00:00In Colorado.
00:01It is time for our position player-a-day breakdown as we close in on training camp.
00:11Yeah.
00:20Today we're talking cornerbacks for the Commanders.
00:23That's not quarterbacks.
00:25Corner?
00:26As is the Netflix program.
00:28But cornerbacks.
00:30And I wanted to go cornerbacks here, Danny, because I wanted to talk about another piece
00:34that we saw that was written about a commander.
00:36PFF came out with a top 10 list of potential breakout players on the defensive side of
00:42the ball.
00:42They called it their 2026 All-Breakout Team on defense.
00:45Listed on that team, representing your Washington Commanders, Trey Amos.
00:51And he is a big part of any conversation we'll have about the corner room.
00:54Sounds like he is now healthy and ready for training camp, which is a big deal.
00:59That was the latest we heard.
01:00But Amos is going to be starting on one corner.
01:04Mike Sanra still is likely to start on the other side of the formation.
01:08I would think Amik Robertson will be in the nickel.
01:10And then they've got some depth because they went out and added a couple of veterans like
01:14Russell Douglas, who's won Super Bowls.
01:16Quan Martin still going to play in the nickel some as a safety, I would think.
01:20Akilo Witherspoon, the former L.A. Ram.
01:23They're suddenly having quietly added veterans little by little in a better spot, maybe a
01:28corner than they were last year.
01:30And this is one of the thinnest groups all offseason.
01:32Yeah, you would say so.
01:33In addition, having more athleticism at safety, I think only helps in that regard, right?
01:38Maybe you're asked to do a little bit less and maybe you can sort of stay in your silo.
01:42If you think of some of those bits of quarters coverage or zones, you don't have to be responsible
01:45for an area and a third, you can just be in your area.
01:48And those kind of leads to some bad assignments.
01:51So I saw a lot from Trey Amos.
01:53Again, I'm not telling you it's a finished product.
01:55I'm not telling you he's a star.
01:56He's Christian Gonzalez or something like that.
01:58But I like what I saw in year number one.
02:00I feel like they got a dude there.
02:01It's just a matter of time.
02:02And I'm hoping the time is right now, by the way.
02:05If good coaching, good scheme, good design, good setup, I think he can thrive a little bit.
02:09Sammer still is the most interesting one to me, though, where they 100%, in my view,
02:13drafting him to be the inside slot guy, nickel cornerback, whatever.
02:17And he's had more success elsewhere.
02:20Are they trusting their eval and eventually they want him back inside?
02:23Are they kind of going, you know what?
02:24We got an outside corner.
02:25Let's just roll with that.
02:26He's an interesting candidate this year for me for what they're going to do with him.
02:30Yeah, here's what's compelling about him, though, is how much of him playing so much better
02:33on the outside is just because it's an easier position, which isn't to knock him.
02:37I think he's a good football player.
02:39But my point is, I think sometimes we don't account enough for how much harder it
02:43is to play in the nickel anyway.
02:44When it's two different players, you just kind of see one guy playing well outside and
02:48the guy inside is struggling.
02:50But yeah, he has not been nearly as effective or efficient playing the much harder role,
02:54which is nickel corner.
02:56Now, they're going to ask less of the position group in general with the Durante Jones defense,
03:00which I think is a big, big deal.
03:02But I am excited that they're finally going to let Sandra still play on the outside, it
03:06seems.
03:07Last year at this time, he had this awesome year where he mostly played on the outside because
03:11of injuries in 2024, and they went, yeah, that's fine, but he's going to play inside.
03:16And we were going, yeah, but he played better outside.
03:17And they're going, very small sample.
03:18We drafted him to be this one thing.
03:20Exactly.
03:20We're going to crowbar him in because this is what he is.
03:23This is what he's going to be at this level.
03:25And then after another year where inside, not particularly good, outside, really good,
03:30they're going, all right, we'll just keep him outside for the moment.
03:32Does that stick?
03:33Is that how it's always going to look?
03:34I'm not sure.
03:35Russell Douglas is not a guy that played inside a ton.
03:37So that makes me think maybe that whether it's Amos occasionally or probably more likely
03:42Sandra still, someone gets kicked inside an 11 personnel from time to time if you want
03:46all three of those guys on the field if Douglas is playing well.
03:49But I do think that nickel role on the interior is going to be pretty fascinating because you're
03:55going to get some safety, as you said.
03:56You're going to get some linebacker.
03:58I think Sonny Stiles can do some of that around the line of scrimmage.
04:01But what I clamored for is let's get veteran help here.
04:06Why is this group so thin?
04:08And it took some time, and they waited until the third, fourth, and fifth years of free
04:12agency.
