He has the best receiver in the NFL. He’d apparently prefer to have the best cornerback.
Lions coach Jim Schwartz says cornerback is the hardest position in the NFL, or in any sport.
“It’s tough to play corner [in the NFL],” Schwartz recently said, via the team’s official website. “I think it’s probably the most difficult thing to do in all of sports.
“You have to run with world-class receivers, you’ve got to start backwards and they’re going forward. They know where they’re running, you don’t. You’ve got to be tough enough to take on pulling guards and running backs and skilled enough and fast enough to cover the elite athletes, you know, guys that are Olympic-caliber speed.”
(Deion Sanders thinks the comment about taking on pulling guards is funny.)
The trend is toward larger corners, something the Seahawks have pioneered. The Lions now have four corners who are at least six feet tall.
“You don’t want to end up sacrificing speed, you don’t want to end up sacrificing toughness and change of direction. I think that’s the balance that you have to play there,” Schwartz said.
If that’s the case, it seems like more teams would have been willing to trade for Darrelle Revis, and to give him $16 million per year on a pay-as-you-go contract.
And it seems like the Lions would have been more interested in taking a corner like Dee Milliner or D.J. Hayden with the fifth overall pick in the 2013 draft.