Link: Great Quotes from Ryan on Antonio Cromartie
Think Rex Ryan has given you enough quotes out of one owner’s meeting breakfast? The answer is the same as the one this website asks.
Rex spoke about his new corner Antonio Cromartie and what he thinks of him as a player and person.
“He might have as much talent as any player I’ve ever been around at the corner position. He’s got everything. He’s got the size, the height, the length, the speed, the recovery speed, probably as good ball skills as any corner I’ve been around. When you combine him with Darrelle Revis, that’s going to be a pretty lethal combination. It’s going to allow us to not just roll our coverage to one corner or another, which we had to do a lot last year. I think we’re not going to let teams lock in on what we’re doing defensively. It will also give us flexibility where we can lock Darrelle down on a nickel spot and play (Dwight) Lowery outside or vice versa. From a matchup standpoint, this will be a tremendous advantage for us.”
Ryan remembered scouting Cromartie back in his Baltimore days, when the young corner was a promising prospect out of Florida State. “It was the best workout I’d ever seen a player have,” Ryan said of Cromartie’s Pro Day. “He’d only played maybe 1 game that year, was hurt, had the (knee) injury, missed the whole season and he was still a first-round pick. That’ll tell you about his athleticism. Then he had the 10-interception year. He’s got that kind of ability. If you want to target the ball away from Revis, don’t be short with (the pass), that’s all I’ll say.”
Noted for his sheer athletic ability coming out of college, Cromartie has also been saddled with an inconsistency that’s partially a product of his limited experience early on — he played in only 25 games at FSU, and he’s still learning as he goes. Of course, there’s the small matter of having other things on his mind. When the Jets acquired him, they advanced him $500,000 to deal with multiple paternity suits. As impressive as 10 interceptions in one season may be, Cromartie’s most unique metric might be the fact that he’s fathered seven children by six different women in five states.Ryan’s response to Cromartie’s paternity issues was a fine example of why players want to play for him — he seems to be able to strike a correct balance between understanding and discipline.. “I think it’s probably pretty obvious to him now. He had some maturing to do and all that stuff. When you meet him, you’ll see. He’s a nice young man. Is he perfect? Probably not, but I don’t think anybody is. That’s just some issues off the field. It doesn’t affect him as a football player. I’m sure if he everything to do all over again, he’d do things differently. But at least he’s a guy that’s taking care of his children financially doing the right things. You can’t change the past. You can just move forward, and that’s what he’s ready to do.”
18 Responses to Link: Great Quotes from Ryan on Antonio Cromartie
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jay says:
start the season!!!!!
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Eric in StL says:
anyone have any news on Douglas? is he gonna come back? haven’t heard anything about his situation
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Brendan says:
Revis in the nickel. I believe I was getting bombarded last week for saying this could and probably should happen.
And Rex is the Pied Piper for NFL players. I bet he already has Cro under his spell and following orders. It’ll be great to see what Rex can concoct when he has these guys roaming the outsides.
I also just thought of something that was a theme of our preseason excitement about the defense last year. There was a lot of talk about how Harris/Scott and Rhodes/Leonhard were interchangeable in the sense either guy could play either inside position. They could flip-flop and the offense would have a hard time pointing out the Mike linebacker and SS. Now with two CBs of this caliber the defense will have an even harder time picking the strong side of the defense. Pool can bring it in run support, so him and Leonhard are even tougher to sort out than Leonhard and Rhodes. I think Rex now has a mirror-image defense with elite players at every level. This is going to be AWESOME.
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starz31 says:
Sounds like he could handle Brandon Marshall.
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To think that just a little over a year ago we had the Favre, Mangini meltdown.
I am so happy this guy is running our team.
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Shamik says:
Sounds like Rex is frothing at the mouth to start molding Cromartie into a clampdown machine. I just can’t wait to see what kind of esoteric defenses he comes up with over the offseason. If the season were to start now, we’d be a force to reckon with. Adding some depth through the draft is going to be a luxury. I’d say get some D-line and O-line depth, but most of all, get Myron Rolle!
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patpat says:
Brendan,
or anyone for that matter,
can you explain to me why we should put revis at nickel? at first I heard it and kind of dismissed the idea, but Rex saying it now kinda makes me wonder whats so special about putting him there. wouldnt it be a waste? wouldnt he best serve covering the best WR man-coverage like he did flawlessly all last season?…
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C Low says:
I witnessed his catch-up speed first hand. When he olay’ed the Greene tackle by the line of scrimmage, turned around and somehow caught up to him in the endzone.
