Depth Chart - Alontae Taylor LCB or NB this season?

Nolan said
Adebo also started 8 more games than Taylor in his rookie year so of course the yardage allowed total will be higher. While I do think that Taylor has the better ceiling and potential as a boundary corner over Adebo, I think the coaching staff will idealy want to get our best three corners on the field. Adebo can't play inside. So I think trying Taylor out at nickel at least to start makes a lot of sense. Plus, he's a very physical player and knows how to get active in the run game, which is something required for a nickel corner. He also talked about this on the Underhill pod, that he knows what it takes to excel in the slot position.

I'm sure they will still rotate and compete for that spot but Adebo won't make it easy for him. He'll want to bounce back after last year. He battled both ankle and hamstring injuries. He's still very much a high quality outside corner.

Remember, even if Taylor ends up with the slot role he's still a full time starting CB. We're in nickel something like 95%+ of the time. It's an important position.

The overall number of games played as a rookie are still close with 17 vs 13. 4 off because Taylor didn’t see the field as a rookie until injury occurred. The snaps and targets are also close.

Better stats to go off of are yards per catch, yards per target, completions, passer rating, completion %, touchdowns allowed and the number of 50+ yard allowed games. 89/55 tgt/comp to Taylor’s 66/32 tgt/comp. Adebo allowed 13 ypc vs Taylor’s 9.9. He would still have about 100 more yards allowed than Taylor if both had the same number of completions based on the ypc. Adebo gave up 5 TDs to Taylor’s 0; adjusting it to Taylor’s snaps still brings Adebo’s tda to between 3-4. Adebo’s rookie passer rating was 91.7 to Taylor’s rookie 62.6. Adebo’s passer rating got worse in year 2 at 119.6 last year. Adebo allowed 5 50+ games vs. Taylor 1 as rookies

Coverage wise, there’s a big gap between the two in passer rating, yards allowed and big pass plays allowed in rookie seasons. Adebo’s coverage declined further in year 2. Adebo’s a better tackler and run defender than Taylor though, which would make him a better nickel in short spaces.

I agree that nickel is like a full time position based on the sets we run majority of the time. We’d want to have Taylor defending the WR1 or WR2 more often though based on their coverage. Adebo could bring in a lot of INTs against teams’ slot receivers, which is usually the team’s 3rd or 4th best WR. Sometimes it’ll be their WR2 who could play slot