UGASports.Com's Brent Rollins: Lassiter Probably Trends Towards Slot Corner

Brent Rollins from UGASports.com joins Adam Wexler, Stan Norfleet and Dan Mathews to talk about newly drafted cornerback Kamari Lassiter. He talks about what Lassiter brings to the Texans defense. Plus, what type of style Lassiter plays the game at cornerback. 

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
We take it to Georgia Brent Rollins, who does great work for rivals analyzing
this particular school and others inside theSEC. Brent, we certainly appreciate your
time spending here with our listeners herein Houston and via the iHeartRadio app wherever
they might be. Your initial thoughtson what Kamari Lassiter the NFL player will

(00:20):
be from what you saw at Georgia, I think his role at Georgia actually
might be a little different than hisrole in the NFL because at Georgia and
he was primarily an outside corner allthe time that he played except for really
one game, and then he movedinto the slote, and I could see
him starting out because of his sortof not as having as much long speed

(00:44):
and the quickness strengths, And Icould see him starting out in the slot
in the NFL. But physical player, just an absolute dog. Is a
corner, great as a run defender, one of the highest graded in terms
of Pro Football Focus grades, oneof the highest graded run defending corners in
country. Just to absolutely had greatsort of junior year stepping forward to the
NFL. Brent, Welcome to Houston. Appreciate you joining us stay in Northfleet

(01:07):
here, and I think about aquestion that's gonna come up from our audience.
Okay, stam, we know he'sa two time national champion at Georgia.
Come many inceptions. Take the ballaway, right, we see what
Derek Stingley has done, and hetakes the ball away and we saw what
he did and Ben Rouge coming outof Athens. How do we explain the
lack of quantifiable success in the ballskills standpoint, meaning interceptions in PBUs.

(01:34):
You know, that's interesting, It'sa great question. I will say.
I think this year he took Thispast year he took a big step up
in terms of breaks on the ball. I think he had five past pass
breakups, but not interceptions this pastseason. But a lot of that I
think has to do with how Georgiacoaches their defensive backs, and they coach
in a way that they're physical butalso not necessarily just to the point and

(02:00):
trying to do things where they getthe offense in a hand an advantage and
you know, sort of playing upthrough the ball, knocking the ball out
versus truly finding the ball. There'sa couple of great reps from lasted I
think one against Kentucky that I rememberspecifically, where did a phenomenal job of
actually turning and finding the ball withsomething that you don't normally see from Georgia

(02:23):
corners. But I think it's asmuch to do with how they're taught is
anything, but also with him andthat's why I think he ends up in
the slot is arm length and handsize, Like he's just he's like twenty
fifth percent of in terms of arnlength hand size when great. So that's
a lot of it's a combination offactors, but I think he's going to

(02:45):
be a dog in the slot.And that's like if you look back,
and I think if you're a Texansfan, he wants to say, all
right, what game do I wantto go watch him? Specifically, it's
the Missouri game this past year forGeorgia because that was a game where Luther
Burton early on established himself as like, hey, I'm going to be a
force in this game. And theyput Kamari Laster in the slot in that
game and then Burden with a littletweak of a knee or ankle, but

(03:07):
also Laster on him. The restof the game in essence kind of faded
away and didn't do much of anythingthe rest of the game. Brent Rowlinds
again UGA sports dot Com join ushere on Sports Talk seven ninety Brent,
can you just kind of fill in, you know, the audience here who
doesn't watch Georgia as closely, justexactly what Kirby Smart and that defensive staff
asked for out of their guys inthe secondary, as much as they ask

(03:31):
of any player on the team,honestly, because there's a couple of things
with when you get Georgia defensive back. One is you got a kid who's
used to playing every snap of thegame. Georgia has their five dbs,
and it's not like, hey,you know, every other series a different
corner comes out. No, they'refive guys, the two corners, two

(03:53):
safeties, and nickel. They stayon the field. They're always the sort
of leaders in the clubhouse in termsof snaps played for George's d So you've
got a guy who's used to beon the field the entire game. You
got a guy who can play bothzone and man. When they had like
Eric STOs Stokes and Tyson Campbell,who are high draft picks, they played
a lot more man, but overthe past couple of years, they've really

(04:15):
split the sort of man zone splitmore towards what you see in the NFL,
and thus you get corners that areequally adept at playing both man and
zone. The other part with Ithink every Georgia corner, if you can't
play physical, bubble screens, tacklingin the run game, you're just not

(04:36):
going to play. And you've seenhighly rated recruits transfer away from Georgia because
they just couldn't meet that physical standardthat Kirby Smart demands of his DB's,
especially the corners. Well, Brett, while I'm not expecting the Texans to
dip into the Georgia secondary a secondtime, relatively early after the first time,

(04:57):
but if they do, what wouldyou tell people hear about Javon Bullard
their safety Verstal, I think he'slike to me a comp for him would
be Antoine Winningfield junior in terms ofpro comp size, speed, similar,
just aggressiveness, absolute, just doesn'tcare for his body and will put his
body in anywhere in any that isneeded, and smart and I will say

(05:24):
he's one that in terms of overhis career, had a little more sort
of ball production than you typically seemaking plays on the ball, especially in
the slot. Now, I thinkhe wasn't as quite. He wasn't as
good this past year. He wasreally good, but I think he was
even better the previous season in twentytwenty two in the slot. I think

(05:44):
it's more his natural position. Butthe ability to play both slot and safety,
like much like last year, canplay both outside corner and in the
slot at Buller gives you that positionalversatility of slot and safety as well.
Last one for me, Brent,I think about something sticks out of my
head whenever Demico speaks and he talksabout personnel. Character of the person.

(06:06):
Personal character is just as important asyour football character. What can you share
with us about Kamari Lassa to theindividual, the family, What type of
stock does he come from? Ithink that's one of the things that for
the most part, you can kindof blanket statement that to anybody that comes
from Georgia's program, because it's oneof the things that they've done from a

(06:29):
recruiting standpoint over the past few yearswhere they obviously target, you know,
and get highly ranked guys and geta lot of them, and you know,
they get number one type recruiting classes. But it's very specific based upon
the character things and the human thatyou're talking about. And also think about
George's practices, like there's just mountainsof scouts and coaches who talk about the

(06:56):
physicality of the practices. And thus, if you get a kid who's been
there for three years and survived andalso then thrived in that environment, you're
getting a professional. And you're also, by the way, the biggest thing
that and this is something that goesuntalked about, I think a lot,
but Kirby smart does this at leastalmost double digit times per practice is harping

(07:19):
on how hard you play on specialteams and lasted there was always a special
teams contributor. Good here those kids, every single kid there knows exactly what
the NFL veteran minimum is for aspecial team to be on special teams and
play in the league. Because Kirbywants kids who care about special teams as
much as he does because and youlook across their roster, its starters everywhere

(07:40):
on special teams. Well, Brent, we certainly appreciate the time. Brent
Rollins from UGA sports dot com andvia the X platform, you can find
Brent's work at Brent Rollins p HDreally appreciate the insight and continued to good
luck with the next and next andnext and next Georgia player they gets drafted

(08:01):
us. There's gonna be a fewmore, not as many of this year
as your past years, but thankyou very much for having me on.
Appreciate it. Take care, Brett