Here are a list of statements about the Iowa D that are pretty much a consensus and not controversial:
DBs are a very good group but it lacks depth.
King is one of the best corners in the B1G. Held his own very well against Boyd, who is a projected 1st round pick.
Mabin has all the tools to be better than King. He needs to clean up his technique in order to surpass King.
Lomax is a solid senior. Leader of the group.
Taylor is young and plays with a reckless abandon. Has potential to be very good.
LBs are much improved over last season.
Jewell looks very comfortable in the middle and is always around the ball.
Niemann has the brightest future.
Fischser is the senior leader of the group. It appears the light finally turned on for him over the offseason.
DL will be very good again despite losing two starters to the NFL.
Johnson, Bazata, and Faith will make a salty middle of the line.
Meier is still undersized but appears to have figured out how to hold his own against bigger OTs.
Ott is a potential All-American if he can get healthy.
No one is going to compare this group with the great defenses in Iowa history, but it should be good enough to win a lot of games.
Drew Ott has played shockingly few snaps this season. Parker Hesse has played the majority of snaps at right DE this season. Given this observation, Iowa is effectively has 3 new starters on the DL.
At linebacker, for a hunk of the season, the starters were Bower, Alston, and Spearman. Admittedly, Jewell played a lot and finished the season as our starting WILL LB. Anyhow, this year we start 3 LBs who didn't have prior starts at their CURRENT LB spots. Thus, in many respects, our group of LBs are "all new." Thus, it's fascinating to observe how much better the LB play is this year as compared to last year.
In the secondary, we're admittedly a bit more experienced ... with only one new starter in Miles Taylor. Of course, unfortunately, both Taylor and Mabin are dinged ... so we'll have to see how things work out there. We'll have to see whether Gair and Fleming are preparing like their the starters ... and see how well they embrace the "next-man-in" mantra. However, when healthy, the Iowa secondary is probably one of the better units in the B1G.
If we're looking at "level of talent" ... I think that the Iowa D definitely isn't lacking in that department. I think that Hesse has the potential to develop into draft-worthy NFL talent. When healthy, Drew Ott is definitely of that same caliber. If Jaleel Johnson continues at his current level of play and continues to develop ... he's going to be considered as being AT LEAST at the same level as Carl Davis. At LB, I see Niemann as having the chops to be a future NFLer - probably ending up somewhere in between Kirksey and Edds. While he's currently "green" ... I really like the future upside of Mends. I'm willing to bet that he develops into an Angerer or Hitchens sort of player ... a guy who is on the shorter/smaller side ... but who plays exceptionally fast and with a lot of violence. Lastly, in the secondary, Phil Parker has a tendency of being like King Midas ... if guys make it through his boot camp, they come out on the other side pretty NFL-ready.
