Jets fan or not, everyone agrees that Darrelle Revis is the best cornerback in the NFL. Although there is no one to dethrone Revis as the best shutdown CB, there are a couple who have the potential to become elite cornerbacks.
Earlier this week Pro Football Focus’ Sam Monson listed the pack of cornerback’s who have a shot at joining Revis at the elite level. Monson included Eagles’ cornerback Nnadmi Asomugha on the list, but not without voicing his opinion on Asomugha’s performance last season.
“Nnamdi Asomugha is a player that I’m mentioning more to head off the barrage of abuse I will receive if I don’t, rather than because I actually think he has a shot to reach Revis level,” Monson said. “Asomugha was exposed last season in Philadelphia for the things he was never asked to do as a Raider. He was an excellent player for Oakland playing on the backside in off-man coverage where he rarely saw the football. When he was asked to move around for the Eagles, cover the slot and play in zone coverage, he struggled far more.”
It was obvious that Asomugha struggled last year. Playing in a new system and being asked to do more than he was accustomed to on the field really took a toll on his performance. Hopefully with him and Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie headed to back to their natural positions, Asomugha and the secondary will be a lot better this year.
Monson also criticized the Pro Bowler for his poor execution when it comes to wrapping up players. “He misses too many tackles in the run game and looked some way shy of that elite shutdown guy for me to buy his prospects of joining Revis at the very top. He would need a massive leap forward in production.”
According to Pro Football Focus, Asomugha missed 12 tackles last season, which was one of the worst in the league last season at his position.
I’m not sure if Asomugha will ever reach Revis Island, but I’m certain we won’t see the same performance we saw last year. With an entire season and an offseason to fully adapt to the Eagles’ system, the All-Pro CB should be primed for a superb season this year.
Asmo being as good as revis is as believable as it snowed in south eastern Pa today.
Sure the old mate can be just as good if not better than Revis. You must be out on the lash with your comment made for mattress munchers mhenski.
Rocko, Even though I don’t think NA could be on Revis level, I’m with you here in that I think he could be pretty damn close to it at least. Basically, I don’t think a player like NA could just forget how to play football all of a sudden…I blame more of his poor performance on the coaching. ANd before someone says its shouldn’t matter because he was asked to do what a corner does…fact is it does..thats like asking P. Manning/Brady to throw in a bootleg and play action called system 90 percent of the time than instead of what they do best at in staying in the pocket. They would play like shit too..
For what its worth, NA played the TE pretty well last year for us when called to do so…People think our improved numbers against the TE came from the linebacker play however IMO it was much more NA. I just remember him doing a good job on Witten and Vernon Davis for us..getting 85% of what NA was in Oakland this coming year and the next would be huge for this defense. Im really looking forward to seeing how some of the younger talent at CB plays too…CB, Back-up RB, and Safety to me will be the most intriguing to see (outside of QB of course) once camp, preseason, and the beginning of the season come. Can’t come soon enough
I couldn’t of said it better pheags. Hopefully JC has the D straight this year because if we had a real D-Coord last year, Asom would of shut down everything that came his way. Good stuff buddy.
He’s a different player. Revis shuts down people and gets interceptions where historically Nnamdi hasn’t. Athletically he definitely seems to be the that might be able to do it all if he can learn to effectively face the QB, look for interception opportunities and actually hold on to the ball when it comes. You can’t assume anything based on last year though. There’s no way to know whether he can get better or whether fundamentally/mechanically it’s just something he’s not good at. Only time will tell.
Man y’all told he was as good Revis last summer…this is some bull..lol
I wouldnt say this is a dumb article however it truly is ignorant one. Nnamdi will NEVER be in the same class as Revis. First of all we’re talking about a older CB who is suppose to all the sudden become better or just as good as a corner thats 4 years younger? Nnamdi is more on the downside of his career at 30 years old while Revis has another 4-5 before he starts to decline. For years in Oakland opposing quarterbacks never threw in Nnamdi’s direction. Its almost like Nnamdi started to get comfortable with that and he got exposed. Still I believe Nnamdi will be better this year however he will never be in the same class as Revis.
