Samuel, Asomugha and the Eagles' CBs
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Samuel, Asomugha and the Eagles' CBs
Sheil Kapadia, Philly.com
For the second consecutive offseason, the Eagles need to address the right cornerback position.
I've argued (and have not been alone) that this is absolutely their No. 1 need - ahead of right guard, ahead of defensive line, ahead of linebacker, and whatever other positions you want to throw in there.
The reason why is simple: putting a quality player opposite Asante Samuel will help every other player on defense.
But that's not really new information. And while we know Samuel had probably the best season of his career last year, Aaron Schatz over at Football Outsiders recently put into context just how well he performed in 2010.
Schatz wrote about how the league's cornerbacks measured up in three different categories: Success Rate, Yards Per Pass and YAC allowed. Success Rate is defined as "the percentage of passes that don't manage to get at least 45 percent of needed yards on first down, 60 percent of needed yards on second down, or 100 percent of needed yards on third down."
The rankings initially looked only at cornerbacks that were targeted at least 40 times. Samuel played in 11 games last season, missing four due to injury and one in Week 17 when most of the Eagles' starters sat. Overall, Football Outsiders had him charted for 36 targets, but they included Samuel at the end of the post anyway.
Here's how Samuel's numbers looked in the categories mentioned above:
| |
Targets |
Yds./pass |
Success
rate |
YAC |
| Asante
Samuel |
36 |
3.2 |
78% |
1.9 |
Samuel ranked first in the league in yards per pass and success rate. Among cornerbacks that were targeted at least 40 times, the Jets' Darrelle Revis was first in success rate at 70 percent (8 percentage points behind Samuel).
The Vikings' Antoine Winfield allowed 4.2 yards per pass, which was first among cornerbacks that had at least 40 targets. Again, Samuel was better than Winfield by a full yard at 3.2. And Samuel's 1.9 YAC was third.
The other aspect of Samuel's play that is not taken into account with the Football Outsiders rankings is interceptions. Despite only being targeted 36 times, Samuel ranked tied for second in the league with seven picks. The only other cornerback that ranked in the top 10 in Success Rate and the top 30 in interceptions was Green Bay's Tramon Williams, who was fourth in success rate (66 percent) and tied for fifth with six interceptions.
A couple other non-Samuel notes. One concerns the Eagles' nickel corner, Joselio Hanson, who had an outstanding season, according to the numbers. Here's how he rated:
| Targets |
Yds./pass |
Success
rate |
YAC |
|
| Joselio
Hanson |
46 |
4.4 |
63% |
1.5 |
Hanson ranked second among cornerbacks with at least 40 targets in yards per pass, eighth in success rate and first in YAC allowed. You could look at the numbers in one of two ways. One: Why on earth did Hanson not get more of a shot to start at right cornerback over Dimitri Patterson? Or two: It's clear why the coaching staff wanted to keep him in his role as the nickel corner, covering the slot, given how well he was performing.
The one name that is mentioned every time the Eagles' cornerback situation takes places is Nnamdi Asomugha. Here's how Football Outsiders charted his numbers last season:
| Targets |
Yds./pass |
Success
rate |
YAC |
|
| Nnamdi
Asomugha |
31 |
5.9 |
61% |
3.7 |
What's incredible here is that Asomugha played in three more games than Samuel and was still targeted five fewer times. Towards the end of the season, it really seemed like opposing quarterbacks were staying away from Samuel. As the numbers show, that was true of Asomugha pretty much all season.
Last offseason, the Eagles chose to focus on their defensive line as a way to mask issues in the secondary. This offseason, the opposite approach could be taken with the addition of one cornerback - whether it's Asomugha, a draft prospect or someone else.
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#djw26, Asomugha is a free agent. They can't trade anyone for him except piles of cash.— mundiff- we should break the bank for Nnamdi. Him, Asante, and Joselio = best pass rush ever— yatpatel
Comment removed.- Like Samuel?
— phillychaos - Comment removed.
- DJacobs, why don't you check out footballoutsiders and see exactly who he was covering when he played? The eagles didn't face many slouch receiving corps this year, ie: colts, giants, cowboys, vikings, packers, texans, vikings. I would check it out later but I gotta work mucho, if you don't I'll check it out tomrrow night. Bottom line, I feel, is that qbs don't like to throw at asante. When they do, he has a high probability of picking it off, not to mention the countless pass deflections and passes he dropped. How many times did we see a double move on him this year? None that I can remember, please correct me if I'm wrong. Also that YAC number of 1.9, who's questioning asante's tackling ability now? Get Nnamdi. nuff said. Boom.— beerflow
- Sorry, I meant falcons for that last one.— beerflow
- @yatpatel....how do those 3 cb's add up to the best pass rush ever? have you ever watched or played football?— cheesesteak17
- I think he means our pass rush from our defensive line will improve with better corners that can shut down receivers. More coverage sacks.
— ej610 - Stats don't tell the story in this case. If you put Revis on the right in the Eagles' defense, teams will throw at Samuel all day, and have some good success. Asante is a great ballhawk, and would get ten picks a year in that scenario, but they'd burn him deep with double moves and work him on short stuff too. And of course run sweeps in his direction. This guy is not the complete cornerback: a decent but not exceptional cover corner, and at best an average tackler. Any receiver in the league can get deep on him. The QB just has to make him bite on a pump fake.
He has made his money on ballhawking, and being good enough in coverage to be a starter. Should never be mentioned with Revis, Champ Bailey, Eric Allen, Troy Vincent, and company. He's worth around $2 million a year, so he should thank his agent. If he were bigger, and a better tackler, his real position is free safety.— armchairGM - Any factual evidence to back up you statements? Or are we just supposed to take your infinite wisdom of the game of football as the truth? — phillychaos
- I'd like to see the numbers for Samuel when Brown was on our team. Samuel was thrown to more often and I remember he was beaten a lot. That's where his tackling became a big issue. If Asomugha is opposite him, Samuel could revert back to his revolving door tackling.— ej610
- The goal is the same: to improve the pass rush. The only reason we're talking about CB's right now is because they've continually failed to bring in an impact DE to complement Cole.— p-diddy
Great info, once again, Sheil. Thank you for writing a substantive post instead of pap meant only to garner hits from the haters. :/— Mabus
Maybe Sheil. But good linebackers will do more to improve 3rd down and red zone defense. Which may be why you failed to mention either of those glaring weaknesses.
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