Underhill -- Ken Crawley is showing growth while learning on the job for the Saints (1 Viewer)

Dan in Lafayette

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Ken Crawley is showing growth while learning on the job for the Saints

By Nick Underhill -- Advocate



This wasn’t what the Saints had planned for Ken Crawley.

The team saw a promising player, one it wanted to develop, get some snaps, and use on special teams. No one expected the cornerback to be matching up with Julio Jones in Week 3.

But football has a way of ruining plans. Delvin Breaux broke his fibula in Week 1, and then suddenly P.J. Williams was gone a week later after suffering a concussion that landed him on injured reserve. Just like that, Crawley became a starting cornerback for the Saints.

“He’s been put into a position where he’s getting a lot of playing time,” secondary coach Aaron Glenn said. “It’s unfortunate as a rookie, an undrafted rookie, to be put in that position, but I think he’s handled it well.”

Crawley’s responded well to the challenge. He’s played 88 percent of the defensive snaps this season, which ranks second behind only linebacker Craig Robertson (97 percent) and Cam Jordan (89 percent) among New Orleans defensive players, and has proven capable.


MORE -- Advocate
 
i can't imagine how difficult it is to be in his position and not suck entirely. he has held his own.
 
The Aaron Glenn hire is one of the best assistant coaches that this regime has brought in to date. He's having an Aaron Kromer/Curtis Johnson type of effect on his group. I didn't expect to see this much improvement with Crawley at such a fast rate. His hard work is paying off and I'm glad that he's on our roster.
 
Another gem by Underhill. His delivery hits dead-center no matter what topic he's reporting on.

...Week 3 against the Atlanta Falcons. He was targeted five times while covering superstar wide receiver Julio Jones and gave up one reception for 16 yards. While two of those incompletions were the result of bad passes by quarterback Matt Ryan, Crawley forced Jones out of bounds and broke up another pass to force incompletions.

“Man I know this, it’s not too big for him, and I like that,” coach Sean Payton said after the Atlanta game.

As success has come, Crawley has started to feel more confident in his ability.

“That’s from preparation. Knowing what routes I’m expecting and just going out and playing them and having fun,” he said. “Not playing too tense out there. Just knowing my responsibility and matching those routes.”

Nice perspective on Crawley. The UDFA rook has done better than some veterans (in the past) that the Saints have had in the secondary.


:gosaints:
 
Another gem by Underhill. His delivery hits dead-center no matter what topic he's reporting on.



Nice perspective on Crawley. The UDFA rook has done better than some veterans (in the past) that the Saints have had in the secondary.


:gosaints:
He did better than Benwikere did. I'll take that over an overpaid, overrated veteran any day (I'm looking at you Browner).

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According to The Advocate’s charting, Crawley has been targeted 25 times in coverage and has allowed 16 receptions for 188 yards with a touchdown and a 2-point conversion. A good amount of those yards came in Week 1 against the Oakland Raiders, when he gave up seven receptions on eight targets for 66 yards.

Ok, so after his rough week-1 outing:

16 overall receptions, minus the 7 in week one = 9 receptions given up.

That's 9 receptions for 122 yards over 3 weeks.

Averaging 3 receptions for ~41 yards a game.


I know that's a lot of mathematical gymnastics, but that is REALLY impressive when you consider he is still basically a practice squad player going up against team's number 1 receivers.


If we can get Breaux back to lock down 1 side of the field, and get Crawley consistent safety help over the top.... :cool:
 
Crawley reminds me of terronm super talented player forced to play too early and got beat bad his first game but then gets better every game.

I expect big things from him.
 
He did better than Benwikere did. I'll take that over an overpaid, overrated veteran any day (I'm looking at you Browner).

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Yet people on here wanted us to pick up the panther trash. I would much rather coach up the guys we have and support them.

I will never understand the love affair with other teams players. This board builds up teams from other players but somehow bags on our players all the time.
 
Yet people on here wanted us to pick up the panther trash. I would much rather coach up the guys we have and support them.

I will never understand the love affair with other teams players. This board builds up teams from other players but somehow bags on our players all the time.
Comes from so many years of having all but 3 or 4 terrible players I'd wager.

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Yet people on here wanted us to pick up the panther trash. I would much rather coach up the guys we have and support them.

I will never understand the love affair with other teams players. This board builds up teams from other players but somehow bags on our players all the time.

I just wanted to sign him for depth in case of injury, not to come in and replace anyone. Yeah I agree we should just let the guys that are playing now keep getting that game experience and gaining confidence and having some continuity. But we still need some depth.
 
Yet people on here wanted us to pick up the panther trash. I would much rather coach up the guys we have and support them.

I will never understand the love affair with other teams players. This board builds up teams from other players but somehow bags on our players all the time.

You still need depth, though. With as u&#324;lucky as we've been with injuries with DBs, what happens if that bad luck continues? We're literally running out of bodies lol
 
Man I can't wait to see our defense next season. This year will be huge for the future with young guys like Crawley and Bell getting crucial PT to fast track their development. Our secondary next season can go from being bad to a very very good group. That is without the addition of anyone which we will definitely have the resources to make. I'm not so sure I even want to add anyone for big $ in FA to our secondary. We need to go after a stud DE and possibly another LB in FA while allowing our secondary to continue to develop. I would like to see us get younger and more athletic at LB through the draft though with already having a couple of good vets. Breaux, Williams, and Crawley have the foundation to be a very solid trio that can only improve into next season. That's without any other surprises stepping up along with Swann possibly returning to form. CB is another area like LB I would rather see addressed through the draft then in FA. If Bell continues to develop and turn into what we expect alongside Vacarro then we could have one of the top safety duos in the NFL. You put a pass rush out there with these guys and this defense can be dominant.

This is a year to develop and go fill those last few holes in FA and the draft for next season. We are setting ourselves up to seriously compete for SBs over the next 3-4 years or however long Brees can play at a high level. I see us going into a very similar mold to the Broncos except I don't expect Brees to have as sudden of a fall off as Manning while having much better protection up front and wha looking like even better weapons at the skill positions.
 

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