Christian Roland-Wallace
 

Spags and Merritt might have found another one. Kid has been awesome since he got back in the lineup. Had the most tackles today. Great tackler, smart kid and knows how to use his leverage.

Only mistake I’ve seen from him was a poor angle on the run for Browns only TD.

He was incredible today

Nazeeh Johnson is not it, though. Any news on Watson?

Damn straight!

The rosiest of timelines has him back right before the Super Bowl.

7th highest PFF grade from Steelers game. He played in the slot a lot.

I like him

I'm scared of us getting Conner back and using him the same way we had been in the slot.

Been a major help to our D these past few weeks not having him in that role. He can be a deep safety.

He definitely flashes some ability to make plays.

Another nice find.

The thing I (think) I've noticed about corners is that year to year they're EXTREMELY volatile.

The truly excellent ones are excellent every season. But apart from that top 20% or so, they're up one year, down the next, maybe up the next year, maybe not.

Game to game within a season, OTOH, they seem to be pretty steady. You have a guy play 3 really good games and he's probably going to play MOSTLY good games that entire season.

Which is a long way of saying that Roland-Wallace has played pretty well this year. So I'd be reasonably confident that he'll play well if called upon again this year.

But that I wouldn't go so far as to say "Spags found another" because guys in that tier are just as likely as not to show up next season and suck sweaty ballsack.

I completely agree on CB variability, but honestly I think it can fluctuate pretty wildly from game to game as well. Williams is a guy that looks pretty solid one game and then rancid the next, and for the life of me I can't work out how he can be so up and down. It definitely feels like, as you say, there's a small cohort of REALLY good CBs like McDuffie and then a bunch of guys who can turn up any given game.

It's partly why it feels such a an important depth position. Lots of roles I think you have to keep people in place for a decent period. I'm way more comfortable than I used to be seeing some churn and burn of CBs even through a season. If you're not in form, meh, we'll find a guy who can piece together a couple of reasonable games.

I'd go with Jungle Law but Christian, Roland & Wallace can get you by in a pinch

Oh Williams is just erratic.

But look at Watson. Watson generally plays most games in a season at about the same level. What he's done is improve between seasons, but in the season he's been about the same.

And a guy like Nelson was very much like that. Nelson, year to year, was a complete wild card. But within a year, what you saw was what you got.

I think the fact that Williams IS so erratic is why the coaching staff is reluctant to play him despite the highs and the physicality (which you'd think they'd love).

I don't know...it's a working theory. Might be bullshit and I've done exactly zero homework on it. Just a gut feel sort of thing.

Move Nazeeh to safety like he was in college

Could well be right, to me it felt like Williams was steadier the previous couple of years and Watson was a little more erratic. Which is why i was so surprised at Watson clearly being the better option this year, which he has been. But yeah, this year he's been pretty erratic.

Also found Johnson baffling. He's looked OK in a couple of games but pretty bad in plenty more. I have no real clue why they persisted so ong with him, but that seems to be their general approach, until it becomes impossible to ignore.

Yeah I'd be all for this. Good athlete with some long speed, actually tackles decently. Not sure he reads the game all that well but I think he may make a better FS than CB.

There is hope I'm hearing but at a minimum he'd be rusty. Not sure we can count on it.