Devin McCourty "Frustrated" After Spending time at CB Saturday Night

JackBauer said:

I'm as big a McCourty fan as there is, but what leads to believe this is the case?

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I thought McCourty was a first class CB prospect right from the start. He has great quickness and above average ball skills. His first year playing mostly zone he had a lot of picks (something like 7 IIRC). His second year clearly disappointed but a lot of that was a switch to more man coverage which he had never played in college, and very little in the pros, and just the bad luck of having several perfect throws go against him when he had great coverage. You don't need many of those to screw up your individual stats.

By 2011 the Pats secondary was in such bad straights that by the playoffs the Pats were forced to play Devin at S and so began Devin's transition to S, which succeeded beyond anyone's reasonable expectations. But the skills to be a better than average CB in this league are still there, only magnified by 5 years experience of playing at 2 positions.

Dear Devin:
I was "frustrated" watching you try to play corner.

Spiral said:

Dear Devin:
I was "frustrated" watching you try to play corner.

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You could always revive your "McCourty's not actually that great of a safety" thread for further discussion?

JackBauer said:

You could always revive your "McCourty's not actually that great of a safety" thread for further discussion?

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We can agree to disagree on McCourty as a safety. Maybe we can both agree that he's not a very good corner.

Spiral said:

We can agree to disagree on McCourty as a safety. Maybe we can both agree that he's not a very good corner.

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I don't think you'll find many who agree with you on McCourty at safety. I think you'll find most people, myself included, agree with you on McCourty at corner.

Michael Giardi ‏@MikeGiardi 11m11 minutes ago
McCourty talked about new challenges this week. Asked if he hoped new challenge would be old challenge of playing safety. "We'll see."

He should be frustrated. I'm frustrated watching him play corner. He's good in zone, and sucks ass in man. There was a reason why he was moved to safety and flourished there. Getting rid of Revis, Browner, and Arrington just to move McCourty back to CB essentially makes two positions in the secondary much weaker and I hope that Bill will see the lack of logic in that and keep McCourty where he belongs. If not, I'm sure he'll realize it when that **** secondary begins to get torched on a regular basis because both the safeties and the corners now suck whereas it's just the corners and maybe one safety position with McCourty back there to clean things up.

KontradictioN said:

He should be frustrated. I'm frustrated watching him play corner. He's good in zone, and sucks ass in man. There was a reason why he was moved to safety and flourished there. Getting rid of Revis, Browner, and Arrington just to move McCourty back to CB essentially makes two positions in the secondary much weaker and I hope that Bill will see the lack of logic in that and keep McCourty where he belongs. If not, I'm sure he'll realize it when that **** secondary begins to get torched on a regular basis because both the safeties and the corners now suck whereas it's just the corners and maybe one safety position with McCourty back there to clean things up.

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Agreed. I just don't know why everyone is getting so antsy, though. Preseason is the time to tinker and try different looks, if only just to get an idea of how it would play out if forced to rely on it at some point in the regular season. Most of the corners on our roster now (except Butler) have battled with injury and Fletcher, though I don't know if he's had any significant injuries, is struggling to regain the form he showed briefly a few years ago. I don't presume to know what goes on in the mind of the mad genius, but I would be shocked if McCourty to safety was permanent. It would have to be a result of injury, poor performance by one or all of the corners or some combination of the two. I guess Edelman has shown he can play some corner in a pinch.

McCourty is a better safety than corner. The move was the right one and it would be a mistake to ask him to play the cornerback position full time. In fact, I do not believe he's playing it so much in practice and against NO because they're going to make the switch. I think it has to do with creating depth at a position where depth is lacking. I think it's also about just seeing how different combinations and personnel groupings work. One of the more underrated things about the D last season was how versatile the parts that make up the whole were. To me, that's what separated our D and Seattle's D. Our team was able to find a game plan that attacked Seattle's D because they pretty much line up and do the same things. That does not work with our game plan-specific team. We need guys who feel comfortable in different positions/areas on the field.

McCourty practicing with the safeties again.

http://www.providencejournal.com/article/20150826/SPORTS/150829482/13988?rssfeed=true

patfanken said:

I thought McCourty was a first class CB prospect right from the start. He has great quickness and above average ball skills. His first year playing mostly zone he had a lot of picks (something like 7 IIRC). His second year clearly disappointed but a lot of that was a switch to more man coverage which he had never played in college, and very little in the pros, and just the bad luck of having several perfect throws go against him when he had great coverage. You don't need many of those to screw up your individual stats.

By 2011 the Pats secondary was in such bad straights that by the playoffs the Pats were forced to play Devin at S and so began Devin's transition to S, which succeeded beyond anyone's reasonable expectations. But the skills to be a better than average CB in this league are still there, only magnified by 5 years experience of playing at 2 positions.

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Exactly. He's a fantastic FS, a good-to-very-good zone corner, and a decent man corner. I really doubt the Pats have any intention to move him to corner--particularly man corner--on a significant basis, because that's just not how you maximize his value. I think last week was about giving him some man to man reps and keeping him sharp. Having a FS with cornerback-level cover skills is a huge plus to flexibility.