Tye Hill is Dre' Bly waiting to happen...hopefully without the FA departure unless he's worth resigning in the future.
Like Bly, Hill is a FAST cornerback but a little undersized. But the ball doesn't care whether you're 5-9, 6-9 or 3-9, as long as you can pick it off. And like Bly, Hill could likely start out as a nickel back who is a nightmare matched up with slot receivers. Hill can stuff the run when needed, too, but he can also get wiped out on sweeps. But that's all right.
With a stronger pass rush--hopefully--Hill will likely get some underthrown and poorly thrown passes, negating those bigger receivers being able to catch them/get back to them. Hill has the SPEED to take it to the house as a home run threat every time he gets his paws on it...yeah, he'll drop some easy picks, but a lot of rookies do and even some All-Pros so whatever.
Teams like the Cardinals will try to take advantage of Hill in the red zone, with Warner (or Leinart in the near future) throwing up jump balls and fades toward the back corner of the end zone. But overall I think our schemes can get to that QB, keep up with the WR's with tackling help from safeties and linebackers and we'll be fine. Besides, how many good defenses have undersized corners who have good awareness, tackling skills and speed? Plenty.
Butler is also undersized, but does that stop him from playing well against taller WR's? Not always.
I am excited about Tye Hill, I thought the signing of Fakhir Brown was an indication that we'd trade down and get Greenway or Carpenter. But Travis Fisher's a FA and he could get traded or something, Brown not be more than a backup--an expensive one at that--and Butler may not stay healthy. So this is a strong pick as our future #1 corner who can shut 'em down.
-04-30-2006, 02:43 PM
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