Steve Smith: A Slot Receiver In 2012?

[PantherPhann89]

How does something become "even more unstoppable"? It's unstoppable an absolute?

The term unstoppable is nothing more than a figure of speech, no offense is unstoppable! A good defense will learn and adjust on the fly. Moving Smith makes our offense more unpredictable. I think thats an easier figure of speech for you to understand. I apologize for the confusion.

[CarolinaPanthers8789]

Steve Smith as a slot receiver in 2011? He's not that old... give him another year or two then we will see. Also would that require Gettis and LaFell as our main wide outs in two receiver sets? I would have to say no thank you to this.

[CarolinaPanthers8789]

The term unstoppable is nothing more than a figure of speech, no offense is unstoppable! A good defense will learn and adjust on the fly. Moving Smith makes our offense more unpredictable. I think thats an easier figure of speech for you to understand. I apologize for the confusion.

lol

[PantherPhann89]

lol

Yeah really...

[CarolinaPanthers8789]

Yeah really...

Haha don't mind TRD. He is the resident grammar cop gone grammar nazi.

[panthers55]

Never said it was harder to play, just that it's not the same.

The slot/nickle corner is also not the third best corner, he just doesn't have the same skill set as the outside guys....for the most part.

IIRC Revis is one of the only guys that truly play the slot as well as the outside.

The outside normally has the faster guys, but not necessarily the quickest guys. Also the outside corners can use the sideline to their advantage whereas the slot guy does not have that option.

Most teams put their fastest, biggest WR's on the outside because they can beat 1 on 1 coverage most of the time requiring teams to roll their safety's to the most important side of the field.

The slot guys are normally smaller, and shifty, but can also be a bigger guy without much top end speed, that can't beat the good corners 1 on 1. Think Welker and Colston.

If you can consistently beat 1 on 1 coverage (Johnson's, Fitz, Megatron, SS) most teams will leave you on the outside so teams have to commit two players to stopping your 1. IF a team does move a top WR or TE to the slot or the middle that's why it's imperative to have a good cover safety. I would not try to turn my perimeter guy into a slot CB, as it's not the same position.

No one said that a team is going to make their top corner into a slot receiver. I have no idea why you keep saying that. I simply said that if their top receiver moved into the slot and kept beating my nickel corner, I would give him safety help over the top or shadow him where ever he went with my best corner. The same thing many teams we play, do with Smith which is what this initial discussion was about. Somehow you keep trying to distort this into a discussion about how nickel corners are different than slot corners which wasn't the issue at all. The reality is that most teams make their third best corner into their nickel corner because they put their best 2 on the outside. I am sure you can find an exception to the rule but that doesn't change the reality. Look at the Panthers. Who gets the slot will be our third best corner with Gamble being number 1 on one side and the second best corner going to the other side. The best of the rest will be in the slot. Other teams do the exact same thing.

And even in your discussion, you make a lot of assumptions which depend on the individual, scheme, and situation. You seem to have some reason to want to argue and somehow prove a point which seems to be a red herring issue at best. But for me if Arizona stated moving Fitz around to exploit some matchups, I would put Gamble on him in a heartbeat. You do it because Gamble can match up physically, is taller, and is good in man coverage. In fact we did that in 2008 in the second half of the infamous playoff debaucle and largely shut him down. Last year we did the same thing moving Gamble around with good results. Most smart DCs would do the same thing. If you don't do that then you could double the slot receiver inside. Either one works but it depends on the situation and specific guy.. If it were Welker I think I would keep the Captain on him and give him help over the top. Why? Captain would matchup with a smaller guy better and with help could be more aggressive. You can't make generalizations or do the same thing in every situation because football is about specific match-ups.

But stop with the whole outside corners and slot corners aren't the same and require different skills. No one said they were the same. You seem to be the one arguing that with yourself. And no one said that you would move the outside corner inside other than situationally depending on how the other team decided to attack us and specific personnel match-ups.

[thefuzz]

Getting back to the subject which is Smitty in the slot, how is that going to happen until we have a number 1 receiver on the outside? Gettis has not proven himself yet and LaFell is a number 2. Teams will still line up their best corner on Smitty no matter where he is, until we can show them that we have other weapons. I don't think we move Smitty to the slot until we find another outside threat. That is one of the reasons I like bringing in another veteran like Burress or someone like him.

Bolded is what you said.

I explained that is not exactly accurate. Some teams do this, but many teams will not move their perimeter guys to the slot as they are not good at playing there.

You are making it complicated, not me.