Darius Slay takes pride in being a shutdown cornerback, harking back to the days of Deion Sanders, Rod Woodson, and most recently, Darrell Revis.
Slay follows the best receiver on the opposing offense regardless of whether they line up in the slot or on the outside. Jim Schwartz has never had a weapon in the secondary during his first four years in Philadelphia, but he had one in Slay during his prior stop as the head coach of the Detroit Lions.
During a Friday zoom call with local media, Schwartz was asked about the prospects of Slay following the opposing offenses best receivers and the Eagles defensive coordinator was noncommital in his response via the Philly Voice.
“And in order to do that, it’s not just on Slay to know inside and outside, which we have a very good comfort level with, and feel like he can do that. But now it’s going to make all of your corners, your safeties, and your nickels have to be just a little bit more multi-dimensional. If Slay lines up at the nickel, the nickel needs to be able to line up at the outside corner, and you need to be able to play man and zone, and blitz from that same look.
“So, I don’t know that it’s going to be a 100 percent, all-the-time thing. Maybe it’s a particular game. Maybe it’s 50 percent of the games. Maybe it’s 75 percent of the games that Slay is matching a particular receiver, but you will see that from our defense.
Schwartz hinted at a hot-button topic that could prevent Slay from following the opponent’s No. 1 weapon. The Eagles have struggled on the outside over the past two seasons and although the addition of Slay allows the Birds to have a shutdown cornerback, it takes away the ability to disguise coverage.
If Slay follows his man to the slot, that could leave Eagles cornerbacks and safeties on an island by themselves, eliminating Slay’s full effectiveness if an opposing offense can just target Sidney Jones, Avonte Maddox or Rasul Douglas when Darius ends up in the slot.
[vertical-gallery id=638359]
[lawrence-related id=638697,638691,638679]