With preseason practices starting Wednesday morning, here is a pre-camp look at The Wolfpacker's projected fall depth chart for the defensive side of the football.

Joseph proved to be a valuable addition to the defense, making a team-best 6.5 sacks and third on the squad with 10 tackles for losses. Furthermore, Joseph decided to return for a repeat of his fifth-year senior season in a boost to the Wolfpack defense.

At nose tackle, it figures that Clark, a promising redshirt freshman that had 24 tackles and three quarterback hurries while starting twice in 2020, would seem to be the favorite to replace McNeill. That was further confirmed in the spring.

The other end is the bigger competition. Jackson, who had a strong spring practice and capped it with two tackles for loss in the scrimmage, gets our nod for now. Jackson had 20 tackles in 2020, including two for loss and a sack, and was playing his best football late in the season. He also made four starts.

Durden though has the potential to be an instant impact. The 6-foot-4, 310-pounder may seem unusual to have on the outside, but Durden is an impressive pass rusher. He had 6.5 tackles for loss and five sacks in 2019 while starting 12 games for the Seminoles. In the three-man front, Durden may be well suited for the right end spot in a similar way that allowed Larrell Murchison to excel in 2019 before he was drafted by the Tennessee Titans.

There are other potential options however. Dawkins had a very promising rookie campaign, where he had nine tackles for loss and 4.5 sacks and made six starts. However, he missed the spring, and he may be better suited to play on the edge with Joseph.

Not listed above is redshirt junior Ibrahim Kante, who made 13 tackles, including two for loss, and made five starts in 2020. A wildcard for the two-deep could be freshman Travali Price, one of several newcomers who made big impressions as early enrollees in the spring.

Backing up Clark at nose tackle, we went with Vann and also considered redshirt freshman Joshua Harris, the latter making an impressive effort in the offseason to trim down and improve his conditioning.

The pair were four-stars coming out of high school. Harris was a goal line defense specialist a season ago. Vann is the next in a recent line of freakish Wolfpack defensive line athletes who got a little experience in four games during the fall. Vann also has the potential to add depth on the end positions, too.

Seeing how the three starters listed above started every game they were healthy enough to play in 2020, it's hard-pressed not to use them as the starting three again.

Wilson will be an ACC Defensive Player of the Year candidate after his first-team All-ACC campaign in 2020, during which he made a league-high 108 tackles, including a team-best 11.5 for loss that counted 3.5 sacks. He also had two interceptions.

Wilson was first-team preseason All-ACC and has been named to the watch lists for the Bednarik Award, the Butkus Trophy and the Bronko Noagurski Trophy.

Moore is the heart and soul of the defense, and perhaps the team. He had 94 tackles while playing all 12 contests, including 11 for loss and three sacks. Moore had a crucial safety in the 15-14 win over Liberty, handing the Flames its only loss on the season.

Thomas had 58 tackles, including 9.5 for loss and three sacks, in 10 games.

The presence of Jones is a major asset on the defense. The former USC transfer started four times and finished with 35 tackles, including five for loss and three sacks, and he was a star on special teams with three blocked kicks.

Scott also is a solid option. He started the bowl game in place of Thomas and finished the year with 16 tackles, including one for a loss, and a big interception in the home win over Duke.

The last remaining option on the second team remains the biggest unknown.

You can make strong cases for several candidates. Freshman Devon Betty played in 11 games last season, mainly on special teams where he made a pair of tackles. Redshirt sophomore walk-on Seth Williams has impressed and played last year on scholarship. He had a standout performance in the spring game.

So did two well-regarded early enrollees in Poole and Caden Fordham. Ultimately we went with Poole, who may be the most athletic linebacker on the roster, but we could see it being any of the four mentioned.

There are a number of ways this position battle could play out. Cornerback may be the most interesting position battle to watch on defense.

Battle started all 12 games in 2020, so it would seem natural to give him an edge coming out of the spring, where he ran with the starters in the scrimmage. He finished his rookie campaign with 36 tackles and led the Pack with 10 pass breakups while also intercepting a pass.

If the spring scrimmage was any indication, Pitts might have an edge at the opposite corner. Pitts was a former four-star who had a solid season at West Virginia in 2018 before transferring to Marshall and breaking through with a nice campaign in 2020 — making 42 tackles and three pass breakups.

He played primarily safety for the Thundering Herd, but the versatile DB also has prior experience at corner.

While Battle and Pitts had the edge at corner in our analysis, any of the four listed reserves could easily be in the mix or on the two-deep.

Powell started five games a year ago and led all corners with 47 tackles, including 3.5 for loss, and broke up four passes. He is perhaps the most athletically gifted corner at 6-0, 214 pounds, and, with a full year under his belt at the position, we figure could be a breakout candidate. He sat out the spring scrimmage with an injury, however.

White came on strong in the final few weeks of the season and started the regular season finale against Georgia Tech. The true freshman had one of the most important plays of the year when he nabbed a fourth quarter interception against Liberty.

Smith was the opening game starter at corner in 2020 before a shoulder injury shut him down for the year. He was able to participate in limited fashion in the spring and once fully cleared also likely figured heavily into the mix.

Prior to injuring his knee in the middle of the 2019 season, Ingram was a well-performing starter at corner, but questions are how strong and quickly he can rebound from being out for almost two years.

Ingle and Harris started every game they played a year ago, with Harris suiting up in all 12 contests, but the competition at the position will still be intense, especially at Harris' strong safety spot.

Harris was solid in his first year as a starter, making 76 tackles, seven pass breakups and an interception, but the hope is that a few of those PBUs will become picks after Harris dropped a few in 2020.

The addition of Fagan has added competition, although Fagan was playing with the reserves in the spring scrimmage. The former four-star recruit was a part-time starter for Florida State in 2019 when he had 41 tackles, an interception and two pass breakups. He was ACC Defensive Back of the Week when FSU defeated NC State in Tallahassee that year.

Ingle, when on the field, was one of NC State's top defensive players. The issue was he missed four games with a hamstring injury and another due to being ejected three times during the season for targeting. He still had 33 tackles, including 3.5 for loss, and a pair of pass breakups.

After shoulder surgery, Ashford is hoping to get back into the mix at the position. He was a junior college player a year ago who decided to go ahead and enroll in the summer in a last minute addition to the roster. Ashford quickly impressed and started week two at Virginia Tech before being lost for the year.

Ashford, like Teshaun Smith, had a limited participation in the spring. The Pack was also able to get back redshirt freshman Khalid Martin, who had a scary collision and injury at Virginia Tech and could also get into the two-deep conversation.

Baker-Williams started all 10 games he played last fall, twice at safety and eight times at nickel. Expectations were high for him going into the season, but a pair of quarantines for contact tracing disrupted his year. He still was fourth on the roster with 60 tackles, including five for loss and 1.5 sacks, and he added eight pass breakups and an interception.

Baker-Williams joins Ingle as arguably the most set starters in the 2021 secondary.

The speedy Pierre-Louis made three starts at nickel during his true freshman season when Baker-Williams was either out due to contact tracing or playing at safety, and he finished with 27 tackles, a pass breakup and an interception.

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