Adjusting [Still High] Expectations: K.C. Joyner Discusses Morris Claiborne

[Midswat]

http://www.cowboysnation.com/2012/05/adjusting-still-high-expectations-kc.html


Posted by Rafael at Wednesday, May 09, 2012

Cowboys Nation welcomes back ESPN Insider K.C. Joyner. He'll be here for the next week discussing all aspects of the Cowboys game. Today, we begin the conversation with K.C.'s thoughts on Dallas' top draft pick Morris Claiborne.

Cowboys Nation: welcome back. The Cowboys actions this offseason have made it clear that they view pass defense as their greatest weakness. Rob Ryan was quoted at the Senior Bowl saying, "I'm looking for defensive backs," and they drafted two in the top four rounds. They signed Brandon Carr. They've added some rookie rushers to assist that secondary.

I want to pick up where we left off the last time. We were approaching free agency and discussing Brandon Carr and Cortland Finnegan the top two free agent cornerbacks. When you discussed each, you said they had their plusses, but you didn't see either as someone who could succeed week-in and week-out as the top option, as the number one.

Within the NFC East you pointed to Hakeem Nicks as the standard. Do you have a guy who can match up with him. I'll repeat it, you said both Finnegan and Carr are physical and could handle the Eagles receivers, who don't like to get roughed up, but Nicks was another figure all together.

Why don't we Morris Claiborne and how he might fit into that equation. Can he be a number one, a potential matchup guy? Because he's being hyped that way.

K.C. Joyner: The thing about Morris Claiborne is I just wrote an ESPN Insider piece. I've talked about him several times, but in the latest one was saying he was an overrated prospect. In his case, I don't mean that he's overrated in that he's not a good player. The overrated is that people are looking at him thinking he's this great all-around cornerback and that's not what he does.

I broke down LSU's games against the seven toughest passing offenses they faced in 2011 and he gave up 12 completions or defensive penalties on 25 targeted plays, for 188 yards, one touchdown and three interceptions.

That's a 7.5 YPA mark. That's middle of the road in the NFL and he did it against SEC passing offenses. They had a lot of talent, but there were not many great passing attacks. It wasn't a case of those stats coming on one or two big plays. Nine of those passes were for ten yards or more.

What he does do is ball-hawk. He got six interceptions last year. He's a big guy and I've read some scouting reports that say he needs to work on his tackling a little, but he's a physical guy with good size. It's not like this guy is too small to handle the contact.

If he can tackle well and he can ball-hawk, he's just what the Cowboys need. They had what 15 interceptions last year? That's a bottom 10 total in the league. They need a ball-hawk. What they may end up doing, is... there are some teams in the league, the Eagles are one, which have a philosophy of having two different types of corner. They have a cover guy, who gets an opponent and maybe he doesn't shut the receiver down, but he contains him, keeps him from getting the deep balls, and the other is the ball-hawk. Yeah, he might give up 8-9 yards per attempt but he more than makes up for it with the turnover he creates.

The Cowboys probably believe they have that contain guy in Brandon Carr, who is an extremely consistent cornerback, so they can say we can think we can put Claiborne on the other side, roll some coverage to his side and let him go get the football.

He's overrated in the sense that people think he's going to say he's a Darrelle Revis type and I don't think that, and it's probably unfair to use the word overrated. He's a really great player and one of the best players in this draft, but what I said in the article is people think he's the next Revis, but he's probably closer to Antonio Cromartie, and I mean the good Antonio Cromartie, the one with San Diego who has a 7.2 YPA but is intercepting ten passes. Not the one who avoids tackles in playoff games, but the good one. Cromartie last year was almost as good as Revis in yards per attempt, but his game is more attacking and ball-hawking.

I still think Claiborne was a great pick by Dallas. He fits what they need. If he can get them over the 20 mark in interceptions it's a great move for the team.

 

[Midswat]

Cowboys Nation: Let's talk about turnovers and yards allowed. When we spoke last you had some partial numbers, about three quarters of the season done, and we focused on Mike Jenkins. Here was a guy in '09 who was a top 10 corner, then was awful in 2010. He was in the bottom five and then this year, you told me his number was in the mid-7s.

