Many teams designate Field Corner and Boundry Corner.
Gunter is a classic Boundry corner that plays the short side of the field. They're usually bigger and use the sidelines to their advantage.
Tracy is a Field corner that has more space to cover, but the throws are longer so it takes more time to get there.
The Nickel Back has to be quicker because he can't leverage the sidelines and the receivers have 2 way goes vs him.
Blitzing is usually done by the Boundry corner or the nickel back because the field is too far away.
I think that if we get a better rush this year the DB's will ball out. The practice reports seem to tell me that the fronts are being more diaruptive this year, which is huge for the D.
Great post!
I don't agree that Gunter is a boundary guy. In fact he, along with Burns, are usually to the field in our system. Your best corner plays to the boundary. That means your best cover guy and tackler (if that guy exists).
Many defenses like to take advantage of the widened college hash marks and overload their field side coverages. In quarters coverage, for example, many teams will allow their field side corner play a hard quarter because their Sam/Nickel/SS is in a detached alignment where he can easily cover a Curl/Flat type zone. Some teams will even allow that Sam/Nickel/SS take any outside over 4~ yards man to man.
The Boundary side corner in this situation will still play his soft quarter/read flat/read 2 because the boundary defender covering the curl/flat zone is usually a stacked linebacker [still in the box]. A stacked linebacker needs to be able to make split second run reads, whereas a Sam/Nickel/SS has a couple split seconds longer to really get involved in the run game.
Another effect to consider is the fact that the primary force defender in a quarter scheme is the Boundary Safety. Yes, a deep safety. Essentially, the corner has no real "cover" for a blocker going out to him. To the field, you would have a detached defender that the offense would have to worry about.
While thinking about all of that, you need to consider the effect of a QB throwing to a shorter field.
Check out Tracy playing to the boundary quite a bit:
[video=youtube;HHQtX18zazc]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HHQtX18zazc[/video]
