Player Spotlight: Carlos Rogers

It is my pleasure to write about my favorite group on the football field. The Defensive Backs. This is the group who, in my estimation, has the second hardest job on the football field. The hardest position is, by far, Quarterback. These are the only two positions where you are naked. Your mistakes are the most obvious. You cannot blame too much on anyone else. These are also the positions that you must have a short memory. A lot of things are going to go wrong, you had just better get over them quicker. You do not have time to sulk. Defensive Backs are responsible for defending the other teams pass catchers, the Wide Receivers. Make no mistake about it. The Wide Receivers in the NFL are world class athletes. And as a Defensive Back, you responsible for keeping them in check. Anyone who has ever played Cornerback or Safety knows that this is a tall task, as even the slowest Wide Receiver can give you fits. And you must except the fact that part of your day will be spent running backwards. But if you have a good athlete and great coaching, you do not need a lot of speed a Cornerback or Safety. Fortunately for the Redskins, Carlos Rogers does not have that problem.



Look at Carlos Rogers’ measurables coming out of college:

Weight: 199 lbs.
40-Yard Dash: 4.31
20-Yard Shuttle: 3.84
3-cone drill: 6.49 sec
Vertical Jump: 40.5 in.
Bench Press: 15 reps
Wonderlic: 14

In the 2005 NFL Draft, with the 9th pick in the First Round, the Redskins selected, Carlos Rogers, Jim Thorpe Award winning Cornerback from Auburn University. If you do not know, a college player that wins the Jim Thorpe Award is the best player at Defensive Back. So right off of the bat, Roger should be respected. There have been some solid Cornerbacks/Safetys in football who did not win the Jim Thorpe Award. Guys like Darelle Revis from the N.Y. Jets, Asante Samuel of the Philadelphia Eagles, Nate Clements of the San Francisco 49ers, Rhonde Barber of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Ike Taylor of the Pittsburgh Steelers, Ed Reed of the Baltimore Ravens and a host of other players never won the Jim Thorpe Award. They do not just hand it out people, this award has some merit. And it speaks volumes about Rogers who played in one of the toughest conferences in college football, the SEC (Southeastern Conference). So I can see why the Redskins would draft him. But if you know a bit about football, it is not always about talent. You have to have the right personnel and the right coaches using the right scheme. And in my estimation, the death of Sean Taylor and the early dismissal of Greg Williams did nothing to help Rogers in his development.

Greg Williams, Defensive Coordinator for the Super Bowl winning New Orleans Saints, was here in Washington for four years. And in his four years the Redskins Defense finished with a ranking lower than 8th one time in a season in which nothing seemed to go right. Three of Williams’ four years the Redskins finished 8th or better. Why is that? I mean they had to piece together their Defense for four years until they got the correct personnel to fit the scheme. So is it safe to say that the coaching had something to do with it? I mean I have seen Quarterbacks who are the best in the nation in college go to the pros and struggle. Does this mean that the Quarterback is not good? Can we chalk it up to inexperience? Can we say it has something to do with coaching? Hell the Raiders could get the #1 pick in next years draft and draft the best Quarterback on the board (who will probably be Jake Locker or my personal favorite Tyrod Taylor), does that mean they will win the Super Bowl in 2011? There are so many factors that come into play as it relates to a players performance, and if you have stuff out of whack on Defense, guess which position reflects that the most. Yep!! Cornerback.

Let us just say that the Defensive call for this particular play is 2-Man Under. Do you know what is supposed to happen? Neither do I completely, but I get the basics of this play. From my understanding, the Defensive Lineman are supposed to get upfield and try to disrupt the Offenses play in the backfield. The Linebackers are supposed to play Man-to-Man Defense on the Running Back(s) and Tight End(s). And the Cornerbacks are playing Man-to-Man on the Wide Receivers. But the Cornerbacks are playing a unique technique if you will. They are actually supposed to let the Wide Receivers get behind them, and the Cornerback are asked to trail the Wide Receives in hopes that the Quarterbacks would try to lob a pass over the Cornerbacks. There is just one problem. The Safety’s are supposed to play over the top to take away the lob pass. (I loved face guarding when I played basketball. It is a beautiful thing when everyone is on the same page). Now if your Safety does not get into position quick enough to discourage the lob pass, it will “look like” the Cornerback is getting beat, when in reality it is the Safety getting beat. But you would have to be in the huddle and on the practice field to know exactly what was supposed to happen. My point? This is just one play. Most teams have hundreds of plays to learn, hundreds of personnel packages, audibles, coverages, techniques etc. So how is that people know when a player makes a mistake? By listening to the commentators? LOL.. Half of the commentators never played football. So who do you listen to now?

