Voting Criteria: Player's importance to the team in 2016, talent and potential for the upcoming season. A player's long term/NFL potential was not taken into consideration.
Voting Panel: Publisher Sean Callahan and HuskerOnline.com staff Robin Washut, Nate Clouse, Mike Matya, Bryan Munson, and Gregg Peterson.
20. Chris Jones, CB, Jr.
While there are still plenty of questions surrounding Nebraska's defense going into fall camp, one thing that already has a firm answer is who will be the two starting cornerbacks.
With Joshua Kalu locking down the other side, junior Chris Jones gives the Huskers two long, athletic, and extremely talented bookends in the secondary who both seemed to be playing their best football at the end of last season.
Jones played in all 13 games with seven starts and finished with 25 tackles (21 of those were solo) while adding two interceptions, five breakups, two tackles for loss and a sack.
Even though Jones had to miss the spring game with an infection in his leg, there is no question who the Huskers' top two cornerbacks will be come September.
19. De'Mornay Pierson-El, WR, Jr.
De'Mornay Pierson-El entered last season as one of Nebraska's most dynamic threats after leading the nation in punt-return yards in 2014, but no Husker suffered more injury-related disappointment.
Pierson-El started off by missing the first four games of the season due to a foot injury suffered in August. He returned for the Illinois game and appeared to be shaking off the rust when the Huskers traveled to Purdue, but suffered a torn knee ligament and a fractured leg against the Boilermakers, ending his season.
He sat out all of spring ball while still recovering from the injury, but the former All-Big Ten return man is expected to be back ready to roll for fall camp. It will be interesting to see how quickly Pierson-El can recover and if he can maintain his game-breaking ability post-injury.
It should be noted that there wasn't a bigger voting discrepancy on our panel than there was with Pierson-El, as Gregg had him as his No. 3 overall Husker and Mike ranked him 36th.
18. Drew Brown, K, Jr.
From Alex Henery to Brett Maher to Pat Smith, not to mention Kris Brown and Josh Brown back in the 1990s, few schools have been better stocked at kicker than Nebraska.
Drew Brown figured to be the next in line, but he made just 14 of his 21 kicks in 2014 and missed six of his first 16 kicks of 2015. But then Brown caught fire, making each of his next 11 field-goal attempts, nine of which were 40 yards or longer.
If Brown has truly turned the corner, he'll have two more years to establish his place in Nebraska's recent run of kickers. He's already said his goal is to win the Lou Groza Award before his NU career is over, and that is looking more and more realistic with every game he plays.
17. David Knevel, OL, Jr.
The key word with junior offensive lineman David Knevel has always been "potential." At 6-foot-9, 315 pounds Knevel is arguably the biggest offensive lineman in program history.
He's always had all the physical tools to be a great player, but his lack of high-level playing experience has maybe the biggest obstacle he had to overcome the last three years.
This spring he made the move from left to right tackle, and with little competition at the position he's essentially locked in as the starter going into fall camp. The time is now for Knevel to finally live up to his massive potential, and the Huskers are definitely counting on him doing just that in 2016.
16. Stanley Morgan Jr., WR, So.
Stanley Morgan clearly has displayed the physical skills needed to be a dominant receiver in his freshman campaign. Despite playing a limited role in 2015, Morgan was third on the team with 25 receptions and ranked fifth with 304 yards.
From a pure talent standpoint, Morgan has a chance to be one of the better receivers in school history. But playing in such a deep and talented pool of wide outs could limit the number of targets he sees this season purely because there are only so many passes to go around.
Morgan is a special talent and is coming off one of the most productive freshman seasons in school history. If he carry over his strong spring into the fall, maybe he'll steal some targets away from one of the veterans.
