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San Diego Chargers: Is Jason Verrett the next great CB?

By Kevin Parvizi

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Currently, the San Diego Chargers best player on defense is Eric Weddle, who is an elite safety and can do just about everything he is asked at a high level, but with both sides ready to part ways after the 2015 season, that’s a distinction he won’t hold for long. Of course, the Chargers have other talented players scattered across their defense in the recently locked-up (contract, not Aaron Hernandez-style, in case anybody needed that distinction) Corey Liuget, bounce-back candidate Melvin Ingram, and the excellent- but short- cornerback duo of Brandon Flowers and Jason Verrett.

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With all due respect to Flowers, who excelled last season and proved a few nay-sayers wrong, Verrett is the guy I’m looking at the closest in 2015. It goes beyond the fact that he was my favorite cornerback prospect in the 2014 draft class, because he immediately showed shutdown potential as a rookie.

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Cornerback isn’t an easy position to succeed at in a player’s first season, and you can look at New York Jets Alabama product Dee Milliner and last year’s top-ten pick Justin Gilbert as examples of this. Although Kyle Fuller showed promise at the beginning of the season for the Chicago Bears generally poor secondary, it was Verrett who stood out in 2014 as the best cornerback in the rookie class despite playing in just six games.

In those 230 snaps, as per Pro Football Focus, Verrett recorded 19 tackles with four passes defended and one interception. Those box score stats, however, don’t tell you the full story about the first-round pick out of TCU, because you have to look at the advanced numbers to get a better idea of what he brought to the Chargers defense as a 23-year-old rookie.

Verrett absolutely smothered everyone he came up against last year, and he surrendered more than three receptions just once in his six appearances. Per PFF, the most receiving yards he allowed last year came against the Denver Broncos, as the incredibly quick Emmanuel Sanders, who is easily a top-15 receiver in this league and a death-knell to most slot guys (just ask the New England Patriots), caught all three passes thrown at him into Verrett’s coverage for 44 yards.

So if that was Verrett’s worst game, there’s no shame in that at all, especially since Sanders is one heckuva talent in the Broncos offense.

As a whole, quarterbacks completed exactly half of their passes when going after the diminutive-but-talented corner, and Verrett surrendered a meager 76.2 QB Rating with just 11.3 yards per reception allowed. Not only was it difficult to complete a pass into his tight coverage, but it was also difficult to burn him. Derek Carr and the Oakland Raiders once went after him seven times, but that proved to be unwise as he allowed just one catch, had a pick, and held Carr to an 8.9 QB Rating when targeted in that Week 6 outing.

Verrett’s numbers in coverage across the board were outstanding, and he, as expected, more than made up for his 5’10”, 178-pound frame. As a rookie, Verrett looked like a seasoned veteran in coverage, and he knows exactly how to defend bigger receivers, which allowed him to flourish in his first year in a role that called for him to be the team’s almost-exclusive outside corner across from fellow standout Flowers.

The San Diego Chargers had the fourth-least amount of interceptions as a defense last season, but that should change in 2015 with a healthy Verrett, who showed off some fantastic ball skills. Preventing defenses from avoiding him in coverage is Flowers, though Verrett does figure to kick inside and play as a nickel corner after the signing of former New Orleans Saints CB Patrick Robinson, who played surprisingly well last year.

Of course, there’s no doubt that Verrett is the more talented player between him and Robinson, and I might even take him over Flowers next season. It’s not every day that a rookie CB steps in and dominates like Verrett, and it’s clear that the best is yet to come. If he didn’t tear his labrum last year, then more people would be raving about his standout rookie campaign and talk him up as a possible shutdown corner in 2015.

Last year, we saw two young CBs, Desmond Trufant and Xavier Rhodes, earn national recognition and plaudits as shutdown CBs in this league, and I think Jason Verrett is the next player in line for those honors. Everything about him (whether it’s his ball skills, physicality, intelligence, solid run defense, instincts, fantastic footwork, and tight coverage skills) screams future shutdown corner, and it will be a disappointment if he takes a step back next season.

For an example of his ball skills, check out how he plays this pass from Carr in that aforementioned Raiders game, which was a big 31-28 victory. Verrett plays this so well that it looks like the pass is intended for him. Crazy, right? But maybe the craziest thing about this pick (besides Verrett’s smarts, reach, and vertical) is the fact that Brice Butler is 6’3″, so he should have been favored against a CB who is about five inches shorter.

For an example of physicality, take a look at what Verrett did to current Jets starting tight end Jace Amaro when both were in-state, Big 12 rivals in college. Amaro is a massive man at 6’5″, 265 pounds, and yet Verrett absolutely levels him on this play. I mean, take a look at how quickly he moves in a to break up that pass, and then you’ll see why everybody raves about this corner’s “feistiness” and “physicality”.

Verrett’s lack of size and two shoulder surgeries this offseason could worry some people, but I remain bullish on someone who combined his 4.38 forty, 39-inch vertical, 6.69 three-cone drill, and 4.00 20-yard shuttle (all tops among Combine performers at CB in a strong 2014 class) with his intelligence and used his physical and mental tools to great effect.

With Flowers, Weddle, Verrett, and hype surrounding Liuget and Ingram, the Chargers pass defense has a fair shot at improving on their middle-of-the-pack performance last year, which would have surely been much better if Verrett didn’t suffer a season-ending injury after just six games. He showed that he was pro-ready last season, and I can’t wait to see what he does in 2015, especially if he does indeed get more looks in the slot. But make no mistake, as he showed last season, he’s much more than just a slot CB (as both GIFs show glimpses of, he has the tools to succeed at both spots).

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