The battle for the starting cornerback spot opposite Byron Maxwell is on and it’s expected to be quite a competition. Right now the leader after the first few days of OTA’s is Nolan Carroll. He has separated himself from the rest of the pack with some serious work during this off season.
“Nolan Carroll has done an unbelievable job in the offseason,” Chip Kelly said, while singling him out. “He’s a guy that stands out in terms of what he’s done in the weight room and some of those other things. I just think Nolan is a guy, when you ask me about the defensive backs, that has really done a great job in the offseason.”
Carroll appreciates the praise, but he knows it’s still very early and the veteran isn’t about to let some early success cause him to lose his focus.
“We’re done with practice, and I’m already looking forward to (practice) Monday and trying to get better,” Carroll said following the OTA practice on Thursday.
“I’m not even looking that far down the road. Right now, we’re all just competing. Me, Boyk,. E,J., the young guys. We’re all competing and that can only make us better as a group, and we’ll just see how things play out.”
Carroll will need to hold off Boyk, who is Brandon Boykin, E.J., who is E.J. Biggers, and the young guys, who are third-round draft pick Eric Rowe and sixth-round draft picks JaCorey Sheperd and Randall Evans. I don’t see anybody in this group that gives me confidence at this point that they can go out and compete with the league’s top receivers.
I think it would have made more sense to have a veteran cornerback like Walter Thurmond playing the position he has experience at. Yes, he has been injury-prone but he’s got years of experience playing cornerback in the NFL. He’s also comfortable playing in the press man technique that they want to play here. They’ve got him lining up at safety, which he’s never played before in his National Football League career.
It’s going to be very interesting to see who takes over at the open secondary positions. I think they’re going to give Rowe every chance to win the job, they’re going to make him earn it.
We will keep you posted.