04:13But eventually, Akilah Witherspoon come on down, Trey Hawkins III, who's a former New
04:18York giant who played for a couple years in the division, and most recently, the aforementioned
04:22Russell Douglas.
04:23So now you've got probably six guys competing for five spots.
04:27And in the end, if it's Sandra still Amos, Robertson, Witherspoon, Douglas, that's a fine
04:34room, especially if they're telling me, and this is what they think, that the scheme is
04:38going to elevate these guys immensely.
04:40The reason you don't draft a corner early, the reason you don't sign big money corners
04:43with this scheme, see Minnesota, is the whole point is the ball comes out of the quarterback's
04:48hand quickly.
04:49So if you're asking so little, you're not going to prioritize the position.
04:53And what success looks like at this position is really, really hard.
04:56I mean, you could just go, number of interceptions!
04:58You know, and you could go, well, a guy had five, so that means he had a great year.
05:02Well, you know, are quarterbacks picking on him, and he ended up with five?
05:05Or is it because he actually made great plays on the ball and was a shutdown, and quarterbacks
05:10were making a mistake?
05:11You know, I think of that famous Chicago Bears game where D'Angelo Hall had four picks,
05:14and Jay Cutler threw a bunch to him, and he's like, yeah, we thought that was the weak
05:17link.
05:17Now, they got proven wrong, and good for Washington in that game.
05:20But you see my point.
05:21I mean, Marshawn Lattimore had seven pass breakups last year, and you go, wow, that's pretty
05:25good.
05:26He was picked on, and he was a disaster.
05:27I think he had one good game.
05:28It was one we were at in Kansas City.
05:30So it's hard to sort of feel the success here.
05:32You just kind of know it when you see it, I feel like.
05:34And I think it's always kind of hard to grab some of these.
05:37You can look at yards per target and completion percentage allowed.
05:40Again, that's sort of vague.
05:42You don't know who was assigned to do what on any given play, but you know it when you
05:45see it.
05:45You know when those third and 11s are converted every time against you that your corners
05:49and your secondary aren't any good.
05:51You know when there's a third and seven, and there's a cushion of 12 yards, and the guy
05:54turns around at the sticks and gets a completion.
05:55You know they're scared, and they're not any good, and sort of that's that.
05:59We've seen that a bunch here.
06:00I think you'll feel it at this position, maybe more than some others where it's easier to
06:04count stats.
06:05You'll know what it looks like if these corners are as good or this scheme is as helpful
06:08as we think.
06:09Because eventually, I talk about this with offense all the time, defense too.
06:13The league to me is third and seven.
06:15What happens on those kind of plays, there's a divergence.
06:18First down, a lot of things go one way or the other.
06:20Second down, it is what it is.
06:21The league to me is about who does what on third and passing situations, and teams that
06:26are good on both sides of the ball are able to win more often in those spots than their
06:30peers, and then you end up with a much better record.
06:32So to me, that's where you're going to see the proof in the pudding.
06:34Are they getting off the field in those kind of circumstances?
06:37Trey Amos, just to go back to him for a second, we started the conversation through the lens
06:42of Amos, who's a 24-year-old, going into his second year, was a second-round pick.
06:47Like, you were right, I mean, look the part, put some good stuff on tape, 6'1", a little
06:52under 200 pounds, but a good-sized corner.
06:55He, to me, is an example of, as much as I like him, and what I loved about him mostly
06:59I saw at training camp, I thought he played really, really well at camp, because we didn't
07:03see a lot of him in the regular season, but his PFF grade, for what it's worth, 82nd
07:08of 114 corners.
07:09There's a little bit of just writing his name down in Sharpie and being like, oh, they
07:13got Trey Amos, they're in good shape.
07:14Right, and he's being listed here as the breakout candidate from PFF and other outlets.
07:19I certainly understand why people like him.
07:21I'm one of people.
07:22I like him a lot.
07:23I'm people, yeah.
07:23But there's a little bit of cart before the horse here if we're talking about, like, oh,
07:28he's a stud, write it in pen, he's the answer as corner one for a long time.
07:33Played about a half season, was pretty solid on a terrible defense, I think looked better
07:37sometimes because he wasn't the disastrous player on the disastrous play.
07:42But as a 61st overall pick, to me, it looks like it could be a win.
07:45But I think he's got plenty to prove still, and I'm not ready to just put in Sharpie that
07:50they don't need to spend money as a top corner because they have Trey Amos.
07:55But we will see, as the year goes on, how he develops.
07:58What are your thoughts on the corner position?
07:59Did they do enough for you to feel well?
08:01800-636-1067 is the number.
08:04That's 800-636-1067.
08:07Position group a day on G&D.
08:08Position group a day on G&D.
08:08Position group a day on G&D.
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