I really screwed up and sold former Raider cornerback TJ Carrie way short. This is what happens when you rely on only one source (and the source is a mow-ron).
Carrie was actually rated 27th among around 126 cornerbacks in coverage, which is around where Jason McCourty ranked. He's here to start.
Carrie isn't an upgrade over McCourty, but he's taller, much younger, and a terrific tackler (it's true! A cornerback who actually tackles people honest!)
Howard Wilson will be back from a rookie injury this season, and will be fighting to start. I'm officially reminding those of you in Oblivia that he still exists.
Wilson is a little over 6' tall, but only weighed 186 lbs when drafted, which is partly why he came so cheap (4th round).
Not having to play as a rookie may have done Howie some good, as he was probably able to focus on pumping himself up, along with his rehab. He should weigh in at at least 195 lbs this season.
You Oblivions might also want to watch out for this Micheal Jordan guy, who looked pretty good in his few appearances in 2017.
Jordan was signed by the Rams as an undrafted free agent in 2016, and spent most of that season on the fringes of the Rams roster. Sashi Brown nabbed him in 2017, where he made a good impression. He has all the tools, and does have a chance to start, or at least be a fourth cornerback.
All three of these guys are outside corners with height and experience in assorted coverage schemes. Each of them is a good tackler (as in they come foreward to tackle running backs and tight ends, and actually use their arms, instead of trying to knock them down with their shoulders).
You need a bunch of cornerbacks, of course, so John Dorsey is certainly going to draft at least one cornerback in the top three rounds, and take a flier on another one later, but the need there is no longer as great as you Oblivions and Myopians think it is.
The notion of drafting a cornerback (unless it's Minkah) fourth overall is retarded.
Strong safety (and LB/SS---I'll call it safetybacker okay?) is solved two-deep with Peppers and Kindred.
Free safety is being prematurely declared "fixed" with the addition of Damarious Randall from Green Bay. Randall was a free safety in college, but hasn't proven anything at that position in the NFL. His scouting report listed several deficiencies at safety, having to do with instincts, angles, and judgement.
The report I read, in fact even said "might need to play cornerback in the NFL".
Randall should be able to play safety decently, but Gregg Williams doesn't need "decent" at that critical position. That free safety can't make mistakes, or miss tackles. I hope Randall will be great, but just don't know yet. Nor does Gregg Williams, for that matter.
Rodney Nacuafield will go toe-to-toe with Randall at free safety. Walter Football utterly ignored Nacua's very impressive Pro Day in which, at 215 lbs., he clocked a sub-4.5 40, to suggest that he went undrafted because he lacked speed. And at 6'2", his agility drills compared to those of some slot-receivers.
Nacua played in various spots in college, but was predominantly a free safety. He's a big hitter, and averaged 6 interceptions per season. Nacua's instincts and judgement were considered pretty good.
Randall is faster than Nacua, and a superior cornerback to Nacua, but for Gregg Williams, that judgement, those instincts, and those big downhill hits too--are much more important than speed or man-skills (why does nobody else get that?)
Why do you think the "angel" lines up so deep thirty percent of the time? It's to let him either come downhill, for one thing, to trash any intermediate crossers.
It's also so that he doesn't have to "run with" speed receivers! He's called the "angel" because he is the last line of defense. He lines up 20 yards off the ball because he is the last line of defense. If he gets faked out and takes a false step, he is toast no matter how fast he runs.
I'm telling you, Oblivions and Myopians, Kai Nacua has a real chance to put Damarious Randall back at cornerback (and backup free safety of course) if Randall makes more mistakes than he does.
That would actually be just fine, since Randall is a top-notch cornerback, and you just can't have enough of those guys!
I also like Nacua because, as I mentioned, he HITS people, HARD. He's an enforcer.
Staggering down Memory Lane here, I fondly remember Browns free safety Felix Wright. Unlike Nacua, Wright was no bigger than most cornerbacks.
Wright was Warren Moon's nemisis. He intercepted him all the time. It was funny to watch (picture Moon looking up and screaming "Wriiiighttt!").
Anyway, Schottenheimer was just as dumb as Williams, and Felix lined up way off the line of scrimmage (insane, right?)
But on handoffs, pitchouts, and short passes, here comes Felix, like a human missile, and ka-BOOM, ok?
Like I mentioned, Felix was a shrimp, so he had to take their legs out, but that was still it for them, and they hit the ground hard, and sometimes head-first. Felix reacted immediately to a play, and often arrived just when a guy had caught a pass and started turning upfield, or had taken a handoff, and was about to make a cut.
Gregg Williams wants this too, and that's another reason he lines the free safety up that far off the line THIRTY PERCENT OF THE TIME.
