Pats sign Chevis Jackson

[patchick]

I thought one of the qualifications for our free safety was sideline-to-sideline speed, the one thing these (admittedly sketchy) scouting reports say he doesn't possess? Thus why our FS's tend to be bonafide corners (Eugene Wilson, Artrell Hawkins) or guys with enough recovery speed to be "eligible" for a position switch (Meriweather). Most of Jackson's workout numbers cluster around 4.6, correct?

I'm not sure where you're getting that...the Pats' safeties aren't notably speedy. In descending order:

Brandon Meriweather 4.47
Sergio Brown 4.49
Patrick Chung 4.49
Chevis Jackson 4.52
Jarrad Page 4.63
James Sanders 4.65

Or maybe three years of NFL conditioning has improved his stride and he ran a 4.47 in his Pats workout so he's going to be our Ed Reed.

psst...Ed Reed ran a 4.57

 

[unoriginal]

Jarrad Page 4.63
James Sanders 4.65

These two guys aren't free safeties.

Specifically I'm recalling draft articles from around 2007 when the Pats picked up Meriweather, regarding why Eugene Wilson had been so important to this defense at FS and how injuries robbed him of most of his speed. If you'll recall his last year here the Pats mostly played him in sub-packages in short zones, like when he got that pick six against the Jets.

Anyways, because Meriweather had "recovery" speed, like Eugene Wilson once did, he was going to walk into the Pats free safety spot and allow the corners to be more aggressive with their zone trapping. Most of the Pats picks, especially McCourty's, come when the underneath defender undercuts the route because he's got a safety over top, either Meriweather in that Cover 5 trap or Meriweather/Sanders in a Cover 2.