Nnamdi had some bad plays but also got a bad wrap last year and the plays were magnified bc of the Eagles overall poor play. He did a great job of limiting the other teams top dog Nicks, R.White, Dez Bryant. these recievers would have killed us if Nnamdi wasnt there can he help it if Victor Cruz is a stud after the catch or Victor Page is a bum and instead of laying cruz out he goes for the ball which nnamdi was already doing? Victor Cruz torched Revis but nobody is talking about that smh. however to say he can be better than revis like eagles suck said just doesnt make sense this point in his career.
…The age thing is not relevant when it comes to Namdi, that dude is a beastly athlete and just a freakin specimen.
I know you guys are going to call me crazy but I don’t care. DRC CAN BE CLOSER TO REVIS THAN ASMO. And this year he will prove his worth, watch and see.
Revis didnt have his best year last year either, and lets not anoint revis as the best CB to walk on an nfl field. I like revis in man coverage too, and honestly, thats all we’ve seen him in. The jets mostly play a man2man coverage style of defense over zone. So again as mentioned, Nnamdi had a tough year yes, so did the entire eagles team. I fully expect a bounce back year from Nnamdi. But whats funny is since hes joined the eagles hes become one of the most hated CBs in the league, when he was on the raiders everyone loved the guy and it wasnt questioned that he was right there with Revis as the best CBs in the league. So all this talk is bull, i dont wanna hear it. Nnamdi got something for the naysayers. And JH declares that Nnamdi Asomugha will have a better 2012-2013 season than Darrel Revis. Book it.
lmao at the suggestion that nnamdi isn’t a premier shut down corner. Yup, the label he had prior to coming here was solely put out by his agent and maybe some close friends and relatives. Even with his so called bad year, there I’d take him over any other corner not named Revis -who by the way did get burned more than a few times as well. Only in Eagleland would you hear and read this.
As long as the eagles play him at his natural position, he will excel as one of the top corners in the league.
@jon Hart, agreed, last year before Nnamdi signed with the Eagles, according to all reports/reporters, Nnamdi was the best thing since sliced bread, wanted by several different teams, but as soon as he signed with the Eagles, all reporter flipped the script . That’s ok the Eagles got something for their asses this year.
A lot of things factored into Nambi struggling last year – 1fst year D coord, new system, shitty LB’s, not being used the correct way etc…. The D as a whole will be ready to play this year.
Most of it was just Asmo’s poor play.. I don’t care who was coaching him or what scheme he was in.. He made so many poor attempts,mis-timed his jumps to deflect passes and his hands stink. He was overrated big time and is in not in the same league as Revis, not even close..
Revis intimidates the Receivers across from him, Asmo does not, for he’s not strong or physical enough and Asmo’s plays on the ball, while it’s in the air is not impressive,and he must play much better to earn and be worth his contract ..
Paul, you sound foolish, again. Nnamdi is overrated after how many years in the league and how many probowls, hes overrated? Foolishness. Just stop. Him and Revis are almost identical players. Both love to press, both are physical at the line, Nnamdi’s hands are bad? Huh? Hes not a wide receiver! Hes a Corner, his hands arent going to be the greatest bc if they were he’d be a wide receiver haha, aw man, your still neglecting after all the months that have passed, to acknowledge what this team was up against last year, alot of the guys already mentioned it so i wont, but noone on this team played consistently good they were all bad in one way or another, even babin with all those sacks was poor in the run game and thats putting it mildly. You can’t ignore all that this team was up against, there is no way. Yeah we expected greatness and a SBowl run, but Mcnabb was right the team had more issues than what met the eye. Of all people he should have been the last person to say anything haha but it was true. So with that said, Iam eagerly looking forward to my Eagles hitting the field this year first on Sunday August 26, 2012 7:30pm at Flight Night and rocking the entire league after that, making the playoffs and winning the SB. One step at a time though.. I need to see some heart, and consistency from both sides of the ball and with an 8th rated defense its going to all come down to one man and thats Mike Vick, he has to remain healthy and play consistently..
only an idiot would use Asmo like Woodson as an in the box type Safety and flip flopping him all around the place.
