Sean Taylor at Free Safety and LaRon Landry at Strong Safety

[GTripp0012]

Originally Posted by Daseal

I think once the two safeties get acquainted with one another that STs tendency to bite on every pump fake will get better. Last year ST tried to do everything and that hurt him all the way around. I think GWill wants to keep this relatively simple to start and slowly add more and more wrinkles to it.

I think you are right to an extent.

A lot of what Taylor was doing last year seemed to be accounting for the run because he didn't trust the front 7 to do their jobs (and for good reason). So with Fletcher and Landry on board, there is theroretically more reason for Taylor to have faith in the front 7 to do their jobs.

However, breaking a bad habit is very hard to do. It's hardwired into his mind to be agressive whenever he sees play action. There is no guarentee that the coaches have nearly enough power to change that. You can tell him what he's doing wrong ad nauseum. You can threaten to sit him. But if he sees playaction and instinctively steps foward, he's always going to be out of position. At this point, there may be little our coaches can do for him.

If he works at it, he can get better at showing patience over time. But in effect, we may be changing the way he plays the game. The output may be an entirely different player, and that could be for the better, but also it could be for the worse.

There are zero certainties surrounding Taylor right now. He could be very good, or he could be very average. Or maybe he doesn't change, still lays the wood to backs and receivers over the middle and still costs us many points against the play action pass. Who knows?

I think one of the perks about Landry is he's a very technically sound player, and if we are very, very lucky, some of that might rub off on ST. But only if he's willing to take some pointers from a rook.