I Wouldn't Move McCourty to Safety

[mgteich]

McCourty is our best corner. Moving him to safety with Moore getting significant reps as corner is a mistake IMHO.

Dennard and Arrington as corner and nickel are the best we have.

IMHO, Cole is an OK dime back.

CONCLUSION: Let these guys play and get experience working together. Maybe this is a C- set of corners. We were in the Super Bowl with about the same last year. Obviously, offseason upgrades are needed.
================
We have two injured safeties. We can play with two safeties getting all the safety reps. Moore seems to be the least of several weak choices. Clearly, Ebner has been getting some reps, and may get more. As weak as Wilson, Moore and Ebner seem, they too are good as we had last year. And, believe it or not, we will be more improved when Chung or Gregory ar back. In the meantime, let's give Moore (and perhaps Ebner) some reps, instead of greatly weakening the corner position.
================
BOTTOM LINE QUESTION
Where will Moore cause more harm? As our nickel back (behind Dennard and Arrington)? Or as a safety?

 

[NinjaZX6R]

I don't know. When McCourty was our safety for the last game, even though we gave up 5 20 plus yards vs the Jets, the biggest was a 26 yard pass.

Nothing like the huge chunks of yards we gave up to Seattle. I'd give MCC couple of games at Safety to see if he can prevent though big chunks and minimize the damage, I'm all for it.
I saw the game again. He is a tat slow to the ball but he does take the correct angles to it.

I do want Gregory back but as for Chung, meh.

 

[NinjaZX6R]

Though if Greg can come back, I would move him back to CB and have my two Safeties to be Greg and Tavon.


It's a tough call. We have to find the right combo to the back end and that combo can't have Chung starting unless it's a 3 safety package.

 

[DocHoliday]

I'm pretty sure Moore >>>> Arrington this year.

Even though Moore gets burned, seems like he finds a way to make up for it!

 

[Jangles]

McCourty is our best corner.

I died a little reading this

 

[Joey007]

I died a little reading this

Yet another clueless fan who has sour grapes over DMCs 2011 year.

Go watch the games and tell me how many times its McCourty getting beat.

 

[Deus Irae]

Yet another clueless fan who has sour grapes over DMCs 2011 year.

Go watch the games and tell me how many times its McCourty getting beat.

McCourty's gotten beat plenty. It's not just posters on Patsfans.com that have been pointing it out.

 

[Joey007]

McCourty's gotten beat plenty. It's not just posters on Patsfans.com that have been pointing it out.

Take out the Baltimore game, not really. This year the rating of qbs throwing to him is 65, while last year he gave up the 2nd most yardage of all time.

Yeah I'd say he's improved greatly.

 

[randomk1]

Take out the Baltimore game, not really. This year the rating of qbs throwing to him is 65, while last year he gave up the 2nd most yardage of all time.

Yeah I'd say he's improved greatly.

Where do you come up with that number? No way has he been that lockdown. He's given up plenty and those DPIs he has had have been basically TDs.

He is playing better than last year though. That i can't argue.

 

[Deus Irae]

Take out the Baltimore game, not really. This year the rating of qbs throwing to him is 65, while last year he gave up the 2nd most yardage of all time.

Yeah I'd say he's improved greatly.

Take out the Baltimore game and he's still gotten beaten like a drum on many occasions. He's playing better, and I hope the improvement continues, but part of why he's not getting abused is because QBs are abusing the other DBs since they've been so horrible.

 

[Crononaut]

I've personally seen a lot of improvement from McCourty this year. Obviously he hasn't been perfect, but from what I've seen so far on short to mid-range throws he usually has tight coverage on the receiver and the QB has to make a tight throw. When he HAS been beaten in this area of the field, it's usually because the QB has all day in the pocket (pass rush issue). His tackling after the throw has been very good.

Obviously his biggest weakness has been on longer range throws, where he always seems to be behind the play. Given that a) they're playing a zone coverage and b) he's being coached to play the receiver in these situations unless he's in an advantageous position, you could make an argument that responsibility for any deep throw should be shared with the safeties, and possibly the coaching. IMO by far his most egregious errors have been the DPI's that, coaching or not, he can not make.

I think a lot of people on this board have confirmation bias when it comes to DMC. If you decide to buy an iPhone over an Android, you will naturally seek for reasons to justify your purchase. Because he had a bad year last year, people instantly focus on any mistake he makes as "proof" that he's still terrible. It also doesn't help that good cornerback play, by definition, usually won't be shown on camera unless it's a spectacular play because the QB won't be targeting the covered receiver.

 

[VrabelJr]

You guys watch games through some weird lenses. McCourty played very good in the Baltimore game, he just gave up a bad penalty right at the end.

 

[Jangles]

Yet another clueless fan who has sour grapes over DMCs 2011 year.

Go watch the games and tell me how many times its McCourty getting beat.

It would be easier to count how many time he's not getting beat.

 

[supafly]

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.

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.

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.

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)

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?

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."

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.

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.

 

[patsfan-1982]

McCourty is the best CB on this team but thats not saying much. the fact is he's not a Ty Law type corner he's not going to take away one side of the field he's more of a poor man's Asante Samuel he's a zone corner back that needs a good FS over the top so he can play the ball so way not play him at FS where he can play the ball

 

[VrabelJr]

Cool thing about Sterling Moore is his "it" factor. He seems to make plays.

 

[DarrylS]

The defensive backfield that is anticipated to start today has less than 5 years total NFL experience.. so if you start from that vantage point, it makes no difference how good everyone else is in this team sport.

 

[Ring 6]

McCourty is our best corner. Moving him to safety with Moore getting significant reps as corner is a mistake IMHO.

Dennard and Arrington as corner and nickel are the best we have.

IMHO, Cole is an OK dime back.

CONCLUSION: Let these guys play and get experience working together. Maybe this is a C- set of corners. We were in the Super Bowl with about the same last year. Obviously, offseason upgrades are needed.
================
We have two injured safeties. We can play with two safeties getting all the safety reps. Moore seems to be the least of several weak choices. Clearly, Ebner has been getting some reps, and may get more. As weak as Wilson, Moore and Ebner seem, they too are good as we had last year. And, believe it or not, we will be more improved when Chung or Gregory ar back. In the meantime, let's give Moore (and perhaps Ebner) some reps, instead of greatly weakening the corner position.
================
BOTTOM LINE QUESTION
Where will Moore cause more harm? As our nickel back (behind Dennard and Arrington)? Or as a safety?

I think until Gregory or Chung are back, we have no one else to play safety.
You are the only person I see who considers Moore a safety in any way. The team certainly seems not to.
I agree we are better at corner with McCourty, but we are atrocious at S without him.
Ebner is not an NFL safety.

 

[Joey007]

Cool thing about Sterling Moore is his "it" factor. He seems to make plays.

Thats why I would't mind him sticking around in NE. Can't say the same about Arrington.

 

[Joey007]

I think until Gregory or Chung are back, we have no one else to play safety.
You are the only person I see who considers Moore a safety in any way. The team certainly seems not to.
I agree we are better at corner with McCourty, but we are atrocious at S without him.
Ebner is not an NFL safety.

Thats his issue he rarely played on defense to start with at OSU. So now we should expect Ebner to magically turn into a superstar safety?? People really hyped this kid up a little much in the preseason.