Tony McRae is one of the newest Detroit Lions. McRae agreed to a one-year contract with the Lions on Friday.
For most fans, even hardcore NFL fans, McRae is pretty much an unknown commodity. That’s true for me, too; I knew he played cornerback and on special teams for the Cincinnati Bengals, but I couldn’t recall ever watching the 26-year-old journeyman actually play.
So I spent a couple of hours on a sunny Saturday morning watching McRae with the Bengals. He started two games at CB in 2019, against the Rams and Jaguars, as an injury replacement. I watched those games and reviewed both his games against the Cleveland Browns, where he played exclusively on special teams.
The best play was his first defensive snap against the Rams. He smartly stayed at home on the backside slot and made a nice low tackle on Todd Gurley near the line of scrimmage. I probably should have stopped there…
In coverage, McRae consistently showed little anticipation of the receiver or the ball. He’s slow to react to cuts and moves. It seems like he’s always playing catch-up on passing reps, never the dictator of the action. The Bengals were frequently in zone and McRae often hedged between his two responsibilities instead of committing to one and allowing his fellow DBs to react off that.
As a tackler, McRae is pretty adept at squaring up the target and then diving low. Most of the time it was effective, but he does drop his eyes. He’s better at it on special teams. He’s also more aggressive at taking on and subsequently discarding blocks on special teams.
For a more intimate knowledge, I turned to a couple of trusted colleagues who covered McRae during his time with the Bengals.
From Joe Goodberry of The Athletic,
“You’re looking at a special teamer for the most part. McRae runs and moves better than his tested times, but still isn’t a great or aware athlete. The Bengals mostly used him in the slot when he did play defense and he was pretty bad. Inside breaking routes, stacking receivers and deep ball skills ruined his day. Keep him on special teams as the 5th or 6th cornerback.”
Bengals Wire editor Chris Roling was a little more optimistic and brought up more of McRae’s past experience.
Tony McRae joined the Bengals in 2016 and eventually became another undrafted gem for the staff. He technically went to Baltimore briefly in 2017 and then bounced around before the Bengals slapped him on a practice squad, then called him up.
McRae was initially a callup in late 2017 to replace Adam Jones, which speaks a bit to his versatility. Over 12 games in 2018 he took the spot of Darqueze Dennard in the slot and that earned him an extension into 2019. He didn’t see a ton of base-defense snaps in 2019 and was targeted by opposing offenses when he got on the field (14 completions on 19 targets at 16 yards per completion) but he’s got some good value on special teams besides secondary depth.
He’s a scrappy player all around and it speaks to his production and upside that he stuck around for a while on a Bengals roster that has so many major assets invested in the position over the years. The link with Lions’ special teams coordinator Brayden Coombs (who would hold the same position in Cincinnati if Darrin Simmmons wasn’t assistant head coach) is a big one.
In short, don’t expect McRae to play much — if ever — on defense. But he’s a good special teams player and fills the role that Johnson Bademosi or Julian Sanford played in past years, a special teams specialist that also happens to play a position somewhere on defense in an emergency. That’s why new Lions special teams coach Brayden Coombs, who was the assistant in Cincinnati, coveted McRae as a free agent.