SmashMouth

Ken Crawley wasn’t trusting his eyes.

The cornerback was often in position to make plays, but he struggled to get his hands on the ball during his four seasons at Colorado. It’s one of the reasons he finished his collegiate career with only three interceptions, and there’s a good chance it’s also why he wasn’t selected in the NFL draft.

It’s hard to believe that Crawley had those issues after watching him in training camp and the preseason, where he’s made a handful of interceptions and routinely breaks up passes, but that all happened before he met Aaron Glenn.



What did the Saints secondary coach tell Crawley?

“Just trusting my eyes,” he said. “My eyes are the key component to my technique.”

It seems simple enough, but it’s a common problem that many cornerbacks battle. Even Delvin Breaux, who enjoyed a breakout season, said he had trouble with it last season.

Glenn demands better, and he’s a big reason this young secondary has built optimism by making plays throughout the summer.

In Crawley, Glenn recognized early on that the young cornerback was focusing on the wrong things at times. He’d lock in on the quarterback during man coverage, or watch the receiver when playing zone.

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