2019 Saints Secondary and Forward

[Mid Iowa]

5 minutes ago, Dome said:

Now this I 100% agree with

Lattimore’s development makes me nervous.

Or lack thereof, right? Basically a regression. I wish we could have gotten Ohio's DB coach when he left Ohio. Oh well.

I'll ease my tone a bit with Lattimore as I feel defensive players can have the "Sophomore slump" too, and everyone has film on him now, but something is amiss. 

[Mid Iowa]

3 hours ago, Jlowe22 said:

I read just enough of that argument to know I don't want to read any more.

Can't blame ya there. Kind of a sh*t show, eh? Ooops.

[navysaintsfan]

On 12/23/2018 at 3:57 PM, Dome said:

Now this I 100% agree with

Lattimore’s development makes me nervous.

I don't know if you guys have noticed, but we have played a TON more zone coverage this year. Lattimore seems to be decent in zone. But I have noticed almost across the board that there seems to be some issues when passing off a WR coming through the zones. I've seen it a lot with Latt, where he lets the WR move off through the zone as though he knows there is someone over the top and the Safety (or whoever) is not there. I've seen other CBs do it too, but a lot more with Latt.

On a different note, there is a guy we bashed at the beginning of the year that has made absolute strides since (IMO) undeservingly winning DPOW. PJ Williams, while not being a shutdown guy, has improved dramatically since the addition of Eli Apple. Yes, I know Apple is covering the #2s now, but before it didn't matter who Williams was covering...that is who you targeted. He's no longer giving up big play after big play. In fact he has looked very good since playing mostly in Nickel. Lots of PBUs and great open field tackles. He deserves a bit of a pat on the back.

[Mid Iowa]

3 hours ago, navysaintsfan said:

I don't know if you guys have noticed, but we have played a TON more zone coverage this year. Lattimore seems to be decent in zone. But I have noticed almost across the board that there seems to be some issues when passing off a WR coming through the zones. I've seen it a lot with Latt, where he lets the WR move off through the zone as though he knows there is someone over the top and the Safety (or whoever) is not there. I've seen other CBs do it too, but a lot more with Latt.

I've noticed the "pass offs" have been clunky, at best. Almost cost us the game to the Steelers. I guess I haven't been paying attention to the zone vs. man coverage. What do you think the deal is? Are we needing more double teams so we go zone to keep from getting torched? Or is this buying our front 7 more time to identify and get pressure?

3 hours ago, navysaintsfan said:

On a different note, there is a guy we bashed at the beginning of the year that has made absolute strides since (IMO) undeservingly winning DPOW. PJ Williams, while not being a shutdown guy, has improved dramatically since the addition of Eli Apple. Yes, I know Apple is covering the #2s now, but before it didn't matter who Williams was covering...that is who you targeted. He's no longer giving up big play after big play. In fact he has looked very good since playing mostly in Nickel. Lots of PBUs and great open field tackles. He deserves a bit of a pat on the back.

PJ is doing a really good job. Just because he can't play #1 or 2 doesn't mean he's not good, right (as you've said)?
I wonder if he's playing better now that the pressure is off, and he can take longer to make the big decision rather than having to react so quickly. Either way, he's looking dramatically better.

I hope we make some coaching changes to improve our secondary. We've got a great corps back there that could be near the best in the league. If we can do that, this team will be virtually unstoppable.

[Destructo Spin]

I've heard some people say they felt like Lattimore came in this season being a little too happy with himself and maybe hadn't been working as hard. Wouldn't surprise me, sophomore slump is a real thing, but he hasn't been bad either. Aside from getting lit up by Antonio Brown he's been really, really good the last 2 months. Not quite what he was his rookie year but still very good. Now it's the playoffs and he's got some big-game experience from last year. I think he's going to take it up a notch and be that guy again.

As for PJ Williams I've always been a fan of his and thought he got a raw deal from fans in a lot of ways. People were talking about him like he was Jason David or something, but even in that one terrible game against the Falcons, he was always right there with tight coverage. Sometimes you can play it perfectly as a DB and still get beat by a hot QB and WR and that was exactly what happened to PJ.

I'm even more impressed at his bounceback because he's doing it at nickel which is not his natural position. He's more of an outside guy who needs the boundary for help. His scouting reports in his draft year even said he would be better suited to play free safety. But he's done a really good job manning up against some inside WRs and TEs. And I love his aggressiveness and tackling. Those little passes at the line of scrimmage with the secondary giving cushion where the WR slips a tackle and gets a first down.....not happening. When PJ makes a tackle, the guy goes down, period.

[Mid Iowa]

On 1/4/2019 at 1:39 AM, Destructo Spin said:

As for PJ Williams I've always been a fan of his and thought he got a raw deal from fans in a lot of ways. People were talking about him like he was Jason David or something, but even in that one terrible game against the Falcons, he was always right there with tight coverage. Sometimes you can play it perfectly as a DB and still get beat by a hot QB and WR and that was exactly what happened to PJ.

I'm even more impressed at his bounceback because he's doing it at nickel which is not his natural position. He's more of an outside guy who needs the boundary for help. His scouting reports in his draft year even said he would be better suited to play free safety. But he's done a really good job manning up against some inside WRs and TEs. And I love his aggressiveness and tackling. Those little passes at the line of scrimmage with the secondary giving cushion where the WR slips a tackle and gets a first down.....not happening. When PJ makes a tackle, the guy goes down, period.

I've also been impressed with PJ, once they transitioned him to nickle. He was horrible playing man as a primary CB. Nobody could suck for us as bad as Jason David.

I'm looking forward to seeing what Latt and Apple come up with now that they're getting a chance to rest, and collaborate. You can cover a lot of ground with an extra week of work and film!