Geno Stone declares for the NFL Draft

Iowa junior Geno Stone is leaving early for the NFL Draft. The 5-foot-10, 210-pound safety, originally from New Castle, PA, made the announcement today after weighing his options ever since the regular season ended.

A second-team All-Big Ten selection in 2019, Stone played in 39 games in his Iowa career, starting his last 21 games. He finishes with 126 career tackles, 4.5 for loss, one quarterback sack, six interceptions, four forced fumbles, and one fumble recovery. One of those forced fumbles was in Iowa’s Holiday Bowl victory over USC in late December.

THE IMPACT FOR IOWA

Losing Stone certainly hurts the back end of Iowa’s defense. Had he returned, Iowa would have had both starting safeties back for another year with him and Jack Koerner, and a very capable backup in Kaevon Merriweather, who was a starter to begin the season.

This opens the door for a new starter and it might come down to two players. Merriweather could fairly easily move over to strong safety and be a very good player there. One other option might be to move Dane Belton from the “Cash” position to strong safety, which is his more natural position. That would open up the “Cash” spot for someone like D.J. Johnson or perhaps Julius Brents in the 2020 season.