Mold him Rex!
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Well, this is they way I see it, people who agree to put him there may disagree though.
Revis is a special player, everyone knows that. With Cro on the team the dynamic has changed. No longer does Revis have to be stuck guarding a guy like Randy Moss all game. Cro’s size & athletic ability allow him to match up with guys like that. Revis can then be freed to play the slot if he wants. You can cover a #2 receiver with your 3rd CB and a safety zone over top.
From the slot Revis will be shutting down the team’s #1 option for a first down (that’s what slot receivers are for). It also frees Revis up for blitzes, and with his quickness he would be on the QB in a second. His hips is what makes him perfect for playing in the nickel because he turns and rotates on a dime and always stays low keeping his base (which he can then use to explode and make a play on the ball. Guys like Welker(Edelman) and players of that mold wouldn’t be quicker than him, wouldn’t be better at going in and out of breaks, and Revis’ film study would leave them with no real way of shaking him. Cro takes away the #1, Revis takes away the slot receiver, it means the QB is then checking down to 3rd option, and by then (hopefully) the defense is ripping the QB to pieces.
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AKA Drew – completely agree. It’s almost every day I read a quote from Rex I want to “tweet” to the world.
Brendan – thanks for the analysis. I think it makes a lot of sense, and knowing Moss/Welker can BOTH be taken out of the game, Mr. Brady might get some happy feet knowing the pressure is coming.
What’s next? I can’t wait for the Draft…
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Dylan says:
Brendan,
The only slot receiver that I think Revis should line up against is Wes Welker. Normally though I would much rather see Revis on the #1 receiver and Cromartie on the #2. Cromartie gets burned a lot. Maybe it was because of the zone scheme, but I still think that matching up Cromartie one on one with elite receivers is a huge and unnecessary risk. Cromartie is not Revis. You can’t just expect him to shut down receivers like Moss, Wayne, and Rice. If we are going to give up some completions, I would rather give up some short completions to a slot receiver than 50 yard bombs to the opposing teams #1 receiver. The most important thing is to eliminate the big play on offense.
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Dylan,
I don’t think Cro is going to do it by himself, and I don’t think it will be an every-play situation. But I would like to see them rotating around, keeping the offense guessing and using Revis on whoever it is that is killing them that game. Rex funneled the passes to him last year he can surely do it again with a better cast around Revis.
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Brendan,
Then we are agreed. I think we do need another CB who can do a decent job covering slot receivers though. Maybe Cole is that guy. We didn’t really get to see much of him last year. He seems to have the speed and size though, and Rex has talked him up a bunch. I just don’t really trust Lowery, especially in man to man schemes. When we play teams like the Colts, we need to cover 3 receivers, and I don’t think Lowery can cover any of them well.
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Revis Christ says:
i agree that cro will open up options for revis… but it isnt an every play thing putting him in the slot… he is one of the best shutdown corners in the game … i cant wait to see what the mad scientist has up his sleeve for the defense this year
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Le' Sean Roberts says:
Enough said, to hell with “Sports Reporters”, “Outside THE Lines”, etc., those drama reality TV shams. They’re just ways to extend a daily interval because nothing entertaining can fill the spot. Ever heard of Soap Operas or Live court cases……furthermore, they ran every damn good talk show off the air (Jenny Jones, Ricki Lake, etc.). These trash bags don’t pay the dude to play football, I don’t watch football because of them. Time for them to piss off already. If the NY media wants to run with this then they’re trash. Say the NY Times, if they ran on this, then that’s it.
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Didn’t Revis already do this in the playoffs against SD and Colts? What am I missing here?
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Thanks Brendan, that helped a lot.
I agree with Christ too. It sounds more convincing now to put revis on the slot, but maybe that instance will mostly come on a third/second and short when the slant pass is more likely.
can you imagine what would happen if a team knew they couldnt even get a first down on 3rd n 4 running a slant? thats a lot of teams’ bread n butter
I am glad Rex is confident in this young man’s ability across the board. I also believe that Rex’s philosophy is too build the confidence of his players, which will happen when Cromartie hears/reads this interview. Rex is the best coach to play for in the NFL. He embodies the sport and his players follow suit.