Texas Football: Updated DB depth chart ahead of 2020 season

Projected Texas football DB depth chart: Safety

Safety 1: B.J. Foster, Junior

The per game numbers that rising junior safety/former converted nickelback and five-star recruit B.J. Foster posted over the course of the last two season is nothing short of amazing. In 20 games played (where he had some level of complete production), Foster averaged just over four tackles per game, 0.7 tackles for loss, 0.25 sacks, 0.1 interceptions, 0.35 pass deflections, and 0.1 forced fumbles.

That is about the best you will get for any safety that rolled through the Forty Acres in the last three or four years (barring maybe DeShon Elliott). But he did miss a higher rate of tackles (around one in three) and have a higher completion percentage against (around 14.0 percent more) than he did during his true freshman campaign in 2018. Still Foster should be one of the more potent and reliable defensive backs for the Longhorns this fall.

Safety 1 Backup: Tyler Owens, Sophomore

Although the results that the Longhorns got out of fellow former five-star safety recruit and sophomore defensive back Tyler Owens were mixed last season, few at the position for this team have a ceiling as high as he does. But he didn’t allow any passing touchdowns against last year (on five targets, and three receptions allowed), and only missed one tackle.

What Owens brings back for the Longhorns this year is eight total tackles and just one penalty against from his 2019 season. The 6-foot-2 and 205 pound second-year talented safety Owens should get playing time in more than six games this year, compared to what he got last season.