As mentioned earlier in the week, Shalize Manza Young and Greg Bedard both stated that the initial plan in the offseason was to move McCourty to safety full-time, but they ended up changing their minds due to what they saw as a lack of depth at the CB position.
No. That is not reporting the plan that is their OPINION. It is not based upon information from the team.
That's the story that they are reporting, and I think (not 100% sure) that Tom Curran may have also mentioned it too as the 3rd reporter to make that statement. Curran's assessment was the the potential downfall/backslide at the CB position from moving McCourty to safety was so slim that they probably would be better off permanently moving him. In other words, McCourty really hasn't been playing that much better than the other options at CB--at least in Curran's opinion.
And Curran is wrong. For some reason he has something against McCourty and it is obvious from his biased commentary on him.
It will be interesting to see what happens not only tomorrow, but also down the line.My personal feeling is that we need to immediately shore up the safety position, and moving McCourty there will do it.
With no one else to play safety today, yes, but going forward, McCourty is a corner. He has had an excellent season.
Last week, late in the first quarter a pass was completed on Dennard, and some guy behind me yells, "McCourty again, get him off the field he sucks". This is the McCourty dilemma. In a game where teams complete 25+ passes in a typical game, one single pass caught on Mccourty (in this case not even on him) is 'proof' that he sucks and see I told you so.
And for the OP, mgteich---the much better question would be "what to do with Kyle Arrington?" You somehow point out the Sterling Moore has been so bad (notice you didn't feel that way after he did well with proper safety help on Larry Fitzgerald holding him to 1 reception for 4 yards on a total of 4 targets)
Moore stopped Fitzgerald?
I agree that Moore hasn't looked too good for the most part (outside of the first 2 games where he looked totally fine, and the other game that he missed), but I also think that the scheme where he was beat with Demarius Thomas was due to a blown safety assignment. There just isn't any way that Bill Belichick is pathetically stupid enough to put Sterling Moore one-on-one with the super speedy young WR1 from Denver without giving him any safety help at all. I just could not imagine someone so smart and seeing him in practice every day purposely accepting the fact that he'd be going one-on-one against Peyton Manning and his #1 target...do you?
Moore is not a good football player. Sorry, but it is what it is.
Arrington, on the other hand--has looked ridiculous. He's giving up a perfect 158 opposing QB rating, and that's coming off last year where he was the 2nd worst CB in yardage allowed, behind your "much better option at CB---Devin McCourty."
PFF stats are useless. Yes Arrington has been bad, but Moore wouldn't be doing any better.
How much worse can it really get having Moore out there as opposed to Arrington? Honestly?? At least we'd know that Moore is only going to be out there about 50% of the time, whereas Arrington is going to move to the slot when Moore comes in anyway, thus equaling almost every single snap.
You lost me here. How is Arrington on the field 100% of the time if he is replaced by Moore? Aren't you suggesting it is Moore who should be on the field 100% of the time?
They both aren't going to be the answer, so it really doesn't matter. The team is going to have to make due with what they have.
We can be OK with either of them, or Cole in the nickel once we have a full roster at safety and can move McCourty back to corner. If the safeties come back and play effectively, the corner position will look much better. Neither of these guys are a preferred option, but as a nickel we can get by just fine with them. Its the other 10 guys on the field that have to be better too.
