Philadelphia Eagles: Don’t count out Rasul Douglas just yet

Rasul Douglas could still play a role for the Philadelphia Eagles.

When discussing the Philadelphia Eagles‘ cornerback competition for the vacant spot across from Darius Slay, two names often come to the forefront: Avonte Maddox and Sidney Jones.

On paper, this makes a ton of sense, as Howie Roseman spoke glowingly about Maddox earlier this offseason and Jones, despite a nagging inability to reliably hold onto a role in the starting defense, is still measured against his fantastic career at the University of Washington. However, there is another, less heralded but none the less experienced cornerback who deserves a tad more respect in the cornerback conversation.

That’s right; we’re talking about Rasul Douglas.

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Since becoming an Eagle as a third-round pick out of West Virginia, Douglas has played roughly 50 percent of the team’s total defensive snaps, while earning 18 starts versus 46 total in-game appearances. Those are pretty average if not unimpressive numbers, right? Maybe so, but Douglas also has the second-most interceptions (five) since his addition while trailing only Ronald Darby and Jalen Mills in passes defensed (25).

Granted, Douglas is far from a flawless prospect, to put it mildly. He’s woefully slow – like, one of the slowest cornerbacks in the NFL – and even with exceptional instincts and good technique, Douglas has to play a near-perfect game week-in and week-out to avoid giving up a steady string of 20, 30, even 40-yard touchdowns.

NFL coaches can teach a lot of things, but when a cornerback runs a 4.61 40 yard dash coming out of college, there’s only so much anyone can do.

With that being said, Darius Slay is willing to try.

That’s right, during his media availability, as first reported by 94 WIP’s Eliot Shorr-Parks, Slay explicitly mentioned a desire to pass his knowledge on to the 24-year-old cornerback, as he’s been very impressed with New Jersey native’s game thus far during their time together.

Like Slay, Douglas measures in at over 6-foot-tall and over 190 pounds. Both have long arms, good instincts, and a pension for picking off passes placed in their path. While Slay is considerably faster, as his 4.36 40 is far and away the fastest mark of any player on the defensive side of the ball, picking the mind of the NFL’s premier pass defender really can’t hurt.

But really, it’s Slay’s on-field presence that could open the door for a Douglas run more so than any advice the 29-year-old former All-Pro has to offer.

Why? I’m glad you asked.

Assuming he’s used correctly by his former Detroit Lions’ head coach (more on that here), Slay should spend his Sundays, Mondays, the occasional Thursday, and maybe even Fridays and Saturdays, traveling from one sideline to the other mirrored up against an opposing team’s top receiving option. After being forced to shade Rodney McLeod to a certain side of the field, drop linebackers into deeper zones, and even utilized the dreaded super-off-ball ‘sticks’ coverage on third-and-longs, Jim Schwartz can finally match his cornerbacks up effectively regardless of how an opposing offensive coordinator wants to operate.

What does that mean for Douglas? Well, assuming the Eagles aren’t playing a team like the Kansas City Cheifs with speedsters, on top of speedsters, on top of speedsters, Schwartz could conceivably place Slay on top of the fastest player on an opposing team, and allow Douglas to muck it up on the opposite side of the field should he win the competition with Jones and Maddox.

Seems obvious, right? Opposing teams can’t put their fastest guy on Douglas’ side of the field and run them on go routes 30 times a game if he doesn’t have a designated side. Sure, I guess they can run counters, comebackers, and even attempt to do pre-snap motions to get their guys in an advantageous position, but isn’t that what teams do all of the time? Isn’t Doug Pederson’s signature play, the RPO, effective because of it’s utility?

Next. Keep an eye on linebacker Dante Olsen. dark

As sad as it is to say, the Philadelphia Eagles really don’t have a perfect number 2 cornerback on their roster. Avonte Maddox is too short, Rasul Douglas is too slow, and Jones is just too, um, inefficient to be reliably counted on for 60 odd snaps a game. No matter who Jim Schwartz decides to run across from Darius Slay, there will be ways for opposing teams to take advantage of their inefficiencies and shade the bulk of their offensive targets his way. If Douglas was totally out of that race, the Eagles surely would have traded him this offseason, as opposed to restructuring his contract to all but guarantee his roster spot, right?

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