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CLICK HERE to Register for a free account and login for a smoother ad-free experience. It's easy, and only takes a few moments.As a Virginia fan, I was surprised when the Pats picked RiD so high. He was good as a junior, and projected to be a good senior, but missed the year with injuries. There was a lot of hope about how good he would be as a senior but he wasn't that consistent as a junior. So I was pleasantly surprised.
The Groh system was the same but Groh and that staff were pretty bad college coaches.
In sum, I wouldn't say that RiD is coming out of Virginia with a preparation advantage, given the poor coaching and missed senior season.
Tough question, depending on the opponent and their personnel I could see Chung getting reps against a TE that is a primary slot receiver.
I could also see Bodden or McCourty shifting inside to play 1:1 against the slot (with some LB help), Ras Dowling or Arrington could play outside with Safety help.
If Ras Dowling turns out to be a player the Patriots have a ton of talent in the secondary.
1st round - McCourty, Merriweather
2nd round - Butler, Chung, Ras Dowling
Plus Bodden, Sanders
The two realistic options that I see are Bodden and Dowling with McCourty in the slot and McCourty and Bodden with Arrington in the slot.
That's what I was thinking, although perhaps with a gentler word than "realistic", in that I haven't given up all hope for the alternatives.
Anyhow, I imagine BB hopes his three best corners will be McCourty, Bodden, and Dowling, and of the three, McCourty would go to the slot.
The Key word here is MATCHUPS, and that is a week to week thing. I think if we do we will have to take care to try an NOT create hard and fast labels for the players, because they all bring certain skill sets to the table. A series of skill sets that we haven't seen in this kind of Depth for a long time.
That being said. If we were looking at the slot CB position as the guy who is likely to cover the Wes Welker type WR, then I'm looking for Butler to be the guy. He has all the skills and in a "matchup" situation I think he will thrive in that role. Most of Butler's problems, IMHO, came when he was matched up against bigger stronger WRs like Braylon Edwards. He doesn't play physical enough, at least to date, to effectively cover those guys. HOWEVER, if you can match him up on a smaller less physical guy, he SHOULD do a lot better.
Dowling, Boddin, and McCourty should be your outside the hash CBs. However when you get a team that puts a "bigger" WR in the slot, like Miami does at times with Marshall, the Dowling would be the obvious choice.
People are writing off Butler much too quickly. Too often last season he was asked to do what he physically wasn't capable of doing. Now the Pats are deep enough in the secondary, adding Boddin and Dowling to the mix, so that you can "matchup" Butler against people he CAN cover.
Also, the Pats are perhaps a bit lucky with this lockout thing, since 3 of their top 4 picks play positions that are among the easiest to play right out of the box, in CB and RB
Thanks for the thread
McCourty? The guy that looks to be our future shutdown corner would go play the slot?
Wtf are you smoking?
It's like the Jets moving Revis to cover the slot man and leaving Andre Johnson alone.
McCourty stays where the **** he is at and battling opposing #1's.
In other years I would have suggested Dowling as the slot corner.
One things for certain....i don't want Chung or Butler doing it.
Arrington could be decent in there,a better fit than he was at outside. Maybe even Bodden with Dowling on the outside?
We're loaded at DB...it will be interesting to see how this will work out.