I haven't looked to see how often he was targeted but it must have been a TON. I mean 14 PBUs is a shitload and if he's knocking away 1/4 of the balls sent his way then he's a verified stud.

He does do a nice job of timing his challenges, though. You can see most of those PBUs on highlight vids and he's doing a good job of coming around guys without coming through them and drawing flags.

I mean for as much shit as this CB corps is taking (even with Claiborne), Fuller, Breeland, Ward and Claiborne is actually pretty damn good. It's not the Chargers or anything, but even the Chargers are looking iffy at CB2 with Michael Davis and Trevor Williams battling for that job. Everyone sucks off their defensive backfield every chance they get and that pair has no more reason for optimism than the pair we're likely to see battling for that spot.

This CB group is....fine. It's not elite but it's not the barren wasteland it's being portrayed as either. If it's the weakest link on this team (presuming reasonable health and we're not starting Fields/Fenton/Wade at some point), we'll win 14 games or more.
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Alternatively you could've said "Isn't that like, top 15 in the league last season?"

How the hell many pass breakups do you think these guys get?
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This.

I think we have a better trio and more depth than we did last year. With the safeties they have behind them, it should be enough.
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Wouldn’t shock me if we had a top 3-4 safety tandem by the end of the season.

Pretty impressive that we’ve made such an improvement in one offseason after having arguably the worst group in the league last year.
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However you feel about Claiborne and Breeland they're both better than Nelson

We're actually going to have a corner that's 4th on the depth chart that's better than our starter last year.
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I think they’re better simply because they’re bigger and more equipped to play outside, but they’re not significantly better beyond that.

It is what it is though. There’s a reason Nelson got paid. He’s not nearly as bad as people make him out to be in comparison to the rest of the NFL’s list of corners.
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I think the ticky-tacky PI calls are going to absolutely kill Nelson this season.

Those PI calls in the Atlanta/Denver game were ridiculous. QBs are going to throw it up there against him even more than last year.
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Well that wouldn’t bode well for Claiborne either who had almost as many penalties as Nelson last year.
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Not really.

No.

If you're at 50, you're dogshit. If you're at 60, you're not good, but you're tolerable. You shouldn't be starting but you can justify a roster spot for that guy.

An average starting caliber player should probably be at 65 or so and if you're anything below 70, you're probably starting out of necessity rather than desire.

His PFF score doesn't inspire a ton of confidence but it also doesn't matter - the guy's not here to save the season. He's here to see if Spags can make him better than the worst CB presently on the probably 53 man. That isn't a terribly high bar and he can absolutely be a contributor.
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Yeah but Claiborne probably won't be our starter.

I don't have a problem with a Steven Nelson-esque player in our 4th spot.
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The defensive overhaul looks damn impressive when you look at it on paper.

Mathieu
Clark
Thornhill
Okafor
Ogbah
Saunders
Lee
Wilson
Claiborne

I'm sure there's another guy or two in there that I'm missing but that's a ton of guys with solid floors and decent ceilings to boot. In real time it seemed underwhelming but when you look at the body of work and the number of contributors that have been added to that side of the ball, expecting a real step forward suddenly becomes pretty reasonable.
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Claiborne probably isn't. Breeland's less 'better' and more 'different' - better suited to this scheme but not likely to provide an obvious upgrade on Nelson.

Y'all just never accepted the fact that Nelson was easily an average NFL starter and in all likelihood significantly better than that.

Some folks haven't adjusted to the new normal in this league.

But I say all that to circle back to where I've been a dozen times here - the problem with that defensive backfield was a black hole at CB2 (Scandrick) that was always available when the QB needed it and a complete lack of safety help.

If Breeland can be simply as good as Nelson and Ward can prove to be an average CB2 while the safeties stay healthy, this unit will be light years improved.
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I do like that since they didn't get any in the draft they went the cheap route. I think that's actually smart.

Would much rather do that than overpay for someone that's maybe marginally better.
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And I still believe that the new position coaches will make a huge difference too. I think that’s an underrated part of our offseason.
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Says the person that wants to trade every draft pick we have for every broke-dick or malcontent demanding a contract extension...
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