First off my friends, I got the idea to write this because of the great discussion here: Tales of Mythology II

Thanks to Broncobear for the good insight on Alphonso Smith. Much like the rest of us, my first reaction when we traded up into the second round for Smith, I was a bit shocked. I thought for sure we were going to be fine in the secondary. In fact, I thought if anything we'd go for another safety for Dawkins to groom up. Anyway, thanks to MHR for keeping my head intact throughout the draft because I was honestly quite shocked at some of the moves and picks. The point of this post here is my first hand experience at being a short cornerback and why you can't jump off the deep end when a 5'9" guy is drafted for the position so high on the board.

Let's get some main points out of the way early. Yes, Alphonso Smith is NOT of atypical size to be considered a serious threat from a quarterback's eyes. However, based on personal experience, I love the fact that once he becomes a full time starter (could be this year) most quarterbacks are going to release the notion that he is a serious threat. There's a lot of variables that play into Smith's threat to an offense. First off, he's a rookie. Second off, he's short compared to the league standard. While it's obvious that a taller cornerback will have a higher jump reach, this only really counts when your in a straight run and jump situation.

Hey, we're not playing basketball here. I dare you to tell Muggsy Bogues that he didn't have the talent to hold up to anyone in his time. For those who don't know, Bogues was a point guard for the Washington Bullets, Charlotte Hornets, Golden State Warriors and Toronto Raptors in his time. He was only 5'3". That's a huge difference compared to his competition, did it stop him? No it didn't. Some consider Bogues' tenure in the NBA to be of novelty only, but he really knew a thing or two about the game and his position. He didn't stay in for 14 years for nothing. 

We're not here to talk basketball though. Back to Smith and my experiences in his position. It wasn't that long ago that we had a short cornerback that was considered too short for his job. I think you all know who I'm speaking of. Now, Williams had a few things that worked better for him pre-draft. For starters, he ran a very fast 4.30 on the 40. That put him at 7th all time. That may not be the case anymore, but prior to the 05 draft, that's where the records stood. Now, I don't rely too much on a 40 time when it comes to cornerbacks because rarely do they run straight. In that sense, I'd much rather take a corner that got a slower time on the 40 but can swing his hips and turn himself around without missing a beat. This little movement alone can kick you back almost a full second if you're rough enough with it. We don't have that problem with Smith, as his hips have noted to be very smooth and fluid. I believe that because of this fact alone, he will not have a problem staying up with a TO, or Randy Moss. 

I left a post in the link above about my personal experiences at the cornerback position because I played from middle school through high school the same position. In my senior year in high school, I was only 5'8" at a hefty 190 lbs. I'm not a small framed boy and that worked against me in some cases. In most however, it didn't matter. I was able to get some really good hip movement training in marching band as well. Let it be known here my friends, you want to learn how to maneuver your body all over the place? Carry 40 lbs of dead weighted drums on your back all the time. I can honestly say in hindsight that I would have NEVER been able to hold up in my position if I didn't take band on the side. For the musicians in the house, you really learn a thing about yourself when you can do spins and loopy loops and dippity do's at 180BPM without losing your focus on marching and playing together. Thankfully because of music throughout my life, I've learned a great deal about hand-eye and eye-brain coordination.  Yeah, I was a BAND GEEK. haha

Now that my credentials are in place, I want to tell a story about size and how I took advantage of the other teams ignorance. You may have already read about it in the linked post, but here's the best example of when the other teams take your size for granted. We were playing in the state regional game at home against a school that was larger than us at every position. Of course this was because their high school had students transfer to the district just to play for them. They were a "farm team" for USC if I remember right. Anyways, we're hosting Notre Dame High School and I was covering weak side. Their number 2 receiver was a monster for being 17. He was 6'5" and had the athletics to back it up. Throughout the game, we would do a little chat here and there, come to find out he was the starting center for the varsity basketball squad in the spring. If we were doing a 40 yard dash, he would smoke me all day long. Fact of the matter is his waist was almost at my chest! This guy was all legs and he knew how to use them. Anyways, I studied him throughout the week to see his tendencies and of all people, my band director pointed out a serious flaw in this guys game. (I used the band room for my AV needs, it was more relaxed) My director pointed out that this guy couldn't turn on his routes easily. Due to his awkward proportions, he had a very hard time planting his foot and swinging his body around or cutting the route. Well, thanks to my director I was able to expose his weakness all day long and even though he was a beastly 9 inches taller than me, he didn't get ONE catch on me all day. He had 2 catches for 11 or 12 yards on the game. The only catches he got was once when he cut up the middle on a short pass and got right in between the safeties and the linebackers and again when he took a screen pass for about 5 yards. I want to point out that he didn't get any catches on me because I was that good. He didn't get any catches on me because I didn't give him a chance to even get the ball. If the quarterback threw it higher than my reach, I would use my frame and weight to throw towards him while still trying to get the ball. Thanks to his legs, he would often try and just keep balance, not catch the ball. I know this could be called pass interference, but honestly the first few times I was just trying to get the ball. It takes some serious "hops" to get up to his full arm's extent. Thankfully though, I didn't rely TOO much on this method, as all of his routes involved a lot of unnecessary lane changes, etc. Now how does this relate to Smith and his job on our team? I'll explain.

First off, in order to have a successful short cornerback, you need 2 things:

a VERY solid cornerback that QB's know not to throw to. Check.

Also you need a hell raising safety that can cover you in a jam. Hey, that's weird you mention that! Didn't we just sign one of the most passionate, hardest hitting dudes in the game today?

hmm. Food for thought. Now, I think this is something McDaniels took right out of Shanny's brain. Darrent was chosen partially because Shanny knew he had the weapons to put him in a position to excel. Champ was there, and our Brian Dawkins of the past was one of the hardest hitters EVER: John Lynch.

Now, I don't know if this makes ANY sense to any of you, but it makes perfect sense to me. Alphonso has all the skills he needs to succeed right now in THIS system. He's not going to be a backup for long, if at all. Now if only he would have learned tuba in high school.