I had to quote this entire post. There were some good points made in it that had to be repeated.
And I’ll say this: Barker may have shown a lack of experience sometimes. But I doubt Beveridge would be better. We have seen that he hasn’t looked better.
Barker has not been in this league for very long, whereas Beveridge was a veteran, here since 2003. What was his excuse?
Notice how many steps backwards our defense has taken since Beverage became a firefighter. I'm not blaming it all on Barker but its not all a coincidence either
When your team lead the opposition in tackles it means the opposition was moving the ball a lot. Number of tackles is the direct result of a poor defense and should be eliminated as something you would want to achieve. Two and outs are way better than making 8 tackles on a 15 play drive that results in a touchdown or field goal.
Beveridge became a firefighter because he was so used to getting BURNED!! Don't blame Barker for the struggle on defense, but we need Bradley and Shivers back soon.
I'm not blaming it all on Barker but he part of the problem not part of the solution. We need our regulars back but we'll still be less than good even after that happens
As far as Barker being overrated, can we wait at least a couple of starting seasons, let alone a fraction of one.
Actually, I thought Barker did a BETTER job of sniffing out the play in some spots this game. I don't think he's overrated and I think that once his football "head" catches up to his physical ability he will be an absolute BEAST. In fairness, we have had a messed up secondary for a few weeks now with guys playing where they don't belong and a rookie on the corner due to injury.
Everyone cried for them to start Barker and now that he is the regular starter almost everyone is crying again.
You change your minds like teenage girls.
I actually could have taken bets on this happening. Don’t you know yet that the back-up is always the best player on the team?
And the best players of all are the ones on the PR, the ones we haven’t actually seen play yet (can we say Cuttino?). 
Barker is doing a very good job mopping up everyone elses missed tackles. Anyone note Bo Smith is pretty much the same as last yr. I sure wish shivers would get well soon..