volsunghawk
New member
I enjoy Bill Barnwell's writing, and he just did a piece on NFL players who are having success this season after coming from out of nowhere. Burley is his first entry:
The entire piece is a great read, but the Burley part was just awesome.
http://grantland.com/the-triangle/marcu ... e-players/
Marcus Burley, Seattle
Role: Rotation cornerback
Drafted: Undrafted free agent, 2013
How Acquired: Trade, August 2014
NFL Games Before 2014: 0
Got His Job Because: Offseason departures, injuries to other backup corners
It’s unfair. It shouldn’t work this way. The Seahawks already had the best secondary in football. Sure, they lost Walter Thurmond III and Brandon Browner at corner this offseason, but with Jeremy Lane and Tharold Simon waiting to take over as the nickel cornerback, the Seahawks were set on the outside. Then Lane and Simon both got hurt. That thrust Burley, the team’s fifth corner, into a meaningful role just weeks after the Seahawks acquired him from Indianapolis on cut day.
He should have been a weakness for opponents to exploit. Instead, Burley’s play has made one NFL scout say he’s already better than Thurmond, while Sports Illustrated‘s Doug Farrar suggested that an injury to Burley was what allowed the Broncos to score on their final drive in Week 3. It shouldn’t be this easy to find worthwhile contributors at corner!
For the Seahawks, it is. There’s a lot to be said for playing next to Richard Sherman and Earl Thomas while suiting up for Pete Carroll, an incredible defensive backs coach. And it’s not like Burley wasn’t available to the rest of the league. After going undrafted in 2013, he caught on with the Jaguars, who cut him early in the year. He then bounced around the practice squads of the Eagles, Rams, and Colts, each of whom could use a cornerback. Burley then showed enough in the preseason this year for the Seahawks to send a sixth-round pick to the Colts, who were apparently about to cut the former Delaware star.
At 5-foot-10, he doesn’t fit Seattle’s known preference for bigger cornerbacks on the edge, but he fits in nicely as a slot corner. He played 58 percent of the snaps against Denver in Week 3, and while Simon will take some of Burley’s snaps when he comes back from knee surgery, Burley has shown enough to stay on the active roster. Just what Seattle needed: better defensive backs.
The entire piece is a great read, but the Burley part was just awesome.
http://grantland.com/the-triangle/marcu ... e-players/