I hope the experts whose job is on the line are better at evaluating talent than you, which I suspect they are but lord knows they've all made mistakes before. I think Corey will mature into a great corner myself, he has the perfect personality and all of the physical attributes. We need to rememeber that all corners get burned a few times, even Neon and Hayes and Haynes and Bailey, etc. With Gay having played as well as he has, I'd suspect CW and TD will be good ones as well, althought Randall may be a little faster than those two.
Well, IMO, 7 tackles is a pretty good game for a linebacker or defensive end, but if you're a DB, 7 tackles usually means one of two things: 1.) You let your man make too many catches 2.) Your defensive line and linebackers aren't stopping the run within 5 yards and you and your team are getting pounded by the running game. Either way, neither situation is optimal. A good game for a DB is ZERO tackles with a few pass breakups and perhaps an INT--a true sign of a "shut down corner".
From what I've noticed thru the years is that rookie CB's are very much like rookie WR's in that it usually takes them 1-2 seasons to really make an impact (Randall Gay and Michael Clayton are two exceptions). Some rookie WR's that are used to being dominant in college and are accostomed to blowing off the line of scrimmage and out-playing opposing CB's tend to get frustrated by not being able to do the same thing. They also tend to have problems adjusting their routes on "hot routes" properly. And on the other side, rookie CB's, who were "shut-down corners" in college, have a hard time "letting go" of previous plays where they might have been burned deep. It's more of a confidence thing than anything else.
So by this analogy, I can assume that based on this you think that.... 1. Laron Landry sucks, because he can't stop anybody from catching the ball since he has led the Tigers in tackles two years in a row. 2. or the rest of our defense sucks, because they didn't stop anyone, and he had to make all the tackles. In either instance, you would be wrong, since 1. Landry is one of, if not the, best safety in college football. and 2. The Tigers defense has been top 5 for the last two seasons. Now if Webster's seven tackles were all diving at a guys feet to save a touchdown because he just got burned 40 yards down the field, then you say not such a good game. But there are many coverages that are designed to let the receivers have the underneath pass, a GOOD DB, is just supposed to be on him immediately to prevent big gains. If you saw the play he made on STeve Smith, you would understand.
-------------TKL---AST----COMB---SACK/YRDS--IN---PD--FF--FR C.Webster----4-----0-------4--------0-----0----0----0---1---1
CB tackles are way overrated.. If Webster lets his man score 4 times... he also could have 0 tackles.. so the stats are misleading...
Perhaps I should have specified "corner backs". Obviously, safeties aren't in man coverage the majority of the time--except for the SS on a TE, or in multiple WR sets every so often. But for the most part, safeties are free to roam in the secondary and to aide in stopping the run. Unless Corey had 6 tackles near the line of scrimmage, against running backs, then, no, I still don't think that's a "good" game. And I don't know, I didn't watch the game, but if CW DID have 4 of those tackles near the line of scrimmage by adding run support, then the opposing QB didn't do too well checking off and going to play-action enough, to keep the corner's honest. So, for either of your instances, my post didn't apply. I don't know about you, but in my playing days in high school I played SS and some CB and at the end of the game, the fewer tackles vs WR's I had, the better I felt because that meant that perhaps I covered my man well enough to force the QB to look elsewhere, or perhaps the WR I guarded in that situation just stunk and they had no plans to throw to him anyways. By the way, what's with you jumping all over me, going on a tangent, taking what I said about Webster's play, and using it to imply that I think Landry stinks?? Put down the purple and gold glasses for 5 seconds, and look at things a little less biased, will ya? Don't know where you're from, pal, but where I'm from, I have the right to voice my own opinion about a subject--especially when I provide reasons for why I came to that opinion. NEWS FLASH: NOT EVER FORMER TIGER PLAYER IS GOING TO BE A GREAT NFL PLAYER SIMPLY BECAUSE THEY CAME FROM LSU. At this point, all we know is that Corey Webster was a GREAT college CB. Last I checked, that doesn't mean squat at the next level. Do I like Webster? Absolutely! I think he's a very talented player, and I'm thrilled that he spent 4 years playing at LSU and I'm thankful for all that he has done both on the field as a player, helping out the team that I care about reach National prominance, and for what he's done off the field representing LSU. But by no means does that force me to feel that I can't be a little critical--God knows the Giants front office is more critical than me, so why the concern over what I say?
