Hey, what's up everybody?

Andrew DeCechko here, DeCecho DeCicco Daily.

I wrote a story on Inside thebirds.com where I named seven players who I believe are currently positioned to take a big step forward in 2025, or at least

they're going to be expected to.

And we're going to start by talking some of the defensive players.

And then tomorrow we're going to run through the offensive players that I've named.

But we're going to start with safety, Sydney Brown.

Sydney Brown is a player that when you look at the trade of C.J. Gardner Johnson and the current

safety infrastructure they have in place, all signs indicate that Sidney Brown's going to be

prime for an elevated role.

Now, Sidney Brown's entering his third season.

He played a very minimal amount of snaps last year. And he has, he still managed

an interception, but he's a player who plays with his hair on fire. He sort of reminds me of a

heat-seeking missile in the way that he throws his body around. And when you play like that,

for Vic Fangio, where there's so much responsibility that's placed on the safeties and the

linebackers in his defense, it's really tough to depend on a player who plays like that.

So maybe he's able to find a way to harness it for Sydney and you like the intensity and

the tenacity and the aggressiveness in which he plays.

But in order to be a

successful player in that defense and be a viable option they can call upon, he's going to

have to change the way that he plays. I've also gotten a lot of questions as to why was Tristan

McCollum coming in before Sidney Brown last year. And let's not forget, Sidney Brown didn't return until October.

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