Top 5 CB tandems in the NFL

[Big Dog]

Top 5 CB tandems in the NFL

NFL Media's Ike Taylor tells you his top five current cornerback tandems, including the Bolts pair of DBs.


http://www.chargers.com/video/2017/0...p-5-cb-tandems

[Concudan]

Nice to hear, but not a lot of reasoning behind the picks... Kinda like our fan pics!

[Steve]

I don't see the point in only considering 2 CB. You play 3 more than you play 2 at a time. A lot of teams are even starting to play more penny coverage (3 CB and 1 S) as part of their base D, to get the extra coverage of 3 CB. They should really judge top 3 CB.

As far as we go, I would still put us pretty high. King might get us knocked down, just because he is an unknown in the NFL, but the Giants got ranked higher than us (along with a 2nd year player) with a rookie as part of their top 2. The Giants are also searching for their 11th starter on D (their nickelback), so I think that might bump us up the rankings some.

Of course all of this depends on Verrett staying healthy. In some ways, he is easily the best CB in his draft class, but he hasn't been able to show because of his injury issues.

[Panamamike]

Lets wait and see what happens in TC before we annoint King the "starting" nickle CB spot. But seriously, i think we have better depth on the backend than we have had in a long time. Maybe we can call it our Beyonce Backfield.

[Steve]

To me, King is the kind of player who adjusts well to the NFL. A Very productive college player, who played in big games and against good schools. He played a lot, and for former NFL coaches at Iowa (Kirk Ferentz was the OL coach for Cleveland and Ravens). Not too many Iowa guys come in and don't know how to handle themselves.

Add into it, it is not like they are asking King to be a starting S or CB. He will start, but at a position like a nickle CB, he is more situational, so it is not unreasonable to think a versatile guy like King can't step in and fill that role right away. The problem with asking a rookie to start is that they have to master the all the aspects of the base D, and also learn about situational football. If you ask a rookie to be a base player fine. If you ask him to be situational fine. But ask them to do both, that is where they usually get lost, IMHO. A smart player with good college experience should be able to handle one or the other.

Every season, guys like King do start for NFL teams. Weddle did when he was a rookie, even though the complaint was that he didn't have a true position. King has been a starting CB, who many people project to S because of his lack of true outside speed and length. Guys who fit that description often do really well as nickel DB, where the tackling and ability in close quarters is more important than the need to be long to match up to 6'5" Mike Evans types.

If it is the 5th round pick thing that worries people, guys like him typically go a lot higher most years. This year was just so deep at DB, and especially S, that he is more like a 3rd round pick (in any other draft), IMHO. King lacks the prototype body of being a starting DB, in a draft that was completely loaded with guys who passed the eyeball test. King was still one of the most productive CB in college football, no matter what the eyeball test results say. I think he fits our D pretty well, especially at nickel.

Besides, given Verrett's injury history, I am not sure you want the 3rd best pure CB at nickel. Someone like Williams, Mager or Reed, who played well last year outside, I would rather have them focus on the outside CB, then when Verrett does get hurt, it doesn't force the entire D to change, just because of the 1 injury. King would focus on just the 1 spot. In really obvious passing situations, you could still bring the pure CB (outside guys) on to matchup vs the WR, without forcing them to learn the run support aspects of nickel.

[Panamamike]

After all that, i agree he looks the part and has a very good college pedigree but has speed concerns. Kind of like Antoine Cason when he came out. Guys surprise every year and others bust out. My point is nothing is a a sure thing, and he hasn't even put pads on in the pros. Like him a lot, and loved the pick. I am optimistic he can be an early contributer for many of the same reasons u mentioned. However, i can't yet pencil him in at nickle until he earns it on the field.

[Sgt Schultz]

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/2721306-whos-no-1-top-dbs-talk-about-the-future-of-the-position-post-darrelle-revis?utm_source=facebook.com&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=programming-national

Long read but interesting input by Ronde Barber.... "Jason Verrett: "Frickin' special, man. Watching him play, it's like 'Holy s--t, this dude's for real. Jason will hit you, man. He plays bigger. He plays like he's 210. S--t like that flashes for me.""

[Steve]

Yeah, NOTHING is a sure thing. That is true of every position on the field, vets and rookies alike. Rivers could totally suck, and he is the closest thing to a sure thing at any position in football. Literally, any single player on any single team could come out and suck balls after a brilliant career. It is the nature of sports. Yet, we are still penciling in vets to their starting spot. Rookies are a higher risk too, but I think King is an about as low risk as they come. Could I be wrong, sure, but if you look at guys who come in and start right away as nickel guys, King fits the profile pretty well.

