Welp there goes a waste of good potential for our starting safety. I wonder if they will ever put him back to safety after this year. Now we'll surely waste another first rounder. I don't think putting Allen at CB long-term is much of a difference-maker.
Good for Antonio Allen, more money can be made as a cornerback than as a safety and the versatility he now has heading towards his looming free agency only helps his cause to get a nice contract after being a 7th round pick. Allen is facing some great WRs to start his CB career, its only going to get easier after Megatron this week. That's the way I see it, especially if Dey. Thomas still isn't 100% 2 weeks from now. EDIT: Cool we got him 1 more year, still think the fact he can play 2 positions can only help his cause towards getting himself a decent enough deal.
Money wise it's great for Allen, but I think Allen could make some good money being a play-maker at SS also. Team-wise I don't think it's a great idea. Another season of Dawan Landry as a starting safety is pretty underwhelming if you ask me.
Its a young secondary with Calvin Pryor as a rookie and Darrin Walls/Dee Milliner being the other CB so they want the vet experience back there and Dawan Landry outside of letting Forte carry him for a 1st down has not humiliated himself thus far. He was arguably the best player on the defense vs Oakland. Of course Julius Thomas and the two headed SD TE monster looms that could destroy Landry but 3 games in and he hasn't been too bad.
I don't like the decision, by why do you think this means "We'll surely waste another first round pick"? I'm assuming we'll let Wilson walk, and McDougle will probably take his spot in the slot.
Not right now. As soon as Milliner comes back, I was hoping Allen would go back to SS and we would have Milliner and Walls out there and Landry as our 3rd safety. Landry has been ineffective when he's been outside of the box. I think that's pretty obvious - he's awful in coverage. Those TEs are going to kill us with Landry out there, he's a liability. Sure he knows the playbook but eventually you got to let the young guys make the mistakes. Landry has been making mistakes in regards to coverage. If Allen stays at CB for good, they need another safety. More than likely they put Pryor to SS and grab another cover safety. Could be a first rounder, I mean look at the times we drafted D-Line back to back. Wilkerson and Coples. Milliner, Allen and McDougle at the CB spots, Pryor and ??? at the Safety spots.
I don't mind Allen at CB so much. I know he's been beat a bunch of times but he has room to improve with experience and he's a very good tackler for the most part when he allows a catch. I actually find it pretty amazing at how well he done in coverage given the fact that he's a converted LB/S. Hopefully he can improve on some of his coverage weaknesses and allow fewer catches. Of course, teams will also begin to attempt to identify and exploit his weaknesses now that he's putting CB film out there. It will be interesting to see how he progresses.
The Jets have no option. Landry organizes the secondary, if Allen replaces him that is lost. The question is really who do the Jets start, Walls and have a young guy quarterback the secondary or Landry? Is walls that much of an upgrade over Landry? I hope to see Allen back at SS at some point but this season it might be best to have some experience back there.
I don't understand why this has to be the definitive answer for AA. Why do we have to declare him one position and especially for the rest of the year? He's a versatile player so it only seems fitting to move him all over the field to cover different guys specifically big time tightends when we're playing man across the board.
That's my problem with it. He has several skill-sets how do you not take advantage of that? It'll be interesting to see when we play the Patriots this year. That's why I said it's wasted potential. Allen is sufficient at CB for the moment, but when Milliner comes back I expected him to go right back to SS where he belongs and should continue his progression.
I doubt they are committing to one position at the risk of reducing scheme versatility, Thurman probably just stated the current plan; leaving him at CB.
It was him or Walls, I guess they like his tackling ability better or something. that CB experiment is working out about as well as one could reasonably expect, really… hopefully Allen gives a definitive answer as to wether or not he can work out as a CB for the long term this season. We need answers going into the offseason, what are we doing at secondary?
Our secondary is such a mess right now, it's hard to tell how things are gonna shake out. Too many moving parts and unknowns. This season has made me really sour on Milliner as a long term starting CB. The guy just cannot keep healthy, constantly dinged up somewhere going all the way back to college. Then he comes back still not 100% or rusty, and sucks. I mean, this is not good for the team. Good teams need consistency, and when your starting CB is always an uncertainty, ... Likewise, I have serious doubts about McDougle now. One major college injury and some off the field stuff is one thing, but back to back season ending injuries + all that other stuff might very well mean that he s not just built for the NFL. We counted on those guys this season and it blew up in our face. We can't make the same mistake next offseason. So with that said, I am all for AA staying at cornerback. To me, right now, he is an average NFL corner or maybe a bit below that, but not terrible. He doesnt have much experience at the position, got thrown into the fire, and had to face some of the best WRs in the NFL right off the bat, often without help. So yeah he got burned a bunch of times, but he also made some nice tackles and defensed some passes. Maybe with more experience he will get a little better. Not expecting him to ever be a great corner, but if he can just be average that would be an upgrade for us at this point. The other reason is, what are we losing by this? A strong safety is not a super important position for our team, because our front seven is so good against the run. Landry can do the job there. Yeah AA had that pick against Gronk, but let's face it, Gronk also caught the ball on him quite a bit. Also, at this point, we really don't know how Pryor is gonna work out as a free safety. Let's hope he does, but we just dont know. If he doesnt, they will probably make him the SS, and AA will be a backup again.
If he ever returns to playing safety - a year of refining his coverage skills playing CB can only increase his value to our defense going forward.
For the most part our secondary play hasn't been the problem. I don't understand why people keep acting like they're doing a terrible job especially considering our #1 is our starting safety and our #2 is Walls someone few people had confidence thing. It's not even really an "all things considered" thing, the unit has been solid without the all things considered agenda. You can't take away big plays but they've really had two bad drives (GB at the end of the half and Chicago to start the 2nd half) and a couple of big plays. That's very formidable for a unit let alone a unit many considered to be the worst in the league.
Most cornerbacks just have to tackle well and grab the occasional bad pass or tipped ball. They are going to get beat out there. The keys do not get beat deep, tackle well, and keep your eyes open
Just because Allen starts outside doesn't mean that he can't move around against the spread and cover a TE who is a threat when split or in the slot. Against Denver in a 6 DB package on an obvious passing down you could easily see Milliner on Emmanuel Sanders, Walls and Pryor on Demaryius Thomas, Allen on Julius Thomas, Wilson on Wes Welker and Landry setting up just outside the box to keep an eye on everything and make sure Welker goes down before he reaches the 1st down marker.
he probably needs to spend as much time as possible with the corners leaving no time for safety practices, meetings and film
