Thomas, the nickel corner?

[amill87]

So I have been thinking and am wondering if we see the debut of Thomas playing the slot in this game. I know he moves around a lot already so why not have him move into the slot every once and awhile?

This would be the game to pull out most of what we got.

 

[Rocket]

Earl has supposedly asked to play corner in the past...

 

[KK84]

He could be very very good in the slot. However, I think he is far too valuable to our defense to move out of centerfield. I may be wrong, but it would be a mistake IMO.

 

[RolandDeschain]

I think it'd be clever to have Earl line up at corner a few times each game, maybe swap with Sherman, just to throw offenses off. I mean, if you're Brees and you see Earl come in to your right and Sherman drop back towards the middle just before your snap, what are you going to think? Rofl. You wouldn't know WHAT'S coming.

 

[Basis4day]

I don't think we'll see that as the standard nickel formation. I expect the defense to be similar to the last 4 games of last season. Earl is more effective at Safety. Keep him there 9 times out of 10.

 

[loafoftatupu]

I have thought about this going back to last year. What I see is the DBs having a lot more room to make plays because ET can cover so much ground. He is such a great tackler too. Hard to give up that sure thing against teams with great RBs. But against the Saints? I could see it. He is great in coverage and is so good at getting after the ball.

 

[rjas77]

While intriguing to say the least...why try to fix something that isn't broke...unless you think our corners are broke already?

 

[Johnny]

That would make our defense as a whole weaker, IMO.... You would be taking an All-Pro FS moving him to the slot and then who would you replace him with?, Chris Maragos?.... He lacks the elite speed that Thomas has and that in turn would create holes along the entire secondary.... I love Sherm but the things he can do depend on Earl being back there at FS not being a nickelback.

 

[drdiags]

ET said he wanted to campaign Pete to play nickel more this year during last year's Pro-Bowl. He did well against Amendola a couple years ago against the Rams. I am just not sure I trust Johnson or Maragos to handle the single safety high role. Both seem to have issues in those late game substitution chances.

 

[thebanjodude]

That would make our defense as a whole weaker, IMO.... You would be taking an All-Pro FS moving him to the slot and then who would you replace him with?, Chris Maragos?.... He lacks the elite speed that Thomas has and that in turn would create wholes along the entire secondary.... I love Sherm but the things he can do depend on Earl being back there at FS not being a nickelback.

Wouldn't creating wholes along the entire secondary be a good thing?

 

[Happypuppy]

Just say no....that's insane IMO to do.

 

[Johnny]

That would make our defense as a whole weaker, IMO.... You would be taking an All-Pro FS moving him to the slot and then who would you replace him with?, Chris Maragos?.... He lacks the elite speed that Thomas has and that in turn would create wholes along the entire secondary.... I love Sherm but the things he can do depend on Earl being back there at FS not being a nickelback.

Wouldn't creating wholes along the entire secondary be a good thing?

Thanks for the spelling correction..

 

[Tical21]

We're going to need him covering up for our corners.

For a few years I thought eventually Earl would transition to corner once he knocks himself silly, but he's been able to remain healthy, which I thought impossible with his stature.

You don't need to move him to nickel to man him up against a TE or inside receiver. We see him drop down and see Kam play center field every now and again, and to be honest, it hasn't worked all that well. He doesn't show the same ability to jump routes. A millisecond of thinking while covering the slot is the difference between a completion or not.

 

[saints2k8]

I'm pretty sure Colston is in the slot the majority of his snaps. probably not a matchup Seattle wants

 

[Happypuppy]

The key is going to be the LBs. we have pretty fast bunch with smith , Wagner ( if he is fully healed ) and Irvin ET allows them to play man when they want , allows Kam to crowd the line. He covers so much space with his Speed.

 

[Erebus]

The way I see it is if you put him in the slot, he covers one guy. Put him at FS and he helps cover everyone.

 

[CANHawk]

I KNOW he's done it before. And recently. I can't remember the exact game, but Earl was definitely playing up on the line covering the slot reciever. I think he defended a pass too. He looked good IIRC (from what all you can see on TV). We don't ever want to make that our base nickel look or anything, but I think it'd be good gamesmanship to throw that look at them periodically to keep them on their toes. Or START in a normal look, then shift into it. With the noise at CLink, I can see Drew burning a time out or two to figure out what the hell is going on.

You couldn't do the single high safety look that Earl makes possible because nobody on this team can duplicate what Earl does, but if you do it with a 2 man deep zone with Kam and Maragos (or Jeron Johnson or any other combo therein) and press man underneath, it could cause problems...

I actually wouldn't be at all surprised to see it actually. I don't think Maxwell or Lane requires any greater degree of babysitting from Earl than Browner does, so if we pulled it off with BB in there, we can pull it off with the other guys.

 

[Lynch Mob]

Leave that man where he belongs in Center field keeping the QB's in check over the top.

 

[Hawknballs]

Why would we take thomas out of the high safety position when he's so good at covering the field and ask him to do something he never does on a regular basis?

Posts about how we use ET and Kam confuse me. It's like people don't seem to quite understand how those two guys work together.

 

[chawx]

I bet you could plug Tate in at Nickel CB and he'd do just fine too....

(kinda :sarcasm_off: )