I think some people are gonna be mighty disappointed when they realize the battle is between Kendrick and Tomlinson. Tomlinson, for all his talent still needs to show that he can avoid penalties. That was his hang up in college too. If the kid can get a handle on that, I could definitely see him winning the spot.
And hey, look, Kendrick didn't put great tape out there last year so will be really interesting to see if all this coach chatter holds up on how well he did in the offseason program before getting hurt.
Witherspoon is a lock at one outside corner and Durant at nickel/Star so the question is who's the 3rd. (And also, does Durant take an outside spot when teams are in 12/13 personnel?)
I expect Durant to travel with the top threat this season, at least at the start of it. Call it star or whatever but getting him on the top draw will be crucial. Tomlinson is our second best corner IMO. Nobody else is going to be in his class of these other guys. If we are lucky he will allow them to flip between Durant and him for certain matchups too, though I don't want to put too high expectation on him. Morris is kind of conservative in playing the kids too, he takes his time with that stuff but Tomlinson is definitely a cut above the others.
So the third guy is the question. Kendrick is in play for it, but the problem with him is he's really a Cover3 type boundary corner who should have someone protecting him deep. He limits the calls IMO. You can roll the dice with him in quarters or play some games with the call and all that in your gameplan but bottom line is be careful who he's matched up with out there because he's liable to get smoked by certain guys. Witherspoon is similar btw. His best season was years ago. He is the type of guy who can do the job if he's matched up favorably but the moment he's not he's toast.
What I wish they would do is play Kendrick in the slot. I think he could be quite good there. But with him you also have that mental side of things where I'm not sure he's fully bought-in to shit so idk. I think you're probably right about Witherspoon but just don't be surprised when he gets focused by certain teams and QBs. Guys like Rodgers will kill us there, the savvy vets who know how to pre-snap read and get that ball out there quickly in the right looks to challenge him.
Also dammit I forgot Rochell. I have not given up on him fully yet. Hope to see him do some good things in this next game. If he could step up we'd actually look good at corner. As it stands we're 2/3 there IMO.
