Rappaport: CB Tarell Brown foot injury: [10/17 Update - - IR'ed]

[zydecochris]

Melvin White a corner with decent size and a couple of years of experience is on the Ram's practice squad.

Interesting. He has great size at 6'1'' 215 lbs. He reached an injury settlement with Carolina, is he healthy?

 

[mgteich]

I think our problems at CB over the years simply reflect our poor draft position - we're always choosing at 30 or below, and the best corners are long since gone.

CB1 and CB2 are positions where it's hard to compensate for physical deficiencies - the CB is often one-on-one with a star player. So it's hard to get good CBs on the cheap - that's why Butler is close to being a miracle.

So, your position is that the vast majority of good or top corners in the NFL are top draft picks and picked before we first pick at 30 or so?

 

[PatriotReign]

Interesting. He has great size at 6'1'' 215 lbs. He reached an injury settlement with Carolina, is he healthy?

He had a hamstring injury when he was waived by Carolina on September 1st. He should have had adequate time to heal. It's concerning that he had lost his job as a starter. At this point though the CB position needs all the help it can get.

 

[RayClay]

So, your position is that the vast majority of good or top corners in the NFL are top draft picks and picked before we first pick at 30 or so?

I would say that. Probably the two positions with the biggest gap between the elite and the rest are defensive tackle and CB. You have to spend high for a pass rusher or QB, but you still might get a bust.

 

[PatriotsPimp136]

Sean Smith from the chiefs would be a nice rental. Contract year i believe. Thats the guy i would prefer if the saints wouldn't deal lewis.

 

[Mack Herron]

Patriots cap space is running low. Difficult to take on a big contract. "Value" signings a better bet.

 

[Mack Herron]

Ian Rapoport Verified account ‏@RapSheet
The #Patriots are placing CB Tarell Brown on Injured Reserve, source said.

 

[fnordcircle]

Dislike.

 

[PatriotsPimp136]

I already saw it coming. Geez. Two injuries already. We gonna need some pressure upfront.

 

[Gronkowski123]

if butler gets hurt, the secondary is doomed lol
good qb's will pick us to pieces if the rush fails

 

[juny]

Damn, IR'ed. Double damn, when you're worried about losing Tarell Brown in the secondary. Very thin back there.

 

[farn]

I liked Brown. He was not going to light the field on fire, but he was a decent veteran option. I hope Ryan is in the mood to step up. Last year, Ryan was the NFL player that scared me the most after Aaron Rodgers.

 

[n6249c]

Good point. I think the problem has been accentuated by two factors: i) the first is that it used to be that you could find corners that weren't amazing athletes but they could be effective by pulverizing the receivers, but Polian got that legislated out of the game for his Colts, so now corners all have to be amazing athletes; ii) the second is the proliferation of extremely large and tall receivers.

The combination of the two means that the ideal cornerback is a true freak of nature like Patrick Peterson, big enough to cover big receivers but an amazing athlete at that size. It is of course virtually impossible to find someone like that when drafting 30 or below.

The other solution is to have a mix and match set of cornerbacks, some super quick and shifty and at least one that is bigger and more physical. Last year it worked to perfection with Revis as the cover guy, Browner as the big physical corner, and others to fill in. Sometimes Browner was the CB2 and sometimes not, depending on the matchup.

IMHO, the primary problem this year has been the lack of a bigger more physical cornerback that can play on the edge against big receivers. BB's first attempt was Fletcher, 6', 205 lbs, but he didn't work out, he followed a very bad year with Philadelphia in 2014 with a poor start here. Now, we are bringing in Rashaan Melvin, who is 6' 2'', 193. Not likely to be a wrecking ball, but at least he has height.

I know roster positions are at a premium, but I had my way we would continue to poach young cornerbacks from other teams practice squads and give them a whirl to see if the light comes on with any of them. If Brown is IR'd then I wouldn't mind seeing us poach another young cornerback.

Of course it's even harder because any prospect fitting that description and having decent hands will be a receiver. So mostly you're stuck with CBs that aren't good enough in some way to be WRs.

 

[Bonzo]

Think we can increasingly expect to see more of DMc at CB, especially in nickel/dime. Not an awesome development, but at least Harmon has been playing well at S.

 

[jah]

We got lucky in 2014, only losing starters Mayo and Ridley to IR, whose importance to that team were debatable (Ridley was having his worst year although the sample size was too small to seriously judge by). This team's going to have to win without such luck.

 

[shmessy]

On floor, rocking back in forth with knees up to chin repeating "He'll figure something out....he'll figure something out.......he'll figure something out....."

We've seen it before, but that is one shallow CB group.

 

[FourierSeries]

As long as our top players on offense and in the front 7 remain healthy, we're all good.

No need to get emo.

 

[BTTA]

This puts the Pats right at about average for injury losses in the league this year. Up to this week they'd been much better than average.

 

[patsinthesnow]

@dougkyed: The Patriots could technically waive CB Darryl Roberts off IR with an injury settlement then re-sign him, but he'd be exposed to every team.

Loophole gamble is possible

 

[Mack Herron]

This puts the Pats right at about average for injury losses in the league this year. Up to this week they'd been much better than average.

10 on IR already.