I have been watching secondary play in college for too many years, but I believe that it has taught me a few things:
1). every secondary player gets beat several times a season, and occasionally badly. That is modern offensive football. Why does one think that the Kellys of the world station their Mike Floyds and Tyler Eiferts out there to terrorize them about having to face the best athletes on the opposition?? Every time a never-played-a-snap "fan" complains about one of our guys getting beat, I cringe.
2). Young secondary players, especially young corners, tend to improve with dazzling advancement from one year to another. [If they have "It"]. The noise in their head is gone. The field becomes their intuitive jungle. They feel, they see, they strike. Again, pseudo-fans, who appear to be remarkably ignorant about the developmental and team aspects of football, are completely off-base when they complain about the players not being instantly full-blown Deion Sanders yet.
3). I'm sticking with #1 and #2, but this next may be just BS: These guys [Russell, Jackson, and even Farley] just look like they have it. That one is just my eye-test. Here's why: great closing speed/ never give up on a play/ swarm to the ball --- the whole defense is doing this [except on rare puzzling occasions, Ishaq {I don't get that}] ---/ and tough-minded tackling attempts. Big time athleticism and change-of-direction//flexibility [our much-maligned former corner {and I will NOT malign him}, Gary Gray, had all of the above at levels of excellence except change-of-direction/moment-of-truth flexibility, and that shows how primary that quality is]. By the way, Manti was not the player everybody wanted to believe in until he [just about magically in my mind --- never saw such a surprising change in this particular quality and would have thought it impossible] suddenly became flexible and with that a rapid direction-changer. These interceptions happen due to extreme flexible athleticism, plus willpower and strength, all at the moment of truth.
Anyway--- we have something really good coming here in the D-Backfield. We just need a veteran safety with a lot of Motta in him, and we're going to be elite.