I personally loved Greg Williams because he maximized his talent on Defense. He never asked any of his players (well maybe Sean Taylor) to do anything outside of themselves. Carlos Rogers had his best years under Williams. Let us not forget, it was in the 2008 season where Rogers, coming off of an ACL, and MCL injury, came back from surgery 3 months early and had his best pro year. That to me shows that, given the right situation, Rogers can be a solid cornerback. If you are like me, and you are at home watching the game, you would have to know how to evaluate a player before you could make a comment on their performance. Do you know how to evaluate a Cornerback? If not, this is what you look for:

1. Man-to-man coverage: How flexible are their hips and smooth are their turns? Do they have a good backpedal? How fast can they accelerate?

2. Zone coverage: Do they show good range? Do they cover a lot of ground? How are they in the deep half? How is their overall awareness and instinct?

3. Closing quickness: Do they plant and drive well? Do they close and get to the ball in the air?

4. Key and diagnose: How well do they read the QB? Do they anticipate well? Do they seem to be in the right spot?

5. Lateral pursuit: Can they get over trash (a pile of players)? How is the movement in their hips? Can they chase sideline to sideline?

6. Tackling: Do they wrap up well? Do they tackle low or high? Are they able to drag down? Do they tackle with power and are they punishing?

7. Pass drop: How flexible are their hips and how smooth are their turns? Do they get adequate depth? Do they show awareness in zone coverage?

8. Pass coverage/hands: Can they cover man to man? Can they match up in the red zone? Do they have good ball skills?

Obviously, no one checks out 100%. The guy that I see in the NFL that comes really close is Darelle Revis. And last I checked, there is only one Darelle Revis in the NFL? So with that in mind, I ask you to re-evaluate what you think of Carlos Rogers.

How many times have you seen a deep ball completed on the Redskins in the last two seasons? What Defense were they in at the time? How many times were the Safety’s out of position? How many times were the Redskins in the wrong Defensive package? How many times were there blown coverages underneath? How much did the Redskins blitz over the past two seasons? How many backs ran for 100 yards on the Redskins’ Defense? I mean, let us not forget, Cornerbacks have to come up in support of the running game too. If you are getting killed on the ground, imagine what a perfectly timed play action fake could do (a team fakes a run, only to drop back and pass). I think you get my point. You can think that you see everything, when in reality, you might see nothing. Unless you are in the Defensive film room, or in the Defensive huddle, you cannot make a judgement call on someones performance. So to say that Carlos Rogers is a bum is a bit of stretch. Even the great Deion Sanders met his match a few times? There is no Cornerback in the history of the football who has not been beaten. As I stated before, the Wide Recievers in the NFL are World Class athletes. I think that they will beat a few Cornerbacks in their careers. There is not a Cornerback in the history of football who has caught every pass thrown to them. I mean if you could have your pick, what would you like from Carlos Rogers this season?

a. Catch more interceptions?
b. Not let a pass be completed on him?
c. Break up a few more pass plays?
d. Make more tackles?
e. All Of the Above

And be honest with yourself. Who in the NFL does all of this on a consistent basis? If you are real with yourself, you will know that to ask any Cornerback to do all of this is unrealistic. So now that you have something to think about tell me what you expect from Rogers this year. Please leave your comments.

In closing, here is my take on Carlos Rogers. Until the Redskins address their OBVIOUS hole at Free Safety, I would never ask Rogers, Hall, Buchanon or any other Cornerback to play Press Coverage. They would have to play 10 yards off of every, and any Wide Receiver. Until then I do not want Rogers trying to go for Interceptions. I want Rogers to play solid Defense and put himself in position to defense/deflect/break up pass plays. I also do not want Rogers trying to make too many tackles. That is not what he is getting paid for. He is getting paid to disrupt the other teams passing game. If he has to choose, I would much rather have him give up a short pass play as opposed to a long pass play. But, this all goes back to personnel. If you do not have the right personnel, you will be exposed. And no other position is a better measuring stick for this than Cornerback. I mean, Darelle Revis has always been a good Cornerback, but when did he have his best year? When Rex Ryan brought in the right personnel for the Jets’ Defense and brought his blue print from Baltimore for a great 3-4 Defense. Now Darelle Revis is a household name. I believe with the right personnel Carlos Rogers can play at a level close to Darelle Revis. But I am not crazy. Revis by far is the best Cornerback in the game, hands down. But, does this mean Rogers could not be one of the good ones too?