NYCoug":2rcbhy15 said:theENGLISHseahawk":2rcbhy15 said:Nickel corner is one of the hardest positions to fill because that player will get beat time and time again. Nobody gets an angle on Welker, Gonzalez etc. Those are the types of players you come up against. There's no obvious solution here because the position is such a thankless task.
Name five great nickel corners, currently employed by a team. I'm struggling to name one.
This is an area you have to combat by being creative with your play calling, press the QB and survive. You can't stop guys like Welker getting their catches.
As for Tyrann Mathieu... I'll bet anything he plays free safety and not nickel corner.
Well, there's Casey Hayward in Green Bay for starters. He probably had the best season in the slot last year, plus he was a rookie. And if you change your criteria from "currently employed by a team" to "currently in the league" there's Charles Woodson, Antoine Winfield. There's also Chris Harris in Denver who's a pretty solid nickel, and my personal favorite Javier Arenas from KC.
Overall though, I agree with what you're saying about needing to be creative in order to stop a good slot receiver. Another key is limiting the YAC. A guy like Welker, like you said, will always get his catches. It's! making sure you have sure tackling and punishing him every time he touches the rock that will help contain him.
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