I thought he looked good when healthy. UF came out the gate picking on him and he shut it down. Ngl, it sounds personal between yall
To your point, he has stayed injured. The past is the past. I’m projecting for this season. Brown is in my top 4. Brantley was getting bodied in the spring.
This is what I mean...
Fans say things like, "he looked good when healthy", or "he played well vs (insert team), But then, when someone who actually knows what they're watching asks yall to provide evidence to support those claims, you can't.
Here are the facts:
- Against UF, he played 14 snaps, he was targeted 4 times & gave 2 catches for 22yds. Of those 4 targets, 2 of them were overthrows by Mertz. He had 1 actual route stoppage in coverage & another was a deep ball that he actually fell down against because of he tripped on his own feet.
He also had 2 missed tackles in run defense.
He's played 9 games in 2 years, in the games he's started, FSU, LVille, Boston College, Rutgers & Cuse, he's been mostly worked vs the targets thrown at him. He has a near 60% catch conversion rate, which means 60% of the targets thrown at are caught. That's not too great. Now, for full context it's a small sample size given that he only averages around 3.5 to 4 targets per start, but what it shows is that extrapolated over a full season those numbers would likely increase.
But beyond just an analytical look at it, we can remove the numbers completely & just go by film.
On film, his technique in the LVille, FSU, Syracuse & Rutgers game were flat out horrendous. They weren't good in the UF game either, with the exception of one route, but for the majority of his snaps he's usually out of place in terms of his footwork & recovery ability.
He gets beat on tape... a lot.
(I can show you the reps if you want)
It's not personal for me. I just don't accept narratives that have no grounds in reality. When it comes to CB play, I go by evidence, not what I heard, what I think, or what I feel, I go but what I SEE with my eyes on film.
If Damari has shown on film this elite NFL CB that he gets constantly made out to be, I would agree with the offseason Damari sentiment wholeheartedly. I haven’t seen it & its not due to a lack of watching his Miami tape, or a lack of understanding what I'm watching when I watch his tape. It simply hasn't shown itself in a game.
In practice, he's Revis Island allegedly, but in the 9 games he's played, it has not been there.
So when I see people repeat the same thing over & over again about Damari being this CB that he hasn't shown to be, it makes me ask questions.
It's entirely possible that Damari could be better than Brantley in the future. However, that's not based on anything tangible. There's no proof he's better at anything.
If Damari shows it this season, I'll agree with all of you.