Woodson, was converted due to his age the fact he’s not a fast as he once was..Nnamdi was at the top of hi game and that idiot didn’t use him as an shut down corner.
Paulman Im leaning towards your assessment. I dont think Ive ever seen so much blamed on a coach. I mean I guess we can blame the missed tackles on Juan. I guess it was Juans fault Aso didnt play the ball right when it was in the air. I will give Aso that one bad year but thats it. No more excuses. I play him the way he feels comfortable and tell him do what you do. But understand this, no matter what coverage we are in make the damn tackle. No matter what coverage we are in knock the damn ball down. Thats not to much to ask is it? Not for all that money he agreed to take.
The Eagles secondary can’t tackle and hasn’t been able to for a while.
PFF has continued their series of 3 year studies of signature stats with a look at secondary tackling. Predictably, its not flattering to the Eagles. If you look at their list of the top ten defensive backs with the most missed tackles over the last 3 years, 3 former Eagles show up.
Quintin Mikell is surprisingly 4th in the league, Asante Samuel is tied for 5th (with the always overrated Antrel Rolle) and Sean Jones, who spent just one season here is tied for 7th. Ronde Barber leads all DBs in missed tackles over the past 3 years and Charles Woodson, who is often cited as one of the better tackling DBs, is also among the top 10.
But those are counting stats. Simply who missed the most tackles without taking into account how many shots they had to make a tackle. To zero in on the really worst tacklers, PFF uses tackling efficiency, which measures how many tackles are missed per attempt. Using that stat, you’ll find that a Woodson is actually just average, which still makes his so called tackling prowess overrated. Ronde Barber, however, still stinks.
More about the Eagles specifically after the jump.
In what should come as no surprise, Asante Samuel is tied for dead last in tackling efficiency, missing one every 3.7 attempts. But he’s gone, so we’ve rid ourselves of that weakness right? Wrong. Nnamdi Asomugha comes in as the 3rd worst, missing a tackle every 4.6 attempts. Now, he hasn’t missed as many tackles overall as a guy like Samuel, but the evidence does seem to suggest that if he got more chances he may not really get any better. It also suggests that he probably was never a good candidate for the “Charles Woodson role” that was talked about so much last season. Actually, it seems that Charles Woodson isn’t even a good candidate for that role…
It doesn’t stop there though as also showing up 12th from the bottom is Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie, who missed a tackle once every 5.7 attempts. Plus, he’s actually attempted a good bit more than Asomugha, so that’s an even more solid indication of his lack of tackling prowess.
All that said, there is some solace in the fact that the worst offender (Samuel) is gone. I was surprised to see Quintin Mikell on the list of missed tackles, but I’m not sure we can take that to mean the Eagles have upgraded there. The current crop of safeties is so young that they wouldn’t really show up in a 3 year study.
In the article above these are real stats. Not made up fan evaluations. So we can stop with blaming the coach on some of Aso’s deficiencies. Obviously Aso wasnt a good tackler before he got here. This isnt made up it is documented facts. He was paid alot of money to come here and has 2 responsibilities to cover and to tackle. Since (documented facts) suggest he wasnt a good tackler before he got here, he wasnt a good tackler last year he better cover his ass off since out of the 2 things he was highly paid to do, 1 he already isnt good at.
