Dom Capers never again wants to feel the way he did at halftime of Super Bowl XLV.
Informed that cornerback Charles Woodson was out of the game with a broken collarbone and that nickel back Sam Shields wouldn't be of much help because of an injured shoulder, the Green Bay Packers defensive coordinator's gut ached.
At that moment, Capers went from having arguably the best trio of cornerbacks in the league to having cornerstone Tramon Williams and fourth-stringers Jarrett Bush and Pat Lee. Somehow, Capers made it work and never had to endure the pain of losing a Super Bowl because his defense couldn't finish the job.
"You can never have enough of those guys," Capers said Tuesday.
By those guys, he means cornerbacks, and this weekend Capers and his staff will be making critical choices at that position. The guys they pick now could be the guys who are playing for him in the second half of a Super Bowl.
"The great thing about football and one thing my daddy always taught me is as coaches we don't decide," said cornerbacks coach Joe Whitt, the son of a college assistant coach. "The players decide who's going to be here. The ones who play (well) will be here; the ones who don't won't."
As it stands, Woodson, Williams and Shields will be the top three again. Bush is sitting in the four spot, but that could change depending on how the rest of the group shakes out.
Assuming Capers gets to keep 10 defensive backs and Bush is kept as a hybrid corner-safety, there are three corner positions at stake for Lee, fourth-round pick Davon House, Josh Gordy and Brandian Ross. If Capers decides to keep Brandon Underwood as a fourth safety, then there will only be two spots for those four corner prospects.
Suffice to say, the Kansas City game Thursday night will be huge for all of them. They need to top off their training camp résumés with one heck of a cover letter against the Chiefs.
"I expect from all of the guys who play in this game their play-speed to equal that of Tramon, Wood and Sam," Whitt said. "If you're in that room, our standard is at a certain level and I don't care who you are, you have to play at that speed and that standard.
"We haven't seen that from everybody in that group that's going to play a lot."
House, because of his draft status and talent, stands to make the team, but after missing 11 practices and two games with a hamstring pull, he has a lot of ground to make up. The object isn't for him to just make the team but to compete for one of the top four jobs.
"He kept a positive attitude and his classroom is real, real good," Whitt said. "He asked good questions. It's unfortunate that it (the injury) happened."
House looked bad on a missed tackle against Indianapolis, but he played better as the game wore on. At 6 feet and 195 pounds, he has the size and athletic ability to be a physical outside corner in Capers' system.
Lee had issues early on, but he has played better of late, and more important, stayed healthy. Injuries have been his worst enemy and he needs a solid performance at corner and on special teams to lock down a spot.
The speedy Gordy spent most of last year on the practice squad before being called up in December. Ross got off to a hot start by returning an interception for a touchdown on the first play of the intrasquad scrimmage, but a hamstring injury slowed his progress.
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