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Star safety or shutdown cornerback? Highly-rated Eric Berry and Joe Haden prompt the debate: NFL Insider
By Tony Grossi
February 27, 2010, 12:38AM
http://www.cleveland.com/browns/index.ssf/2010/02/star_safety_or_shutdown_corner.html
Adam Brimer / Knoxville (Tenn.) News-SentinelEric Berry is projected as an impact player at safety in the upcoming NFL Draft, but does that mean he's more valuable to a team than a shutdown cornerback? That could be the dilemma faced by Mike Holmgren if both Berry and Florida's Joe Haden are available at the seventh pick.INDIANAPOLIS -- Eric Berry or Joe Haden?
Safety or cornerback?
Subject to activity at the top of the first round of the draft, it's possible the Browns could face this choice with their first selection of the Mike Holmgren-Tom Heckert era.
Both are positions of need on the Browns. Berry, of Tennessee, is largely considered the draft's top-rated safety, though NFL Network analyst Mike Mayock has Earl Thomas of Texas slightly ahead of him. Haden, of Florida, is the unanimous top cornerback.
Some draftniks see a hint of Troy Polamalu and Ed Reed in Berry. Haden may be the draft's only "shutdown" corner -- a high compliment reserved for the likes of Darrelle Revis and Nnamdi Asomugha.
Florida Today photoFlorida's Joe Haden comes to the NFL as the closest thing to a certain success at "shut-down" cornerback as any player in this spring's draft. “Regardless of how the flow of the league is going, if you find a guy that can cover people, that’s huge," says an admiring Mike Holmgren.All things being equal, which position has more impact on a defense? We posed the question to true experts at the NFL Scouting Combine.
• Detroit coach Jim Schwartz:
"Probably depends on the scheme that you play. A corner, OK, you can say he can match up against a particular receiver. Well, that's true if you're a man [coverage] team, a team that likes those kind of matchups. If you're a team that plays a lot of zone and counts on overlapping and things like that, then maybe corners aren't as valuable as the safety.
"I think the point is, good players in the secondary -- multi-dimensional players -- are hard to find. Guys that can play man, can play zone, can tackle, can play in the [tackle] box or play in the deep part of the field. When you find those guys, you need to get them on the field. You can build around those players."
• Chicago coach Lovie Smith:
"The safety has a lot of opportunities in our defense -- not just ours, all defenses -- to make plays, whether it's tackling or intercepting the ball. But you can't play good defense without good corners. There's a reason why corners make as much money as they do. You can only help a corner so much. In order for you to have a good defense, you need a good player at corner."
• Green Bay General Manager Ted Thompson:
"I think corners are generally thought to be more hard to find and you absolutely have to have them in this day and age."
• Cincinnati coach Marvin Lewis:
"Those safeties that can dominate a game, they've been rare. I think they allow you to put the game together differently. If you've gone another way where you've taken the [premier] cornerback, then you build it differently on that side.
"Bad cornerbacks get you beat. Bad defenses have corners that can't or don't tackle. All things being equal, the rare, great safety has more impact, though, because he plays in the middle of the field where most plays are and does more things."
• Mayock:
"If you've got a Pro Bowl corner and a Pro Bowl safety, especially in this pass-first league, you're going with the corner first."
• Holmgren:
"Regardless of how the flow of the league is going, if you find a guy that can cover people, that's huge. Now, how many guys you have on your roster has changed. You see way more -- since I first got in the league -- of open formations spread out all over the place. It's very much a matchup situation where the smart offensive coordinator is going to look and see he's got all his five [receivers] out and he knows which [receiver] is better than that [corner].
"So in building a roster, you might have to think about having more cover corners to play in those type of situations. That part of it you have to think about."
Keep an eye on him: If Holmgren trolls the draft for a late-round sleeper at quarterback, he could show some interest in Tim Hiller of Western Michigan.
Hiller was born in Parma and grew up in Orrville, Ohio, after his parents moved there. He competed as a 9-year-old in a Punt, Pass & Kick competition at old Cleveland Stadium in one of the Browns' last games in 1995.
None of that is of interest to Holmgren, but a couple of other things about Hiller may be.
He won the Danny Weurffel Trophy, given to the college football player who best combines exemplary community service with athletic and academic achievement. He made straight A's in high school and college, earned a bachelor's degree in three years at WMU and has almost completed work for his MBA.
Now for the football part. Hiller completed 63 percent of his passes in 42 starts at WMU, becoming only the fourth Mid-American Conference quarterback to pass for more than 3,000 yards in three consecutive seasons. And -- most interesting of all -- Hiller operated a West Coast-style offense implemented by the same coach, Bill Cubit, who ran the system at Stanford when Trent Edwards played there.
"My pre-snap responsibilities are everything from protection checks, run-to-pass, pass-to-pass, pass-to-run, dictated by coverage, different scheme looks. And what that's done is forced me to prepare very well, week in and week out," Hiller said.
"So I've learned how to study film, learned how to understand the game-planning process.I think those things will help me at this next level."
To prepare for the combine and pre-draft workouts, Hiller worked with UCLA offensive coordinator Norm Chow and former Browns QB Ty Detmer, who share associations with Holmgren. Chow and Holmgren both coached at Brigham Young and Detmer played there. Holmgren later coached Detmer at Green Bay.
Everybody's looking for the next Tom Brady, who rose to stardom after being drafted in the sixth round out of Michigan in 2000. Brady's agent, Don Yee, also represents Hiller.
