NFL Playoffs: Top cornerbacks standing out
Top cornerbacks standing out
THOUSAND OAKS, Calif. — When Brandon Staley looks at the defenses on the remaining eight teams in the NFL playoffs, the Los Angeles Rams’ defensive coordinator sees several top-notch groups with several qualities in common.
Yet one element stands apart — quite literally at times.
Nearly every team still vying for the Super Bowl has an elite cornerback often capable of shutting down an opponent’s top receiver all by himself.
The NFC playoff bracket has three of the conference’s four Pro Bowl cornerbacks: Green Bay’s Jaire Alexander, Los Angeles’ Jalen Ramsey and New
Orleans’ Marshon Lattimore. There’s also Los Angeles’ Darious Williams, who quietly had one of the most impressive coverage seasons in the league, and Tampa Bay’s underrated duo of Carlton Davis and Jamel Dean.
On the AFC side are Pro Bowlers Tre’davious White of Buffalo — a second-team All-pro — and Marlon Humphrey of Baltimore, along with the Ravens’ Marcus Peters and Cleveland’s Denzel Ward.
“Those guys are all outstanding players,” Staley said. “But, you know, we feel like we have the best guy.”
Most of the defensive coordinators left in the postseason feel the same way about their own top cornerback — and with good reason in most cases.
Ramsey’s matchup with fellow All-pro Davante Adams is among the most interesting aspects of the Rams’ trip to Green Bay on Saturday, but every postseason game this weekend offers a chance to watch an elite cornerback doing his best to tear up an offense’s game plan.
“It changes the math,” Staley said. “Traditionally, if you need to help a corner on a premium wideout, then there are going to be individual matchups elsewhere that affect the other players on your defense. When you have a corner like Jalen, it changes the math. And when you have a player that is as versatile as Jalen, where you can put him
pointing to this period for quite some time, that this was going to be very difficult,” Wizards general manager Tommy Sheppard said. “And they weren’t kidding.”
Washington has six players positive, Sheppard said, along with three others out for contact-tracing issues and two more injured.
Miami could get as many as six of its eight Covidaffected players who have missed time this week — mostly because of contact tracing — back Saturday for a game against Detroit; Avery Bradley and Jimmy Butler will remain out, the team said.
The Wizards are just hoping to be able to have players in to resume workouts. No basketball has been played in their facility for most of this week.
“We have six players right now,” Sheppard said.
The league and the National Basketball Players Association earlier this week stiffened the protocols that players must live by during these delicate times, and coaches aren’t
exempt from saying they need to be more diligent on the safety front as well — particularly when it comes to masks.
Properly wearing masks is part of life now, not just NBA life, as part of the effort to fend off the coronavirus. But when coaches feel the need to yell, many still succumb to the urge to tug the mask down and make sure their voice is heard without whatever muffling can be caused by a thin piece of fabric.
“It isn’t always easy,” Toronto coach Nick Nurse said. “Sometimes I’m in the huddle or on the floor, and I’m doing all kinds of things to try to keep my mask on (and) let guys hear me, and after the third time they say ‘Coach, I can’t hear what you’re saying,’ you try to pull it down quick.”
The postponed games, going back to Sunday, involve 16 teams. It was also learned this week that 16 players tested positive in recent days, which was more than the NBA had seen in the last five weeks combined. And next week’s report has the potential to be equally bad, possibly worse.
Boston didn’t play for a full week and had three
games pushed back. Miami lost twice in Philadelphia with half its roster unavailable. Phoenix had a threegame homestand wiped away because the Suns didn’t have enough players to field a team.
And now the Wizards have seen a league-high four games postponed. They last played Monday, against Phoenix. The earliest they’ll play again is this coming Wednesday in Charlotte.
“I think four teams have missed multiple games,” Sheppard said. “I think that’s a small victory considering what’s going on out there around the league.”
The league made it through the season’s first 2-1/2 weeks with just one postponement related to COVID-19. The tally is up to 13 now, and counting. Postponed games, when possible, will be made up in the second half of the season, which will take place from March 11 — the one-year anniversary of last season shutting down because of the pandemic — through May 16.
The league ramped up the protocols as part of its response to the recent developments, putting in strict, albeit temporary,
limits on what players can do both at home and on the road — essentially limiting them to practices, games, workouts and tending to essential matters. Additional testing and roster increases are under consideration.
Coaches say they must do their part to keep things safe.
“Your form of communication has to change,” Miami coach Erik Spoelstra said. “But I can’t even believe how much of the norm this has become. I’ll be in my hotel room, by myself, a lot of times with my mask on and not even realize it.”
Clifford is a big-time mask proponent, and has been since even before the league restarted last season in the Walt Disney World bubble near Orlando. He has been preaching the values of mask-wearing for months.
“I think there were seven of us who got a call from the league about ‘Keep your mask on,’” Clifford said. “So, I’m going to do better, no matter what. I have some masks that are easier for the guys to hear than others. I’m just going to wear the right mask. I’ve got to do better.”