[Note: Jenkins tied for 9th in '09 with a 5.4 YPA and a 50.5% success rate. In 2011 his YPA ballooned to 11.4, ranking him 97th. His success rate plummeted to 36.5%.]

K.C. Joyner: I'm looking it up right now. 7.1 was what he posted in 2011.

CN: That's a significant improvement. What's encouraging about that number was that he played hurt a lot. He had a shoulder which he kept re-injuring and he needed surgery once the season ended. The Cowboys were so beaten up in the secondary, they needed Jenkins to play and he soldiered on week-to-week.

He wanted a new contract before the season started and now they've drafted Morris Claiborne, so there's the perception that Mike Jenkins might be disgruntled. I think this is an incredible opportunity for him. He's coming off a solid year. It's not great, but Johnathan Joseph had a 7.2 the year before the Texans signed him to his huge deal and I think you posted that Brandon Carr had a 6.6 last year and he had been in the low 7s the previous years. He got a deal slightly bigger than Joseph's.

If Mike Jenkins can get healthy and produce on par with last year, or better, get closer to the Mike Jenkins we saw in 2009, he's going to get paid, whether it's by Dallas or somebody else. And that's a win for the Cowboys either way. They get another top corner in their lineup, or they at least get a quality year from him in 2012 and a good compensatory pick down the road.

Let's start with this: you have Mike Jenkins and you have Brandon Carr. Let's assume that Claiborne is a normal rookie and has some growing pains, and is not able to be Asante Samuel or Antonio Cromartie right out of the box. What does having a healthy Jenkins and a Brandon Carr do to improve the Cowboys secondary over the 2011 Mike Jenkins and the 2011 Terence Newman? You told me Newman's YPA last year was 9.7, which would put him in the bottom quarter or maybe bottom ten percent of NFL starters.

K.C.: You have youth for one. The Eagles had a situation last year where they had Samuel and he's a very good talent and had a very good year metrically. Their problem was that [Dominique] Rodgers-Cromartie likes to play on the outside, [Nnamdi] Asomugha likes to play on the outside and Samuel likes to play on the outside. If they could have put one of them in the slot you would have had an ideal trio or corners and you could treat them all like starters.

The Cowboys have the potential for that, but I'd be concerned about starting Claiborne in the slot. I want him to have some protection from the sideline, so if he's going to make a play and he doesn't make it, it's only a 15 yard completion.

You're right on Jenkins too. He has to look at it as, this is a passing league and you're a guy who can stop them. He should be able to take the Claiborne situation and realize that as long as the Cowboys utilize his skills in the right way, I personally think they could play Jenkins in the slot. I don't know if they would, but I think they could.

Putting yourself closer to the field does increase the odds of contact and with his injury history you wonder if they would do that, but I certainly think Jenkins can do it from a coverage standpoint, and I've always said you want to think of that nickel corner as a starter, because he's going to out there often, because teams play so many 3-receiver sets now, or they're using a flex tight end who can get up the field.

When you've got that kind of situation, you can't think of that 3rd corner as a good backup. He needs to be starter quality. You've got Carr and you've got Jenkins and you've got Claiborne. You have three guys who are starting-caliber cornerbacks.

Look, you've got Vick with Maclin and Jenkins with the Eagles; you've got RG III now at Washington and you've got the Giants with Eli and their receiving corps and they just added Rueben Randle, and hey, wouldn't it be great to see Rankle and Claiborne squaring off? You know they did it every day at LSU. And Randle is a very good receiver by the way.

When you're in a division has that caliber of talent, and mind you the Redskins have not been at that level, but they added a lot of receivers and I don't think they drafted Robert Griffin to hand the ball off 50% of the time. You've got three teams who are pass-heavy. Mike Jenkins has to look at this as an opportunity to show off his skills and show Dallas and the world, hey, I'm still a starter and a good one.

 

[superpunk]

all I could read on the front page was "Adjusting [Still High]" so obviously I clicked.

Disappointing, to say the least.