Who's on the left, Cyprien? We certainly could do worse than Rhodes, what a solid player. But if we pass on him in the 1st maybe we'll have a shot at Jonthan Banks in the 2nd rd or Brandon McGee or Sanders Commings later in the draft. I could easily see McGee and Commings becoming starters in the NFL, both have the size, speed and athletic ability to get the job done imo.

 

I'm not going to say that concerns over his ability to play zone are completely unfounded. When you see a guy that hardly played it, it's not necessarily the most natural style or way of playing...so you know it will be a process getting him up to speed. Furthermore, I thought it conspicuous that many people questioned whether he could play sideways like a zone player, and then he avoided the short shuttle and cone drills at the Combine due to "leg cramps", and when he finally ran them at the FSU pro day they were worse than many offensive linemen. The shuttle was a 4.65 which you almost think has to be a misprint. The cone was 7.29. Fortunately in my experience really strange readings like that can often be aberrant, some function of poor technique, a slip, or even potentially the use of the wrong type of cones.

So it's not completely unfounded. However, he's been playing a while at Florida State and he's been a defensive back in high school. He's not new to the position like Sean Smith was. I therefore have a real tough time believing that Florida State played him the way they played him because of limitations. I know that when he first showed up, while most people were awed by Greg Reid, the coaching staff were in awe of Rhodes. I have a hard time thinking the coaches manipulated Rhodes' role in the defense because of limitations. They played him the way they played him for the classic reasons you have Darrelle Revis play the way he plays, or back in the day Nnamdi Asomugha. He had the potential to be a shutdown guy. When you have that, you let him be erase a side of the field, and it gives you more ability to be creative. It's not a decision you make because of limitations, unlike with Sean Smith who was completely new to the defensive side of the football period. With Smith you play him the way you play him because you have a raw receiver who has great athletic gifts and you want to make things simple for him. I don't know why that would be the case with Rhodes.

Watching the Combine videos of Jordan Poyer and Xavier Rhodes right next to one another, I don't see major differences in the way they looked in drills. I consider Poyer to be the archetypal zone specialist of the draft, excepting maybe Johnthan Banks. What I mean is that they both may have athletic limitations but their hips are good and they play instinctively and disciplined in the zone, so they could survive in that scheme potentially. They're specialists. Slap the DB drills right next to each other of Rhodes and Poyer though and you don't see any difference in the way their hips move or how well they move with their hips turned sideways, etc. If anything Rhodes' superior athletic ability shines. And you watch him play trail at Florida State, and pull off his man coverage finding the football, he gives you glimpses of skills that would avail in zone.

I think when you try and over-specialize your board according to systems, you're playing with fire. Systems don't win in the NFL. Talent wins in the NFL. And I'm not convinced that Kevin Coyle wants to be this pure straight up zone defense anyway. Maybe he did this because of Sean Smith's limitations, I don't know, but he certainly gave Sean Smith plenty of chances to be a physically aggressive press corner in Miami. They asked him to disrupt and erase players at times, often very good players, so that they could do some creative things on defense. There's this natural assumption Coyle doesn't want to maintain that flexibility, he only did that because Sean Smith fit the wrong mold...but what's it based on? Where is this coming from? To me, you lose a Sean Smith who was a really good press man corner with length and the ability to physically erase receivers, who would play zone at times and look 'ok' (or worse)...and you replace him with Xavier Rhodes. Done. Rhodes gives you the same things Sean Smith gave you PLUS the upside to potentially be better in zone than Smith was. Lose one, gain a better version. Done.

I dunno, that's how I see it.