Browns’ Mike Pettine wants quality over quantity for defensive backs
In defending today’s passing offense, NFL defenses can never have enough help. The Browns defensive secondary includes 12 players. They will have seven cornerbacks and five safeties, for now. That’s a small army of defensive backs. But for Browns head coach Mike Pettine, it’s about the quality of players, not the quantity. He needs every one of them.
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“Well it’s probably a little bit of both,” Pettine said, via ESPN.com. “We felt that these guys are talented NFL corners that were worthy of being on the roster. The number is towards the high end, but once you get above your minimum requirements at each position, you look to keep the best players in general. You never want to keep a guy for the sake of filling out a quota, as long as you’ve met the position minimum that you can function on game day.”
He’s a strong believer in secondary sacks, where the defensive backfield allows the pass-rushers time to get to the quarterback with good coverage. It’s a matter of matching up with who is across from you on the field. Pettine thinks his roster gives him the best chance of that.
“I think the whole trend in the league — the spread offense — is to match up and single guys up, and that’s a big part of what we do,” Pettine said. “We’ll play a lot of split safety, Cover 2, where corners are really essentially almost playing an outside linebacker-type position, with deep responsibility. We need guys that can match up and can run. That’s why we were fortunate that we found as many as we did and we were able to keep them.”
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