Adrian Fedkiw
Philadelphia Eagles defensive coordinator Jim Schwartz admits that all of the cornerbacks on the roster have shown “something.”
But a lack of consistency from those corners has the Eagles potentially looking for solutions at the position.
I think all those guys are showing something. I don’t know that anybody is consistent enough where we don’t look at anybody else. I said the same thing coming into camp or maybe back in OTAs that it would be nice to have solid guys or solid starters in those positions, but we’re still in the middle of a competition. Everybody is striving to be consistent. I think not only against our offense, particularly against some of the guys like [WRs] Alshon [Jeffery] and Torrey [Smith] that are established NFL players and we can watch them against those … All those guys have shown up somewhere. Everybody on our 90-man roster has shown up somewhere, but being consistent and winning match-ups consistently, we’re still a work in progress there. I don’t think that’s any secret.
Thursday’s preseason opener against the Green Bay Packers will give the Birds their first exhibition game to evaluate those corners. Expect a lot of man-to-man coverage.
A lot of times you go into preseason games, and you’re there to evaluate players, and we had a couple times last year where we played man-to-man just about every snap just to see those guys. You call a preseason game a lot different than you call a regular-season game because you want to see players compete. You want to see players win. If you blitz and you sack the quarterback, I mean, it’s good, but would you rather see four-man pass rushes at quarterback, would you rather play cover two and not know if a corner can play or play cover one, even in situations that maybe you wouldn’t play.
There’s a plethora of cornerbacks in the mix and in today’s NFL, a nickel defense is essentially your base, so you need a trio of capable corners. The Eagles might possibly have two in second-year corner Jalen Mills and slot corner Ron Brooks, who showed encouraging play prior to his ruptured quad injury, but who will be the third? The candidates are free-agent acquisition, who hasn’t looked promising, undrafted second-year corner C.J. Smith, former CFL standout Aaron Grymes, third-round rookie Rasul Douglas, late signee Corey Graham or somebody else?
Here was some good footage from our pal EROCK of the cornerbacks competing during the Eagles’ open practice on Sunday.
What’s working for youngsters Mills and Smith and even Grymes is their second year in the scheme and that experience makes a difference, particularly for Smith.
It has slowed down for him a little bit compared to last year at this time. Last year at this time his head was swimming. He was coming from North Dakota State and everything was new to him. Now he’s been able to work more on technique. He’s been able to win match-ups and things like that. He’s an improved player from year one to year two, and I think that’s the sign that he’s on the right track. All rookies, all players are inconsistent, particularly young players, but he’s been very assignment sound, and when you can do that, then you can start working on the other things.
Douglas, meanwhile, is in his first year in the scheme.
Inconsistent. I’m sure he would tell you the same way. He’s not only trying to learn all the nuances of the scheme, he’s trying to be consistent with technique. Sometimes I think it feels like every time he gets like a finger in the dyke, so to speak, another leak pops somewhere else, and that’s what happens with rookies … It’s got to get to the point where you know the scheme so well that now the game slows down for you. I think it’s a well-used idiom or whatever it is, but there’s a reason for it, and because the game does slow down for guys. Rasul is not there yet.
Robinson is also in his first year in the scheme, but he’s 29. What’s going on with him?
I just think the thing is when you have players like that, and Patrick has some good experience in the NFL, he has high standards for himself, and what. I don’t want to say what might be expected from a younger player, but you get a younger player like those guys we were talking about, and you know there’s going to be some ups and downs, and it just shows you the standard he’s holding himself to. He doesn’t want those ups and downs. Everybody is going to have a tough day somewhere along the line. The competitors, the guys you can rely on, the guys that come back and correct those things. I like what I’ve seen in Patrick that way. Put it the other way, [what if] he has a really bad day, and it just – water goes off his back. I don’t know what the analogy is. But I’d be more concerned about that than a guy that takes it personal and has a lot of pride.
A lot of work will be ahead in the evaluation process of all the cornerbacks. It heats up Thursday night.