Though it’s Memorial Day and not Thanksgiving (Metta World Peace set me straight on that), we’re thankful for the Cowboys and their cornucopia of cornerbacks. From whether the Cowboys will trade cornerback Mike Jenkins to when they will trade him if they ever decide to do so to whether they’ll slide one of their corners to safety in order to keep as many of them on the field as possible, the Dallas defensive backs have helped us fill up the page on what otherwise would have been a slow news day.
On that last point, Tim MacMahon of ESPNDallas.com writes that Orlando Scandrick has scant interest (actually none, but I was having a Chris Berman moment and couldn’t resist using “scant” after “Scandrick”) in playing safety.
“Not happening,” Scandrick said. “Brodney Pool, Gerald Sensabaugh and Barry Church are our safeties. Orlando Scandrick, Morris Claiborne, Brandon Carr and Mike Jenkins are our corners.”
We can’t imagine Scandrick refusing to play safety if being a safety gets him on the field and being a cornerback leaves him on the bench. For now, he professes ignorance as to the specific strategies that will be employed.
“I have no idea what they have planned,” Scandrick said. “I feel like the best players are going to play regardless of your contract, draft status or who you are.”
Given the various types and forms of coverages, Scandrick can play like a safety while still telling himself that he’s a corner. In Cover Three and Cover Four, corners typically join the safeties in patrolling the deep zones. In pure man coverage, it doesn’t really matter whether a guy is a corner or a safety. For Scandrick, as long as he’s not covering a deep zone in Cover One or Cover Two or otherwise providing help over the top for Carr or Claiborne or Jenkins, Scandrick plausibly can continue to regard himself as playing cornerback.
Even if he technically isn’t.