I just look at Ward for comparison and can say that I really think Charvarius was a noticeably better CB than Nelson in the games he played. And he was an undrafted rookie. Have to remember that with Sutton’s stubborn scheme, teams could put receivers on whatever corners they wanted to because the DBs didn’t move.

Nelson doesn’t run real fast and is small. If you’re gonna have that combo, you’d better have great technique, ball skills, be a super smart player, or hopefully some combination of those. But Nelson’s ball skills suck, and his technique fell apart far too often resulting in penalties.

He’s average IMHO.

He was complete ass against any QB that was considered good. Brady straight up torched his sorry ass for huge gains in each game.

The ball skills are certainly a problem and limit his ceiling for sure. I'll note that those are STILL reflected in the QB rating against as that number would've been elite if he could've brought in a few more of those potential INTs. But it's definitely his worst trait.

I think his speed is sometimes underrated - he's not a burner, but he's not slow. He has a genuine catchup gear. The problem is one you alluded to and that's simply size - there were times he did everything right and just didn't quite have the length to get a hand in there.

I actually do think his technique and general coverage savvy are pretty good. I mean you just called the guy a slow, dumb, small, stiff DB with shitty technique - c'mon now, something's gotta give there. He'd be among the worst CBs in football if you went line by line on your list of nits to pick.

His penalties weren't generally technique issues - they were size problems as often as not. He just has to play so damn physical to keep from getting bodied out entirely that he'd have to commit a penalty on occasion. Though again - 7 'coverage' penalties all season and I'm betting you'd have said he committed as many as twice that if you were going by memory. The penalty issue isn't as extreme as some are making it out to be.

And he has a good feel for movement more often than not. He's actual pretty decent at matching routes, especially for a smaller DB. But the fact that he doesn't have great ball awareness makes people think that he was torched - more often than not he's where he's supposed to be. That's why those comp% and Rating #s are pretty good.

He's just a guy who makes ugly mistakes. He plays an ugly style of game and when he doesn't bring a pick in it looks awful. And again - he's a shitheel. So his bad stands out more than his good.

Re: DJ

All fair points, and so with that being said, what’s the max AAV you pay to keep a guy like that?

Because for me it ain’t much. Certainly not realistic for what he will see on the market. I’ll find someone else who tries their ass off and gets beat here and there for pennies in the draft before I bring Nelson back for more than $4-5M per year.

But we played good QB’s throughout the year.

If this were the case, the #’s would reflect that.

Chiefs fans expect a corner to be an absolute shut down corner for him to be good.

Which is fine I guess, but if you want one of those, you're gonna have to trade a few high ass picks for him or suck and draft him at 5.

I'm not a Nelson "hater". Not at all.

And I buy in that his completion percentage is commendable.

I would merely say this; our season would have been significantly better (even as good as it was) if the d-backfield (including Nelson) had made the critical play at the crucial time. You know the story as well as anyone, so there's no point in recounting the specific plays. But one could argue that trading a worse Completion % for key stops in critical moments would be a good deal for us. Super Bowl good, even.

But overall ... if you know what's coming. Stop it. Football 101.

Anyway, since we're talking Corners here, that's my focus. But honestly, I'm not sure I'd rank them as the #1 problem position group this season.

FAX

Ehh I wouldn’t say that.

For instance, Fuller isn’t a shutdown corner but I do think at 24 years old he holds a lot of value and would be a wise extension to make ASAP. He will be much improved in this defense as it compares to Sutton’s. And again, he isn’t a lockdown corner, but he does possess a bunch of above average skills. He’s extremely smart, quick, solid ball skills. Versatile.

It’d be awesome to have a lockdown guy but there’s plenty of above average level players who are upgrades from Nelson imo.

Can't argue with you. But I also think our safeties did a very poor job helping the CBs. The safeties seemed to be out of position most of the time.

I don't. I don't think this team can with the players we have to extend.

I agree that $4-5 million is all I'd pay for him and the market will probably support $8 million. My point is just that I don't think he's going to be as easy to replace as many seem to believe - he's gonna be a loss, IMO.

But it's a loss we're just gonna have to accept.

I don’t hate Nelson, but he is incredibly overrated and I’m glad we aren’t paying him.

I don’t see why people want to pay Fuller big money either when the guy did not look like he deserved it at all last season.

He’s going to be better in a different scheme that isn’t so predictable and well, doesn’t suck so much ass. He even looked really good at times in said shitty scheme, especially right before his injury.

I’m telling you, if they don’t sign him now, they’ll wish they had by season’s end.

Would love to see this next year:

RCB C. Ward
LCB 1st rd draft pick. D.Baker/G.Williams/R.Ya-Sin/L.Johnson/B.Murphy
Slot K. Fuller
S Earl Thomas or Landon Collins
S Not Ron Parker

Didn't Nelson play as primarily a nickel back a couple years ago? I seem to remember him being good in that role.

Byron Jones must've been really good last year to make the list twice.