I get the point, but people are saying that Mike Williams is a sure thing and giving me crap about it, and he is not even close to being a good fit to an immediate contributor like King is. If it backfires so be it, we have other options at nickel DB (Mager, Williams and Reed), but I see King's skill set as fitting the nickel DB thing as more of a sure thing than some of our vets. Is there still risk? ... of course., I just don't think it is that big a thing compared to other issues.

If there is a real position that will probably hold us back, it will be RT, since he has almost zero track record and has been a career underachiever.

I don't have any speed concerns with King. He runs a not so great 40 time. That has very little to do with his playing speed. Plus, a player with good technique and brains can get by with average or even poor speed. Ronde Barber ran a 4.7 40 at the combine and was a great CB and then S. Chris Dishman was a great press CB for years, and he was only an average runner. If you have a limitation in your game, you need to learn to compensate and from what I have seen by King, he does that to a larger degree than a lot of college CB and S. If he fails, as with most DB, it will be because he needs to learn to develop a complete game with technique and the recognition to know when to use them. I think he is well ahead of most college guys.

[Panamamike]

Yeah, NOTHING is a sure thing. That is true of every position on the field, vets and rookies alike. Rivers could totally suck, and he is the closest thing to a sure thing at any position in football. Literally, any single player on any single team could come out and suck balls after a brilliant career. It is the nature of sports. Yet, we are still penciling in vets to their starting spot. Rookies are a higher risk too, but I think King is an about as low risk as they come. Could I be wrong, sure, but if you look at guys who come in and start right away as nickel guys, King fits the profile pretty well.

I get the point, but people are saying that Mike Williams is a sure thing and giving me crap about it, and he is not even close to being a good fit to an immediate contributor like King is. If it backfires so be it, we have other options at nickel DB (Mager, Williams and Reed), but I see King's skill set as fitting the nickel DB thing as more of a sure thing than some of our vets. Is there still risk? ... of course., I just don't think it is that big a thing compared to other issues.

If there is a real position that will probably hold us back, it will be RT, since he has almost zero track record and has been a career underachiever.

I don't have any speed concerns with King. He runs a not so great 40 time. That has very little to do with his playing speed. Plus, a player with good technique and brains can get by with average or even poor speed. Ronde Barber ran a 4.7 40 at the combine and was a great CB and then S. Chris Dishman was a great press CB for years, and he was only an average runner. If you have a limitation in your game, you need to learn to compensate and from what I have seen by King, he does that to a larger degree than a lot of college CB and S. If he fails, as with most DB, it will be because he needs to learn to develop a complete game with technique and the recognition to know when to use them. I think he is well ahead of most college guys.

I think our secondary is as deep as it has ever been. I am not disagreeing with you, and I do not have big speed concerns with him either as he will not be playing outside for us. I think he is quick enough to play the nickel, but I think his long term future will be at S. My point is there will be quality competition for that Nickle spot. He will have an opportunity to earn it, but he has yet to put pads on in the NFL. He also needs to clean up his technique a bit too. He tends to grab a lot, and and had a high number of flags the last season in particular. I love his play on the ball and he has a knack for baiting QBs. I hope that transitions to playing vs higher caliber competition at QB and R. IF they see him as as a potential starter as our deep S next year, I am not against him focusing on S and getting reps at his future position; provided someone else performs well at NCB. I think there are candidates to do so. Regardless, his versatility should come in handy and he should see plenty of action this season.

The undrafted kid out of Utah is an interesting prospect to add to our CB group as well. His attitude cost him big time with the new coaches at BYU after a great junior year. He has a mix of length and speed that Bradley covets. Lets see how he does in camp.

[whitelightning]

Is McCoil still on the team? I know he's raw but he has the tools, this defensive backfield could be a strong point under Bradley. Just saying.

[Steve]

McCoil is still on the roster, or at least was when they interviewed Charger.com and got the Milius (secondary coach) to talk about him. I was a little disappointed in him because he missed some tackles and took some bad angles on the ball, along with being slow in transition/poor change of direction.

Since so much of his playing time was at ILB in the CFL, it will be interesting to see his progression in year 2 as an NFL S.

[whitelightning]

Transition into the NFL is difficult all on it's own, and bouncing from the arena league to the Canadian league would be an uphill battle for anyone. I'm not saying he should make the team but it sure as hell wouldn't hurt if he can and be an upgrade. Wr's are getting bigger so it would only follow suit that the defensive backfield would also need to grow. Just my line of thinking is all.