Tall corners has been the trend the last few years. Michigan under Hoke tried very hard to recruit them. It’d be a little tragic/ironic if they had one already in Clark.
The trend has continued so far under Harbaugh. These days it seems like coaches will settle for a ‘normal’ sized DB at safety (say 6’0 tall, the NFL norm) who can read plays quickly. Yet they want a longer (over 6′) tall CB who has the arms to jam WR at the line and the speed to make up ground once they head up field. They seem to welcome ‘raw’ athletes for the job.
This seems like a reverse of the 90s and 00s when you tended to see small CBs who could stay step by step with bigger WR but didn’t need to be real physical (these guys tend to be nickelbacks today) and the safeties tended to be bigger taller guys who could thump running backs near the LOS.
Don’t get me wrong, a talented athlete like Jourdan Lewis is still going to play, but in 2015 a guy who is 6’1 and runs fast in a line is going to get an opportunity he might not have gotten in 2005.
What I’d like to see going forward is most (if not all) of the DBs start working at CB and then move to Safety over time, just because safety requires so much more mentally.