Quote
Deadpool
Thats not how it works.
Press man CBs have 1 responsibility, disrupt and stay attached to their WR. Zone is to cover a spot. Press guys need to be physical, with oily hips to turn and run and long speed to stay in-step with burner WRs. Zone guys can be less athletic because they are usually facing the action. Their long speed is also not quite important due to the cushion given WRs. Its still important.
The main differences are how CBs see the play. Zone CBs need to be able to anticipate routes, understand what the WRs (not just one) are doing in front of him and also they have to be able to hand off WRs from their zone to the guy in the next zone or take a guy coming into his zone. There is also vastly different technique from press man to zone. Some are just more comfortable doing press technique than zone or vice virsa.
And some just prefer one coverage over the other, or feel more comfortable in one or the other. Its like picking chocolate or vanilla ice cream. Some just prefer vanilla even though there is nothing wrong with chocolate and they would be happy with chocolate. Its if they had their choice, they choose vanilla.
This is basically where I am going with this... Off-Man/Zone corners need to be a bit more cerebral but still very athletic. It's this way for the CBx and Safties in this type of coverage. I am assuming that this is the defense the Rams want to play as they have drafted and signed FA defensive backs that fit that scheme. I think in a previous reply that I mentioned that if the Rams want to move more towards Press-Man coverage (which is more than fine with me), then they will need to have a least one really fast, rangy safety on the field at all times and they don't have that now. For the most part, Kinchens and Curl are more like box safties who end up with interceptions because they end up being in the right place (of the zone coverage) at the right time. Neither of them really has the althleti make-up to be that rangy safety. There are a few fast rangy safties in the draft, but even a kid, like the one from Oregon has mostly played closer to the LOS.
So, if the Rams want to play more press coverage and get away from the off-man zone coverage, then they likely need 2 new starting CBs with the body type, aggression and skill set to play tight up man coverage AND a new starting safety who is rangy enough to cover for them when they do get beat quickly off the LOS. Rams have been the "bend but don't break" style of defense for years. A change of style to the defensive backfield means a signficant change in personnel. I'm all for it if they can find the right guys, right now, that will force the QB to hold the ball for an extra 3/10 of a second which would allow our pass rush to get home more often.
