An Alternate Cornerback Suggestion

[mhead66]

Yet another discussion on the DB situation - but with a twist:

Here's one I was thinking - please don't attack me (too much ), as I'm just thinking out loud.

Both Tommy Zbikowski and Haruki Nakamura are better backups, as safeties, than Walker, Carr or Webb (at this stage in his career) are as cornerbacks. Ed Reed is the most gifted defensive back the Ravens have. So...

What about playing Reed as the 3rd corner on passing downs - especially in the Red Zone or on 3rd downs, and putting Zbik or Naka in as safety. Five DBs, of Fox, Fab, Reed, Zbik & Landry.

At least you'd have more talent in the defensive backfield at once.

Just a suggestion?

[Mick0311]

It's hard to predict how that would turn out. What I'm afraid would happen is the other QB would see two things; one, don't throw to the dude Reed is covering, and two, feel free to throw to any of the other guys because now I don't have to worry about Reed. I honestly think that even though Reed is not putting up the numbers and plays that we love, he is tremendously effective at dictating where the ball will not go. You always hear QBs and coaches say, "you had better account for where Reed is before you throw it", and I think this option negates that advantage.

[SaVaGe]

Reed isn't a shutdown guy in man to man he is much better when he plays zones to be honest. We would actually hurt us even more bringing him up even though Naka is a beast.

[AlaskanRavensFan]

I'm not sure about Reed as a CB either, but I wouldn't mind seeing Zbikowski or Nakamura instead of Landry. I really like Landry's hitting ability, but he is a real liability in coverage. He has shown that he is extremely slow and is unable to chase anyone down or close quickly enough on plays in front of him.

I think if we have Webb at Nickel with Foxworth and Fabian. That will help a little bit. The trick is that the corners absolutely have to help in run support. They have been terrible at that this year, with the exception of a few good plays. The corners inablity to run support caused us to run Cover 4 a number of times in the Vikings game. One of the times we ran that was the play that Walker got beat in the 4th quarter. That's why he had no safety help because Ed and Dawan were held by the play action on the play.

I think we just need our corners to play better. They are both exceptionally fast, which should allow them to recover and actually outrun most of the recievers they play. They just need to play better technique because we don't have anyone better on this roster than them.

[XxSizzleXx]

I brought this up in another thread, how about throwing in Nakamura at nickel for Carr to see how he does.

[52Kia Kaha92]

its a good thought, nut no. Reed is a great FS beacuse he can take away one side of the field. If we stick him man to man it only takes out one player and he is better when he relies on instincts.

Good thought though. i would actually like to see Nakamura in nickel packages as he played some of that last year i remember and did a great job.

[MKdave]

I don't like Ed Reed at corner. He's not got the pure speed to play corner (anymore), and he probably doesn't know the technique of playing cornerback. And by putting him at corner we're taking away his greatest asset: reading the quarterback. At corner he's not looking at the quarterback; he's looking at the reciever, most likely streaking away from him, or towering over him. It's just a bad fit all round.

[PSU RAVEN]

How about one of our taller WRs who can't seem to consistently get any playing time?
i.e. Demetrius Williams as a CB??
The pats did this WR/CB thing with Troy Brown a few years ago.

[macbrak]

I think this all falls under a false assumption that our cbs are so bad someone who never plays it can do better.

Its bad but still a couple plays/penalties a game from being passing.

[PSU RAVEN]

I meant use a taller WR as a replacement for Carr. IMO he is really a KR who looks like he has no business being out there as a DB/CB

[RavensClaw52]

I would like to see Naka eventually take Landrys place and go with Webb as nickel.

[Ravnet]

This is never going to happen as Reed is a gamechanger at safety, and moving him at age 30 would be a bit puzzling.

I don't think Ed is physical enough anyway.

[BMOREHAWAII]

I dont see Haruki or Zbi having enough speed and man to man coverage potential to play CB. Id seriously give Webb a shot at CB with Fox and Washington playing for the other CB position. Landry has so much potential but i think he has flashbacks of Jamal Lewis whenever he has someone running up the gut towards him. Id start Zbi because he has a strong motor and good zone coverage, also his tackling isnt as strong as Landrys but he'd do whatever it takes to make a play.

[Mediclocal]

Heres another idea, what if we signed K.J Gerard up from practice squad. I watched him in Training Camp and he showed alot of speed and Flash plus he is 6'-1". He must have showed something in order to get signed to the practice squad, his college stats are very good (232 tackles (165 solo), 24.5 TFL (-96 yards), 4 sacks (-49 yards), 4 FFs, 33 PD, and a school-record 19 INTs) I know a rookie doesnt seem like a sustainable option but we are limited in free agency and trades are out of the question for the year. I would feel hesitant to hold just 4 CBs for the rest of the season, 1 injury away from disaster with 10 games remaining. He could take reps @ nickle and dime to see how he fits into the lineup and im sure he could be a special teams contributer.....just a thought.. . .. ... . im not a big fan of position rotations like FS-CB, it just leads to miss reads and mistakes

[BuckWilds]

No one has mentioned the obvious option: Bionics! Bye weeks are made for implanting bionic upgrades.

But yeah, I'm curious what Webb can do. Moving the safeties to CB is a stretch, due to the different necessary skill sets. I just don't think anyone would dare do that to Ed anyway. Imagine the outcry across the sports news hubs...

[Ed_Reed_Pick_Six]

Getting to the point where Webb needs to be in there, I mean unless we are gonna improve greatly we might as well have a rookie in there learning from the mistakes...

