The Panthers made a splash on the waiver wire early Sunday afternoon. Following a slew of roster cuts the previous day to trim their roster down to 53 players, Carolina was tied with the Giants for being the NFL’s most active team on waivers, signing three players from two different teams. The biggest name of the three was Rasul Douglas, the fourth-year cornerback from the Eagles.
Douglas (6-foot-2, 209 pounds) shone in his college football days at West Virginia. In his senior year, the flashy outside corner outdid all cornerbacks in that year’s class with eight interceptions, adding 10 pass breakups and 70 total tackles. Leading up to the draft, Douglas drew high praise for his reliable open-field tackling, off-ball coverage and run defense.
After Douglas was picked by Philadelphia in the third round of the 2017 NFL draft, he immediately found a rotational role with the team, playing in 14 games his rookie season and then all 16 through the next two seasons. Over these three years, Douglas totaled five interceptions, 25 pass breakups and 118 combined tackles.
Not all went well, however, as the third-year corner was on the wrong end of a handful of highlight plays by opposing receivers that drew plenty of brutal criticism on social media.
So, what does Douglas bring to the table?
Here’s a few clips, starting with a near perfect tackle on a short pass to Tyreek Hill.
A Rasul Douglas sighting, immediate tackle on Hill pic.twitter.com/gSGeRuRbzc
— Kansas More Chaints (@AdrianFedkiw) September 17, 2017
Douglas showed some good coverage awareness on this interception of Cam Newton from 2017.
Rasul Douglas is a good find. Good size (6’2”) and has played in every game but 2 since 2017. 5 INT in his first two seasons w/ PHI.
Picked off Newton in 2017. https://t.co/Dx0qCwOR3B pic.twitter.com/HiWiKXlu8p
— John Ellis (@OnePantherPlace) September 6, 2020
And here are a few more highlight plays, including a perfectly executed interception.
Shot 10 – Sure, there were a couple of plays Rasul Douglas would like to have back (we'll look at them here), but he made some really strong plays in coverage as well. The interception was especially impressive. Great job of reading the QB down the field #FlyEaglesFly pic.twitter.com/gkgGruOAMv
— Fran Duffy (@EaglesXOs) August 10, 2018
Douglas joins a thin defensive backfield in Carolina and thus has a chance to compete for a serious role in Phil Snow’s defense sooner rather than later. All it could take is a few mistakes from Eli Apple to get Douglas onto the field with the starters.
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