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Secondary a primary concern Even established defensive backfields seek help
Several teams with strong secondaries selected defensive backs early in last month's draft. Why beef up a position of strength when there might have been other needs? Here's why: The Dolphins have one of best cornerback tandems in the league with Patrick Surtain and Sam Madison, but still picked DB Jamar Fletcher in the first round. This move makes sense because the Dolphins play nickel and dime defense more than their base defense. In fact, Miami's nickelbacks played in 65 percent of all plays on defense last season. Fletcher practically becomes a starter right away. Most people felt Washington had the best quality depth at the corner position in the league last year. Any time Darrell Green is your third corner, you have depth. But with Deion Sanders playing baseball and his return doubtful, the Redskins drafted Fred Smoot, who should play immediately in the extra DB packages. Even though the Broncos signed Denard Walker to big money and penciled in last year's No. 1 pick Deltha O'Neal at the other corner, Denver still needed another quality corner for all its extra defensive packages. Willie Middlebrooks will get more playing time than most young d-backs because the Broncos traditionally get the lead early and win more often than they lose. The Ravens have the best defense in the NFL, have an excellent pair of corners in Duane Starks and Chris McAlister, and recently re-signed Rod Woodson. Still, they still drafted Gary Baxter in the second round. Even as a rookie, he'll most likely be on the field in all passing situations, which will be more than half of the defensive plays. The Giants moved up in the draft to get Will Allen to replace Dave Thomas and came right back with their next pick and took another corner, William Peterson. That puzzled some observers but the Giants know how much dime defense they play and they realize Peterson will play a critical role. Every NFL game comes down to the two-minute drill where the run-pass ratio goes to 20 percent run, 80 percent pass. Having a sturdy run defense and a high-scoring offense isn't a good match if a team can't stop the pass. It's a nice problem to have, but still it can be a problem if you don't acquire the right players to do the job. Pat Kirwan, who spent 12 years as a pro football coach, scout and personnel administrator, is an NFL analyst for CNN/Sports Illustrated and a regular contributor to CNNSI.com.
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