[ravensfan160]

[quote name='RavensClaw52' date='24 October 2009 - 01:32 PM' timestamp='1256405565' post='265670']
I would like to see Naka eventually take Landrys place and go with Webb as nickel.
[/quote]
Me too. Nakamura is supposed to be a ballhawk. If teams are locating Reed and throwing away from him then putting another ballhawk on the other side should help a lot.

[MKdave]

[quote name='ravensfan160' date='26 October 2009 - 05:09 PM' timestamp='1256576954' post='266383']
Me too. Nakamura is supposed to be a ballhawk. If teams are locating Reed and throwing away from him then putting another ballhawk on the other side should help a lot.
[/quote]

But then we've got a couple of sub-200 pound guys at safety, and I don't think front 7 is stout enough to deal with that anymore.

[ravensfan160]

[quote name='MKdave' date='26 October 2009 - 01:20 PM' timestamp='1256577609' post='266388']
But then we've got a couple of sub-200 pound guys at safety, and I don't think front 7 is stout enough to deal with that anymore.
[/quote]
Nakamura is no smaller than Leonard was last year. Size isn't everything. Look at Bob Sanders. He's one of the smallest players in the league and a beast against the run (when he's healthy that is).

Besides, I have more faith in our front 7 getting it together against the run than I do our secondary getting it together against the pass without changing it up a little.

[I AM LEGEND]

[quote name='ravensfan160' date='26 October 2009 - 01:09 PM' timestamp='1256576954' post='266383']
Me too. Nakamura is supposed to be a ballhawk. If teams are locating Reed and throwing away from him then putting another ballhawk on the other side should help a lot.
[/quote]

oh God no

if that's true..and Naka is suppose to be a "ballhawk" like reed...the combination of him and Reed trying to guess what the QB is going to do would be a living nightmare with our current CB situation

[flygunit88]

that would just be a ugly situation...he is not physical enough, he is much better suited to sit back in a zone and survey the field...instead i would rather have 3 people shut down than 1...

[ravensfan160]

[quote name='I AM LEGEND' date='26 October 2009 - 01:30 PM' timestamp='1256578212' post='266394']
oh God no

if that's true..and Naka is suppose to be a "ballhawk" like reed...the combination of him and Reed trying to guess what the QB is going to do would be a living nightmare with our current CB situation
[/quote]
At least we might get a pick or two. Right now Landry is all over the place doing a whole lot of nothing. haha

[FerrariFan87]

[quote name='XxSizzleXx' date='24 October 2009 - 02:01 AM' timestamp='1256364087' post='265561']
I brought this up in another thread, how about throwing in Nakamura at nickel for Carr to see how he does.
[/quote]

Has everyone forgotten about our rookie CB, Lardarius Webb? He should be the one getting playing time at Nickel over Carr...

[I AM LEGEND]

[quote name='ravensfan160' date='26 October 2009 - 01:31 PM' timestamp='1256578314' post='266397']
At least we might get a pick or two. Right now Landry is all over the place doing a whole lot of nothing. haha
[/quote]

or

we could get fabien and foxworth matched up 1 on 1 with the likes of Reggie wanye,Marshall,holmes,Jennings,ocho

and the thought of that makes me sick

[MKdave]

[quote name='ravensfan160' date='26 October 2009 - 05:26 PM' timestamp='1256577970' post='266393']
Nakamura is no smaller than Leonard was last year. Size isn't everything. Look at Bob Sanders. He's one of the smallest players in the league and a beast against the run (when he's healthy that is).

Besides, I have more faith in our front 7 getting it together against the run than I do our secondary getting it together against the pass without changing it up a little.
[/quote]

That's true, but Sanders is so well built for a 5'8" guy. He's over 200 pounds I'm sure. Like Rice, he's only 5'8" but he's stocky so he can use that low centre of gravity to get great leverage, as Sanders does. Leonhard was an anomaly. He was like 180 or something, and still great against the run. But the thing with Leonhard, toughness was his master status. Nakamura is a coverage safety. I don't think he has that kind of toughness to throw himself around in the box. I was wrong about him though, he's actually more than 200 pounds. I couldn't believe it. Whenever I've seen him he looks so slender.

[WinnipegRaven]

[quote name='XxSizzleXx' date='24 October 2009 - 12:01 AM' timestamp='1256364087' post='265561']
I brought this up in another thread, how about throwing in Nakamura at nickel for Carr to see how he does.
[/quote]
Couldn't do any worse

[ravensfan160]

I'm up for just about anything. Just change something and see how it works. Can't be any worse than how we've performed the first 6 weeks.

[cityboy02]

[quote name='PSU RAVEN' date='24 October 2009 - 09:07 AM' timestamp='1256389634' post='265590']
How about one of our taller WRs who can't seem to consistently get any playing time?
i.e. Demetrius Williams as a CB??
The pats did this WR/CB thing with Troy Brown a few years ago.
[/quote]
I think that's a pretty good idea

[1defense]

I believe that Landry is fine where he is but they need to do something with Foxworthy he is the one that has been the opposing teams whipping boy this year. [img]http://boards.baltimoreravens.com/public/style_emoticons/default/flamethrower.gif[/img]

[tweety]

I dont believe Webb will make much more of a difference at nickel or Naki will help the secondary more than Landry. Shuffling players around won't solve secondary issues. However try them out a few plays a game and observing there consistency is a lower risk. Im confident we have have the starting roster right, its the plays im less confident in.

Certainly putting zone players in man situations isnt smart. I do have concerns with Landrys security.