JD PicKell: Auburn's biggest defensive question mark is its secondary

As Bryan Harsin gets ready for his second year at Auburn, he has to deal with some key departures from last season’s group. But On3’s J.D. PicKell argued one area got hit harder than any other: the secondary.

The Tigers lost two key playmakers from last year’s defense to the 2022 NFL Draft. Roger McCreary became a second-round pick of the Tennessee Titans and Smoke Monday joined the New Orleans Saints as an undrafted free agent. On top of that, Auburn has a new defensive coordinator coming in as Jeff Schmedding takes over for Derek Mason, who left for Oklahoma State after one season.

The Tigers still bring back five starters on defense, including Nehemiah Pritchett, who Auburn Live’s Justin Hokanson listed as a potential leader of the secondary. Regardless, PicKell said it won’t be easy to replace McCreary and Monday, who were both all-SEC players during their careers on The Plains.

“On defense, it’s not a bare cupboard by any means,” PicKell said on The Hard Count. “They return five of their 11 starters from last year. The trenches will be solid. The big question mark is the secondary. How do you replace a guy like Roger McCreary and Smoke Monday? Can you replace what they brought to the back end of that defense remains to be seen. So that’s what they have under the hood. There’s cause for optimism as a whole.”

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Auburn does have some potential help coming into the program this year. Former Iowa State safety Craig McDonald and former Oregon cornerback DJ James are both entering their first seasons with the Tigers after entering the transfer portal.

Auburn also has four safeties coming in from its recruiting class, which ranks as the No. 18 group in the country for the class of 2022, according to the On3 Consensus Team Recruiting Ranking. Four-star cornerback JaDarian Rhym is also part the haul as the No. 14 cornerback in the nation, according to the On3 Consensus, a complete and equally weighted industry-generated average that utilizes all four major recruiting media companies.