H
HardRightEdge
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Free Safety: Randall at his natural position; shows good instincts when facing the play; not so hot with his back to it.
Slot: Hyde will probably be gone in FA, and that's probably as it should be. While assignment-sure and a reasonably good tackler, he lacks the necessary quickness. Time and again we see him trailing on short routes, making a nice tackle, but after the yards have been surrendered. Make Dix the slot/safety swing man as has been Hyde's role. He has the short area quickness to defend some of these underneath passes and is a decent tackler. He looks better the closer to the line of scrimmage he gets. He's not more than an adequate free safety. Yeah, he's assignment sure in that teams don't throw much at him when he's in high double coverage, but when he's in single-high he just doesn't seem to be instinctive enough to be where the ball is thrown very often.
Strong Safety: Burnett, as has been his typical role, in the last year of his contract.
Perimeter Corner: It's hard to pay good money for two of them, especially with the Packers cap situation; Shields is taking up that cap. You need an adequate guy on a cheap rookie deal. Goodson/Rollins should be able to fill that #2 role. But the Packers would need to go back to having the perimeter guys switch sides as the match-ups dictate, rather than giving the offense that option. For a DC that favors unpredictability and confusion, I fail to understand Capers using fixed corners instead of match up corners. That's about as predictable as you can get.
Now, Shields' future may or may not be in doubt. Clearly, you don't put a top player on IR that early in the the season with a concussion if there are not serious concerns. Unless there is high probability that he can return to health by free agency/draft time, while admitting that "high probability" is hard to envision, I think the new GM
eek or the old GM under the new DC's (
) persuasion, should be looking at a FA replacement or a first round cover corner with that top 15 pick. ()
Shields' contract calls for $3.12 mil in dead cap if released before 2017, but would yield $9 mil in cap savings.
Shields does not strike me as the kind of guy who would retire as a precaution; if the headaches and blurred vision are not going away that's another matter.
Slot: Hyde will probably be gone in FA, and that's probably as it should be. While assignment-sure and a reasonably good tackler, he lacks the necessary quickness. Time and again we see him trailing on short routes, making a nice tackle, but after the yards have been surrendered. Make Dix the slot/safety swing man as has been Hyde's role. He has the short area quickness to defend some of these underneath passes and is a decent tackler. He looks better the closer to the line of scrimmage he gets. He's not more than an adequate free safety. Yeah, he's assignment sure in that teams don't throw much at him when he's in high double coverage, but when he's in single-high he just doesn't seem to be instinctive enough to be where the ball is thrown very often.
Strong Safety: Burnett, as has been his typical role, in the last year of his contract.
Perimeter Corner: It's hard to pay good money for two of them, especially with the Packers cap situation; Shields is taking up that cap. You need an adequate guy on a cheap rookie deal. Goodson/Rollins should be able to fill that #2 role. But the Packers would need to go back to having the perimeter guys switch sides as the match-ups dictate, rather than giving the offense that option. For a DC that favors unpredictability and confusion, I fail to understand Capers using fixed corners instead of match up corners. That's about as predictable as you can get.
Now, Shields' future may or may not be in doubt. Clearly, you don't put a top player on IR that early in the the season with a concussion if there are not serious concerns. Unless there is high probability that he can return to health by free agency/draft time, while admitting that "high probability" is hard to envision, I think the new GM
eek or the old GM under the new DC's () persuasion, should be looking at a FA replacement or a first round cover corner with that top 15 pick. ()Shields' contract calls for $3.12 mil in dead cap if released before 2017, but would yield $9 mil in cap savings.
Shields does not strike me as the kind of guy who would retire as a precaution; if the headaches and blurred vision are not going away that's another matter.
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