Don't you get this? The free safety is never accounted for in the blocking scheme. The rest of the defenders are breaking back out of backpedals, converging laterally, or chasing. The "angel" sees everything, and comes downhill at full speed to stop that guy cold.
It's much smarter to line the free safety up closer to the line of scrimmage, right? So he can be closer (and standing still) right?
But like Gregg Williams, I'm dumber than most of you, because I like the idea of a human missile blowing people up.
Nacua did exactly that a lot in college, but if Randall wins the job I don't care. They're both a lot bigger than Felix Wright, so they could aim for the football more often when they hit slow-moving targets at full speed.
Nobody in the NFL cared how small Felix Wright was. He terrified them. Get it?
Last season, Gregg Williams couldn't run as much press/man coverage as he wanted to. This wasn't all on the cornerbacks. It was also because free safety Jabrill Peppers was making mistakes, and because the passrush wasn't quite there yet.
You can't run a lot of man without a reliable free safety or passrush. Williams was forced into soft off-man and zone coverage, and frankly did a great job of adapting his defense to his personnel (he and Haley are both backup Head Coaches here by the way hint hint).
The cornerback part of this was Jamar Taylor, Jason McCourty, and the assorted fourth cornerbacks. McCourty is an excellent all-around cornerback, but not an ideal press/man guy. Taylor...I don't know what to make of him. He was pretty bad in 2017.
Most of this is already fixed (great job by Dorsey). The back end, despite McCourty's departure, looks a lot better than it did at this time in 2017, and Dorsey is as likely to draft another free safety as he is to take a cornerback high in the draft.
Gregg will have a nice back end (ahh, shaddap G can't you leave inuendo alone for once?)
The more I think about the other side of this, the more I like Bradley Chubb at fourth overall (or fifth, if Elway can spare a 2019 second round pick for his favorite quarterback or something).
1: Press/man corners can disrupt timing by delaying and re-routing receivers. They can "wall off" inside breaks, and jostle receivers towards the sidelines (legally), but this only works for 3-4 seconds. Faster recievers can turn it into a footrace and pull away. Or the receiver can stop dead and "lose" the cornerback for a come-back or in-cut.
If a quarterback has survived this long (and is decisive and accurate), that's a completion. No matter how good the cornerback is.
2: A Chubb and a Garrett outside contain most scramblers. They can run foreward off-tackle sometimes, but it's a lot harder to throw a pass that way, and Joe Schobert is going to be there, if not another linebacker and/or the safetybacker.
These guys do their damage "drifting" laterally, scanning the field. That doesn't work when the guy behind you has blown by his blocker and is faster than you, the guy on your side is walling you off from the sideline, and a Coley or Ogunjobi is in your face, and the free safety is moving toward your primary receiver, hoping you'll make that throw while running.
3: In general, a Chubb/Garrett combo would mandate inside runs, dumpoffs to running backs, and short passes. It would require tight ends to chip (instead of going out for passes).
If you read that right, it says you can't go deep much, okay? Which (in turn) means that the free safety is doing that human missile stuff and blowing people up, right?
4: Williams is now dictating to the offense: You can't roll out and "float" outside to buy time to throw passes. You can't stand in the pocket and wait three seconds before you throw.
You can pitch out and get your running back outside and behind that defensive end. You can hand off (or run yourself) off-tackle under/behind the edge-rushers.
The problem here is that Gregg Williams (and Joe Schobert by the way) knows all this.
It goes without saying that both defensive ends will stunt (loop inside) sometimes, Schobert will read and react, and Williams will blitze (usually inside; "run-blitzes").
5: You Oblivions and Myopians don't get this yet, but Sashi Brown (no doubt accidentally) acquired Jamie Collins, Joe Schobert, Ogunjobi, Brantley, Coley, Peppers...etc.
Warren Sapps don't grow on trees, but the current Browns defensive tackles are massively underrated.
You people love sparkly things, and thinking gives you headaches, but I'm here to help:
In 2017, Ogbah and Garrett kinda traded injuries, and the two of them weren't on the field much at the same time. For that matter, Garrett's foot and ankle stuff hampered him even when he did play.
Every opposing offense slid protections to/chipped Garrett, and (barely) managed the rest of this defensive line.
But Coley was only in his second season, and Ogunjobi and Brantley were rookies. Trading Danny Shelton was Gregg Williams' call---do you understand?
Meder aside, all these guys are quick-twitch one-gap penetrators.
Toss all that conventional analysis (including from me) in the circular file. Gregg Williams intends to shoot gaps everywhere, all the time.
His retention of Meder means he values a two-gapper situationally, but his trade of Shelton means he begs to differ with damn near every other DC in the NFL.
I suspect that Gregg Williams is a mad scientist who is finally, at long last, building his insideously diabolical defense.
I'll go deeper later, because I'm merciful like that with people from Oblivia.
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