Here’s a list of CB’s who had much better Seasons than the $11 Million Asmo
Kyle Arrington – Pats
Carlos Rogers – 49ers
Brandon Browner – Seahawks
Chris Houston – Lions
Corey Webster – NY Giants
Laderius Webb -Ravens
Tramon Williams – Packers
Anotnio Cromartie – NY Jets
Jonathon Joseph – Texans
Brandon Carr – KC Chiefs (now on the Cowboys)
Aaron Ross, Darelle Revis,Brandon Flowers,Vontae Davis,DJ Moore,Patrick Robinson,and a few others all hada better Stats than the Eagles Asmo as far as Tackles,passes defensed and INt’s…
I stated last summer that Asmo will go down as the most overhyped,bust signing in NFL Free-Agency and I stand by it.. I hope I am wrong and he rebounds well in 2012, but I always thought he was overrated to begin wit and just aa good player,but not an elite/shutdown corner regardless of the hype coming out of Oakland..
One last thing, regardelss of the schemes, I evaluate a CB on who he makes plays on the ball once it’s in the air, their judgement of the flight of the pass, kknowing where the receiver, the sideline and end-zone are in relation to where you are and then the timing of your leaps, your position of your arms and hands as the ball comes down and when watching Asmo last year, I was very disappoininted in all of these facets.. He has the size and length but I question his toughness and his ability to read the flight of the ball and the fact that he plays with his back tot he Qb often, he has little idea on the projectory of the ball once it’s in flight in relation to where the targeted receiver is.. I don’t blame this on Coaching or Scheme,but these are the innate skills and qualities of being a great CBmust have and Asmo does not in my book…
Paul your a liar because b4 we signed him all you kept saying was the Eagles arent going to sign him and that the eagles should look to sign Carlos Rogers or Ike Taylor among other guys, so what your really doing is 1.Somehow trying to prove that you were right 2. Trying to say that Carlos Rogers, Ike Taylor, among others are better than Nnamdi and were a better fit. Your absolutely gone haha far gone.. You ll see how “overrated” he is this year when he goes back to another Probowl and out plays Revis who had a really sucky yr last yr as well.. Bad years happen to great players. But because hes an Eagle and because you didnt pick him to come here and you felt other CBs were a better fit, thats your sticking points. Such a stubborn old man haha..
Carlos Rogers had a great season last year. he made a huge impact on that defense which was one of the best in the league. The 49ers had a pretty stron pass rush last year so hopefully Nnamdi will have the same advantage and also hopefully lettingx him and DRC play man will help too. He better play better this year because he needs to earn that contract. I don’t care what he did in the past. Show me against the Cowboys and Giants this year. Also the Saints and Steelers WRs.
Carlos Rogers had a great season last year. he made a huge impact on that defense which was one of the best in the league. The 49ers had a pretty stron pass rush last year so hopefully Nnamdi will have the same advantage and also hopefully lettingx him and DRC play man will help too. He better play better this year because he needs to earn that contract. I don’t care what he did in the past. Show me against the Cowboys and Giants this year. Also the Saints and Steelers WRs.
To JH,
I was pretty adamant last off-season that I did not believe that Asmo was worth the hype and $$$$ commitment to obtain.. Did it surprise that the Eagles did, sure it did, but I stick to my original belief that CB Carlos Rogers or even Richard Marshall were better fits for this Eagles Defense playing in the more physically tough NFC East and I stand by it to this day.. Last Off-Season, I stated 4-5 Needs .. DT,LB,CB and Safey and they got DT Jenkins which was great and then blew their $$$ on Asmo and never addredded the LB or Safety pot.. This off-season, they addressed Lb and fortifid the DL but again, failed to address the Safety Position so we will see how it works out..
Yes, I make many calls about many things as all Fans do, the difference between you and me is that I admit when I am wrong, You don’t..
I don’t care about All-Pro Tags for thats a Popularity contest.. If Asmo doesn’t play significantly better in 2012, then his Signing goes down as one of the all-time busts in Free-agency in all of the NFL..
Paulman….what you’re saying is bogus.
If Juan didn’t confuse Nnamdi with his BS scheme and would have locked him in on the opponent’s best receivers like he became an all pro doing, this would not be a conversation here.
Who cares how you judge corners?
There were things deion sanders couldn’t do but defensive coordinators didn’t put him in a position to fail. Juan put Nnamdi in a position to fail.