By Tony Grossi
February 27, 2010, 12:38AM
http://www.cleveland.com/browns/index.ssf/2010/02/star_safety_or_shutdown_corner.html
Adam Brimer / Knoxville (Tenn.) News-SentinelEric Berry is projected as an impact player at safety in the upcoming NFL Draft, but does that mean he's more valuable to a team than a shutdown cornerback? That could be the dilemma faced by Mike Holmgren if both Berry and Florida's Joe Haden are available at the seventh pick.INDIANAPOLIS -- Eric Berry or Joe Haden?
Safety or cornerback?
Subject to activity at the top of the first round of the draft, it's possible the Browns could face this choice with their first selection of the Mike Holmgren-Tom Heckert era.
Both are positions of need on the Browns. Berry, of Tennessee, is largely considered the draft's top-rated safety, though NFL Network analyst Mike Mayock has Earl Thomas of Texas slightly ahead of him. Haden, of Florida, is the unanimous top cornerback.
Some draftniks see a hint of Troy Polamalu and Ed Reed in Berry. Haden may be the draft's only "shutdown" corner -- a high compliment reserved for the likes of Darrelle Revis and Nnamdi Asomugha.
Florida Today photoFlorida's Joe Haden comes to the NFL as the closest thing to a certain success at "shut-down" cornerback as any player in this spring's draft. “Regardless of how the flow of the league is going, if you find a guy that can cover people, that’s huge," says an admiring Mike Holmgren.All things being equal, which position has more impact on a defense? We posed the question to true experts at the NFL Scouting Combine.
• Detroit coach Jim Schwartz:
"Probably depends on the scheme that you play. A corner, OK, you can say he can match up against a particular receiver. Well, that's true if you're a man [coverage] team, a team that likes those kind of matchups. If you're a team that plays a lot of zone and counts on overlapping and things like that, then maybe corners aren't as valuable as the safety.
"I think the point is, good players in the secondary -- multi-dimensional players -- are hard to find. Guys that can play man, can play zone, can tackle, can play in the [tackle] box or play in the deep part of the field. When you find those guys, you need to get them on the field. You can build around those players."
• Chicago coach Lovie Smith:
"The safety has a lot of opportunities in our defense -- not just ours, all defenses -- to make plays, whether it's tackling or intercepting the ball. But you can't play good defense without good corners. There's a reason why corners make as much money as they do. You can only help a corner so much. In order for you to have a good defense, you need a good player at corner."
• Green Bay General Manager Ted Thompson:
"I think corners are generally thought to be more hard to find and you absolutely have to have them in this day and age."
• Cincinnati coach Marvin Lewis:
"Those safeties that can dominate a game, they've been rare. I think they allow you to put the game together differently. If you've gone another way where you've taken the [premier] cornerback, then you build it differently on that side.
"Bad cornerbacks get you beat. Bad defenses have corners that can't or don't tackle. All things being equal, the rare, great safety has more impact, though, because he plays in the middle of the field where most plays are and does more things."
• Mayock:
"If you've got a Pro Bowl corner and a Pro Bowl safety, especially in this pass-first league, you're going with the corner first."
• Holmgren:
"Regardless of how the flow of the league is going, if you find a guy that can cover people, that's huge. Now, how many guys you have on your roster has changed. You see way more -- since I first got in the league -- of open formations spread out all over the place. It's very much a matchup situation where the smart offensive coordinator is going to look and see he's got all his five [receivers] out and he knows which [receiver] is better than that [corner].
"So in building a roster, you might have to think about having more cover corners to play in those type of situations. That part of it you have to think about."
Keep an eye on him: If Holmgren trolls the draft for a late-round sleeper at quarterback, he could show some interest in Tim Hiller of Western Michigan.
Hiller was born in Parma and grew up in Orrville, Ohio, after his parents moved there. He competed as a 9-year-old in a Punt, Pass & Kick competition at old Cleveland Stadium in one of the Browns' last games in 1995.
None of that is of interest to Holmgren, but a couple of other things about Hiller may be.
He won the Danny Weurffel Trophy, given to the college football player who best combines exemplary community service with athletic and academic achievement. He made straight A's in high school and college, earned a bachelor's degree in three years at WMU and has almost completed work for his MBA.
Now for the football part. Hiller completed 63 percent of his passes in 42 starts at WMU, becoming only the fourth Mid-American Conference quarterback to pass for more than 3,000 yards in three consecutive seasons. And -- most interesting of all -- Hiller operated a West Coast-style offense implemented by the same coach, Bill Cubit, who ran the system at Stanford when Trent Edwards played there.
"My pre-snap responsibilities are everything from protection checks, run-to-pass, pass-to-pass, pass-to-run, dictated by coverage, different scheme looks. And what that's done is forced me to prepare very well, week in and week out," Hiller said.
"So I've learned how to study film, learned how to understand the game-planning process.I think those things will help me at this next level."
To prepare for the combine and pre-draft workouts, Hiller worked with UCLA offensive coordinator Norm Chow and former Browns QB Ty Detmer, who share associations with Holmgren. Chow and Holmgren both coached at Brigham Young and Detmer played there. Holmgren later coached Detmer at Green Bay.
Everybody's looking for the next Tom Brady, who rose to stardom after being drafted in the sixth round out of Michigan in 2000. Brady's agent, Don Yee, also represents Hiller.