Michigan Football: Casey Hughes could be ideal in the nickel

Michigan football has said that it will play Casey Hughes at safety, but that doesn’t mean the Wolverines can’t use him in the slot in a big nickel package.

Fall camp starts this week for the Michigan football team and one of the more interesting questions heading into camp is where will the Wolverines play Casey Hughes.

Hughes, a former Utah starting corner, came to UM as a graduate transfer. He is supposedly going to play safety, at least that’s what the Michigan football coaching staff has said. But there might be more to it than that.

Hughes is a late bloomer of sorts. He didn’t play much for the Utes until last season when he started 11 games, notched 35 tackles, 2.5 TFL, one sack and one pass breakup. He has zero career interceptions.

Yet, interceptions aren’t everything. Michigan football already has two of the top corners in America, in David Long and Lavert Hill. Both players graded out very well by Pro Football Focus and are one of the top returning tandems in the country.

Yet, as good as the corners were last season, the safeties left some room for improvement. Josh Metellus and Tyree Kinnel were both solid players last season but each had issues in coverage. Kinnel had 66 tackles, 4.5 TFL, a sack, two interceptions and five pass breakups. Metellus had 50 tackles and broke up four passes, yet he, more than Kinnel could be vulnerable as a starter.

If Hughes does stick to playing just safety, it doesn’t mean he has to play a traditional safety role. Hughes could alternate with Metellus and Kinnel, depending on matchups and things like that. He could also play nickel corner, especially in a big nickel formation, which features three safeties and two corners, instead of vice versa.

Brandon Watson played in the nickel role a lot last season and even started at corner when Lavert Hill was injured and held his own. He broke up five passes, notched 22 tackles and had 1.5 TFL. So he won’t be easily replaced but he and Hughes could also split time as the slot corner.

The nice thing about Hughes is that he has cover skills, while also being able to tackle. He’s also a solid special teams player, which should also be part of his role this season. Generally, you want to have three good safeties and around 4-5 quality corners, which Michigan has with Ambry Thomas and Benjamin St. Juste, in addition to Hill, Long, and Watson. Jordan Glasgow is another that guy in the mix at safety, giving UM a solid group of defensive backs.

However, having a guy that can play the run and the pass from the slot can allow defenses to play sub packages even on run downs. Charles Woodson allowed the Green Bay Packers to do that for years and Hughes could play a similar role this season. Watson won’t disappear but with Hughes, I wouldn’t expect him to have a full-time grasp on the nickel corner job either.

Big nickel packages are becoming more popular and so are versatile defensive backs, capable of playing both safety and corner. Michigan football didn’t really have a guy like that last season and now, thanks to the addition of Hughes, the Wolverines do and that’s a good thing.