Joyner: Reed, Taylor Overrated from Coverage Standpoint

[Master4Caster]

Originally Posted by GTripp0012

From the article

Sean Taylor

Taylor made the Pro Bowl as an injury replacement, but the metrics make it clear he didn't earn the spot. He ranked 20th in both deep assist YPA and deep assist success percentage. He did even worse when in direct coverage, as his 10.7 YPA in those situations was the seventh worst in the NFL last year. He also gave up the second-most total yards of any coverage safety. Taylor did do a lot more to support the run last year than he did in years past, but even taking that into account, he really wasn't a Pro Bowl-level coverage safety last year.

Yeah, well ....

The whole defense sucked last year. You could find stats about every individual player. I got the impression that ST was trying to do too much to cover for breakdowns elsewhere in the secondary.

So here's the question. Conventional wisdom says a good pass rush helps the pass coverage. Our coaches say better coverage will lead to better pass rushing. They drafted LaRon Landry and have a lot of cornerbacks in camp, but no big moves on the d-line. Gre-double-GG is moving to Cover-1 to exploit Taylors pass covering abilities with Landry/Prioleau supporting the run & short passes.

Think it will work?