Typical BS from Songs if it’s a player that he likes… So when Asmo misplayed 3-4 deep passes in both Giants Games and was toasted by Victor Cruz and H Nicks, that’s Castillo’s fault.. Can Asmo make a play on the ball when it’s in the air or not… Last tyear he couldn’t or not enough of them and there’s no excuse regardless of Coaches,Schemes,teammates or whatever..Asmo had a terrible 1st half of last Season as did Mike Vick which is the real reason the Eagles were out of the Playoff Chase by Halloween and the dman Coaches or GM or Bloggers or the tpye of field they play on, etc,etc… .
So Paul I want to hear it again. You said that Nnamdi was overrated right and that he didnt deserve all that money? If you didnt notice, guys get big contracts for there productivity. If you suck, than you wont get the money, bottom line. Nnamdi has been one of the most feared CBs in the league, had 1 bad year on a bad team with poor coaching and you talk about him being overrated? Woow.. Remember this bc you know i will haha.. And i admit when iam wrong, but when am I? lol
I agree Songs! Juan is definitely at fault, was asking Nnamdi to do way too much when none of the players had the defense down, heck im positive that Juan was confused himself. Nnamdi is the last of my concerns and shouldnt even me mentioned as a question mark. More of pauls rants to find a way to say he was right when he was wrong.
Hope you are right jh because to quote Songs he played like ass last year.
The whole team stunk.. idk why everyone tries to single out certain players they all were terrible. It was very uncharacteristic of Nnamdi to look that pathetic thats how i know there was more to it. It was a 1 yr thing. We ll see the real Nnamdi this yr. Good this Asante is gone too, he just made things awkward
The Eagles top Stars Suckedin the 2011 Season.. Vick,D-Jax and Asmo and how is the Team going to do well when your Star Players way underperform and that was the real story of the 2011 Season,not blaming the Secondary Coach, the QB Coach, Juan Castillo, or the WR Coach..
You sound ridiculous Paulman. Sure Vick didn’t have his best year and didn’t do as well as we all know he could have, but the DJax and DC mess falls squarely on the front office last year. If Asmo had a real DC that knew how to coach a D and If DJax had his money that was promised to him, we would have been looking at a totally different outcome last year and you know it. Put the blame where it belongs and stop trying to make it seem like the players just didn’t give a damn.
Well Rocko…”Sure Vick didn’t have his best year and didn’t do as well as we all know he could have”
Actually, he had one of the best years of his career.
It was his 2nd highest comp %. Most yrds he’s ever thrown for. 3rd highest TDs. 2nd lowest amount of sacks taken. Career average for int %. 11 fumbles is basically his career average.
So, he was well above his career averages in “positive” stats, and right at his average in “negative” stats.
Contrary to popular belief, Vick did not have a “down” year. It was one of his best years. This is the problem.
Stats are becoming more and more skewed Vinnie.. Something like 8 QB’s threw for over 4,000 yards with a couple of them over 5,000yds which hadn’t been done since dan Marino days.. All Teams throw the ball so a 3,500 Yard season is very common place by just about every QB as are Teams setting Franchise records for Points, Yards.. Can you do it in a hostile evironment and when your team really needs it like in the 4th quarter when your behind.. Eli Manning threw 14 4th Quarter TD’s last Season, how about Vick..
I know 3500 seasons are nwt middle of the road, which is why when Vick hits 3300 yrds, and its his career high, there’s trouble ahead.
All I’m pointing out is that I constantly read people writing that Vick had a “down” year, when actually, he had a very good year – by his standards.
As for 4th Q tds, we’ve covered this at length. He only threw 3 all year, and 2 came in the irrelevant finale vs wsh.
It is complete BS to let “I’m a man and a professional” D-Jax off the hook. If he was a man and a pro he woulda played his butt off like Ray Rice and Matt Forte. Those guys didn’t dog it last year and they were in the same situation. He better return to form this year, because now there are no excuses. And as for picking on Asmo, this effin article was written about him, so that is why we are picking on him. The team put him in some bad situations, but there were plenty of times when he had a chance to make a play but didn’t.
