I do like the trio of Jaire Alexander, Eric Stokes, and Rasul Douglas. That's a formidable secondary, assuming everyone develops accordingly.
Originally Posted by: porky88
Yes that's a good top group of CBs, but Safety depth is still a consider for a full secondary consideration.
It is. Problem for me is "I heard" Douglas is a boundary guy and not as good in the slot. So who do you put over the slot receiver? JA at this point in the best CB on the team. I would hate to "waste" him covering the third best WR.
Originally Posted by: wpr
No you aren't putting Douglas in the slot, but I also don't think you should automatically assume the slot guy is the 3rd best WR, often times the slot can be harder than the outside as you don't have the sideline to help and you have an entire other direction to run (out).
Also, Alexander sucked in the slot for the 49ers game... now, in his defense, he was just getting back from injury and not playing in his normal spot, but mentally he was guessing and guessing badly wrong... when I picked up the 49ers were simply just keep trying to get a guy over the middle for Jimmy G. Nothing fancy, but Alexander was over thinking it in that moment and Sullivan was better (even Sullivan might be resigned still too).
I honestly think Savage might be the best slot guy, but the Packers clearly don't have the Safety depth to give him that opportunity, as the Packers have two starters, then they got tier 3 guys, no real good backup options even at Safety. Which is one reason I think they might consider Safety higher than people think, as the 3rd Safety does often get on the field for the dime package and getting another quality Safety in theory could open Savage up for the nickel role.
My biggest concern with Douglas is he was excellent at interceptions but that is a fleeting stat. He had a fantastic year but he "only" had 5 ints in 12 games. He has 5 ints in the other 4 years combined. It's known that he likes to jump the route. Next year I see more teams baiting him instead of him baiting them. There will be double moves made and he will be hung out. It happened a couple of times late in the season. At least once another defender came in a broke up the pass. For the record, I know that he tells the safeties what he plans to do so they can come in and help out.
Originally Posted by: wpr
Yes, and sometimes with injuries or different formations that can still get him in trouble, I forget the details but somehow it was Sullivan helping Douglas instead of a Safety, and maybe the Safety would of known Douglas was going to jump it... but in this case, the offense knew he was going to jump it, and Sullivan did not, lucky it was a dropped pass.
And Douglas dropped a number of INTs too... but I think he mixed it up and kept offenses guessing a bit, not doing the same routes each week.