Brandon Staley was asked about cornerback Asante Samuel Jr.’s role at his Wednesday press conference:
Asante is a starting-caliber corner in the league. He has made a lot of big plays for us in his first two years. I think that he has proven himself against the top receivers in the league. We’ve trusted him that way. We’re going to try and keep training him in multiple spots because we know that he can play inside, too. Now that we have a healthy J.C. Jackson and Michael Davis, it’s going to allow us to try him out at some new spots, too, where in the first two years, that probably wasn’t the case.
Samuel’s role will be slightly different, with J.C. Jackson and Michael Davis healthy. His snap counts last year were heavily concentrated on the outside, considering the injury to Jackson and the significant role Bryce Callahan played last year.
The Staley defense tends to be multiple, so Samuel not starting on the outside shouldn’t be viewed in the binary. When the season kicks off, there’s a decent chance he’ll log snaps both outside and the slot depending on the look or opponent.
Not to mention, injuries, unfortunately, can still happen. Being deep at cornerback to the point where the Chargers are struggling to pin Samuel’s exact role on the field is a good thing while it lasts, but it’s the NFL. Positional units are deep in the offseason until they eventually aren’t.
Staley also pointed to Samuel Jr.’s work ethic:
“He had a really good season for us last year. Like a lot of our guys, he just needs to keep making improvements. Asante really cares. He’s a competitor. And we have a ton of confidence in him.”
Something worth pointing out is the difference in Samuel’s training this offseason vs. his role in previous seasons:
In two NFL seasons Asante Samuel Jr. has logged 14 total snaps from the slot and 1,625 on the outside. I believe he could make a nice transition to the STAR/Nickel position if called upon. It’s a significantly bigger transition than most people realize though.
— Steven Haglund (@StevenIHaglund) July 24, 2023
Samuel vs. Ja’Sir Taylor in the slot has been somewhat publicized as a positional battle for playing time, but it’s worth pointing out that Samuel hasn’t been cross-trained for slot play until now. As pointed out in the tweet above, Samuel has taken less than one percent of his career snaps in the slot to this point.
As Staley has alluded to, Samuel’s role is to be determined, but he will still be a significant part of the Chargers’ secondary. Besides, as mentioned earlier, there are worse issues to have than Los Angeles being perceived to be too deep at cornerback. The longer they have more options and can stay multiple, the better. That’s true for both Samuel and the team.