Eskimos CB doesn’t fit new mould
Experience, speed gets Burnett play
Joe Burnett doesn’t fit the mould of the typical defensive back the Edmonton Eskimos recruited this year.
At five-foot-10, he is anything but big and tall. In fact, he’s the shortest defensive back in training camp.
But that doesn’t mean the third-year veteran feels like he’s at a disadvantage.
“As far as the height goes, we all have to play football,” he said. “We do have a lot of taller guys here this camp. This whole team is new. But I’ve been in this league a couple of years. You just come into camp ready to work and prepare yourself,
“My approach is still the same this camp. If you’re going to survive, you’ve got to go out and work each and every day and just play well. I still attack the moment, fly around and have fun.
“No matter the size, you’ve got to work.”
Burnett, 27, said no one is going to out-work him. He also uses his quickness and takes advantage of the experience he gained from playing cornerback on both the short and wide sides of the field the past two seasons, plus his time in the NFL. (He played 15 games with the Pittsburgh Steelers in 2009.)
“My job is to show up on tape each and every day,” he said, about the recorded training camp sessions at Commonwealth Stadium.
“It’s one of those deals where the best players play, regardless of what your height is,” said Eskimos head coach Chris Jones. “D.A. (Dwight Anderson) wasn’t very tall either, so he played wide-field corner and did pretty good for me for a few years down in Calgary.”
Jones admitted that Burnett is comparable to Anderson.
“He’s that type. He’s certainly got good instincts and a good understanding on how to play and tremendous ball skills,” Jones said.
Burnett led the Canadian Football League with six interceptions in addition to a team-high seven passes knocked down while playing the wide side of the field during his rookie season, but only managed one pick in 16 games last year while working on the short side.
He said some of that was the nature of the two positions, where a defensive back can bait the opposing quarterback more on the wide side, but there’s a lot more room to cover.
“Over in the boundary (short side), you have to be zoned in, locked in a lot quicker.
“The ball comes out quicker. You don’t get as many opportunities if you’re on your ‘A’ game, but it’s a lot quicker on the boundary than on the field (wide),” Burnett said.
Also, the Eskimos asked him to play bump-and-run coverage last year in an attempt to take away the option for the QB to throw to his side.
“I didn’t see as many balls as I did the previous year,” he admits.
Burnett doesn’t know what to expect this season, from which side of the field he would play on to which position.
“But this is a new team and everyone has to earn a job. It’s wide open. You don’t know what’s going on. Coach Jones has us moving around, flying around, A’s (first group) and B’s (second group) and whatnot, we don’t know.
But it’s a work atmosphere and that’s the motto during training camp.”
He even played defensive halfback on the wide side of the field for the first time in his career and almost got an interception in last week’s exhibition game against the B.C. Lions at Commonwealth Stadium.
Burnett, who is a backup on the punt return and kickoff return teams for Friday’s final pre-season game against the Saskatchewan Roughriders at Regina, has averaged 8.6 yards on 85 punt returns and 20.2 yards on 39 kickoff returns the last two years.