Yeah…well bugsy how about go to your job and earn the company millions, only to see new hires come in and get paid more than you; then you sit there since you’re a “man and a professional” and keep quiet and continue working your arse off. Glad to know there’s employees like you who exist in this world today. Ray Rice and Forte already had lucrative contracts that were nearing end. DJax was still living off of the “pittens” of his 2nd round rookie contract. You starting to sound worse than paulman.
Lucrative deals? What the heck are you talking about?
Rice- 4 years- 2.81 mil plus 1.1 mil signing bonus
Forte- 4 years 3.78 mil plus 1.5 mil signing bonus
D-Jax- 4 years 3.45 mil
None of those are lucrative deals, so try again.
It is fine if you want to defend him, but I won’t. At least we can agree that his production better get back to what it was 2 years ago no that there are no distractions. Or is that too much for me to ask for?
How many positions did Ray and Matt play in the pro bowl? Did Ray or Matt score the “walk-off grand slam” touchdown in football to catapult their team into the playoffs. Djax’s production will exceed any year that he’s been on this team. I predict 1200/10 tds at least.
Rice had over 2000 rushing/receiving yards last year and 15 TDs. Those are Shady McCoy type numbers. I am curious to who you think is more important to the Eagles offense, McCoy or D-Jax?
I hope that you are right about his production.
Forte and Rice had Teammates and Coaches that would not allow them to dog it.. Both the Bears and Ravens are old school and don’t coddle their players like Coach AR does.. It’s a fact and when things are goign good, everybody is happy, and when they don’t (like last Season) we saw many players running focover and ducking any accountablity.. This is one of Coach Ar’s biggest faults is that he’s too close to his players and coddles them like they are his own kids..
The both are Bugsy; if it werent for Djax backing up the D with his speed, Mccoy prolly wouldn’t have gained the yardage he gained. Either. I understand where you’re trying to get at but this year will tell the truth.
Paulman, Banner was the problem not AR. Again, the FO had AR’s hands tied because they didnt take care of the core guys like Dawkins and DJax etc. Those other coaches didnt have to worry about a “pencil up the arse” president like Banner.
Ravens and Bears are some of the tightest Organizations when it comes to COntracts that there area.. especeially the Bears.. Hell, Forte Fumbles versus the Eagles and HV Lovie Smith sits him down for a serie or two to get him re-focused.. Would AR ever do that with MCCoy.. Very doubtful..
Rock, look I have a D-jax jersey that I wear every Sunday during the season. We are on the same page in that we want the dude to succeed.
oh vinnie and his funny stats.
Vick had more Int’s last year than he ever had before.
His Yards are scewed because the league is throw throw throw more now than ever.
7 fumbles is the most he’s ever had in 1 year
His rushing attempts were down
He had 1 rushing TD
His rushing yards were down
Say what you want Vinnie but try your best to keep it real. Just try.
It didnt help matters that guys like the sure handed Avant couldnt stop fumbling it. (counting as a int)
It didnt help that guys like Jackson didnt have their head in the game.
Vinnie- the entire team and its coaches sucked. Y you decide to lay all blame on 1 guy is beyond me.
Vick sucked last year. Anyone who denies that is being stupid. BUT….. there is NO reason to think that this this is what we will get year in and year out. Last year WAS NOT a normal or good year for him. the entire stat picture (including the ones you dont want to use) show that he had a down year.
Are there questions about him being THE GUY going into the future? Yes. Clearly. of course. But what other QB was out there they would have gotten?
about Djax-
If he shows up to play and gives us most of what we know he can give us, he’s worth every penny.
If he sucks again and the eagles fail… he and just about everyone else will be shipped out of here and he wont get much of what he signed for so….
either way, we r fine. Y dont u guys fight about who our nickle corner or slot Wr will be this year?
Me Too Bugsy…I feel ya buddy.