METAIRIE, La. -- Former New Orleans Saints cornerback Jabari Greer is still keeping close tabs on the team and has agreed to join me on occasion to share his thoughts. Stay tuned Thursday for Greer’s breakdown of Sunday’s opponent, the Dallas Cowboys.
Here are Greer’s thoughts on the Saints’ secondary after their turbulent 0-2 start, followed by a solid recovery in a 20-9 victory over the Minnesota Vikings in Week 3:
On what has stood out most: “The first two games, the thing that stood out to me most was miscommunication. Being that these young secondary players have only played together for a max of two years, we saw miscommunication in the secondary. Not really adjusting on the fly, and really it was incohesive. But what I saw in the last game was truly promising. I saw guys adjusting on the fly, I saw them communicating with each other clearly and with precision. And they honestly were one of the strong suits in the Saints’ victory.
"It's just a matter of tweaks (as opposed to major changes needed). The Saints’ secondary coach Wesley McGriff’s gonna do a great job of making sure that they are not multiple mistake offenders. That’s one thing the NFL does not tolerate. And these guys showed last game that they had learned from their mistakes and they were willing to adjust accordingly. They did a great job.”
On how Greer had warned about communication and chemistry being a concern before the season started: “That doesn’t come automatically. And if you look deeper into actually the psychology of the team, Jairus Byrd wasn’t with them a lot during the preseason after he had his (summer back) surgery. And being injured really takes you away emotionally from the growth of a secondary, you sometimes feel uninvolved with the day to day progression of your teammates. So now seeing him healthy and getting in tune with the rest of the secondary, we’re starting to see the cohesion emerge.”
On new starting cornerback Corey White, who replaced Patrick Robinson: “Corey White’s a great athlete, and he’s a really smart player. So I believe that he’s gonna be successful as long as he continues to learn his craft. And learns the nuances of starter-type cornerback play. Because he was a third-down back, and as a third-down back, your week of preparation is nickel and dime, third down and long distances. Now you have to prepare for the run. Now you have to prepare for first, second and third down. And it’s dramatically different. You have to know what play-actions they run. You have to know what type of runs they do. You have to know what your receiver’s tendencies are. So that will be the question. But I know that he has all the physical gifts.
“I’m sure teams will go after him. But we’ve seen Corey get his hands on a lot of balls. And we know that he’s a guy that enjoys the opportunity to get his hands on the ball. So I’m excited to see what he has going forward.”