Seahawks Shaquill Griffin wants to cover the best receivers Seattle plays

Seahawks cornerback Shaquill Griffin wants to cover the best receivers Seattle plays. But would that be good for the defense overall?

After a year two where Seahawks cornerback Shaquill Griffin was not good, he was excellent in year three. After his 2018 season, Griffin gave himself a D+ grade. I wonder what he would grade himself for 2019?

Now Griffin is saying he wants to cover the best receivers of the teams that the Seahawks will face. This would be great but it won’t happen. The question is, should it?

Opposite Griffin this year was second-year corner Tre Flowers. In his rookie season of 2018, Flowers flashed enough potential to make it appear he might actually become better than Griffin long-term. That seems laughable now as Flowers digressed as 2019 wore on.

But Seattle does not have a defense built where one corner will switch sides of the field to cover a player like Julio Jones. In the Seahawks scheme, each corner plays a side and not a receiver. It has been this way since Pete Carroll became the coach and it will continue to be the case.

Part of the problem with the Seahawks secondary this year was at times there were communication breakdowns. Having Griffin “travel”, the word Griffin used last week when expressing his desire to cover top receivers and cover more of the field, won’t help that. Griffin probably has the ability to do a good job of consistently covering the best receivers in the NFL but Flowers is still learning to be a cornerback in the NFL. Flowers needs to stay disciplined and know his area and moving back and forth across the field won’t help him and would hurt the Seattle defense overall.

Now, if Seattle decides this offseason to go with a different and more experienced and talented cornerback opposite Griffin, then Griffin might be able to shadow the opposing team’s top wideout. But Seattle won’t go with another corner to replace Flowers. Maybe they should but they won’t.

It is great that Griffin is beginning to show great confidence in himself. He will be in his fourth season in 2020 and at the top of his game. Now if only the rest of the defense could be more like Griffin, Seattle would be a Super Bowl team next year.