Yeah, I’d say more of the later, but still, certain guys like Dennard just have a knack to play man. Ryan still has a lot of development in front of him and believe me, there’s always a place for a smart zone corner who knows how to pattern read and jump routes (see Asante).
The biggest piece as I see it is Talib. The number one corner who can man up a number one receiver. If you’ve got one of those the trickle-down effect will be positive even if you have a bunch of corners behind him who are better zone guys.
Ultimately it’s about playing to your strengths, but I think if you have three good man corners like the Pats now have in Talib and Dennard on the outside and Arrington on the inside, you’ll have a good pass defense in today’s NFL.
I’d say the Pats defenses of the 2000’s, especially the later teams like 2006 and 2007 were veteran crews that were good at pattern reading. They’d give up yards but they’d make you pay for mistakes, often with pick-sixes. It’s just that now, there are too many good quarterbacks, too many good schemes, to sit back in zone consistently.
Defenses have to challenge and attack now.
