Ruzious wrote:BearlyBallin wrote:?s=20
I’ve seen CB become S, but never a S switch to CB. Has this ever been done successfully?
Lol. Apke doesn't have the instincts to play safety, so I'd expect that to be an even bigger problem with him playing CB. I think they're just being nice to him - giving him a desperation chance to make the team.
Jason Sehorn. He was a back-up Safety who converted to CB his senior year when coaches looked past his skin color and realized he did have the requisite athleticism to play at CB. But that is one of the exceptions that underscores the rule.
The thing is the difficulty with conversion to cornerback is that it requires rarified physical talents. You need to be able to run backwards almost as fast as the WR runs forwards, and to have the quick twitch reaction speed to adjust to their feints and turns in a flicker. Safety however you have to be able to read the whole field east to west, and the angles and space north/south. When the speed of a corner decays they may be able to transition to safety due to veteran savvy etc. Rarely however does the safety have the speed and quick twitch speed to convert to a CB. If they did they would already be a CB, since it is a harder position to fill. That said CB does require less understanding of the team game, more 1-v-1 match-up skills and less of an all-field awareness. As in basketball where you will have players who are good at one-on-one match up defense and a liability in team defense. If a player had the physical talent to cover one guy, then maybe they can make the switch. I guess that is what they are saying here: he doesn't read the field quick enough, but they don't want to waste his rare physical talents (4.34 dash at the combine).