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Posted by nickeatman at 2/21/2011 5:21 PM CST on truebluefanclub.com
Getting the chance to talk to the assistant coaches proved to beneficial in lots of ways last week, especially with the news guys like Rob Ryan and Jimmy Robinson.
But all of the assistants were available last week, including the holdovers from last year’s staff. So I chatted some with Brett Maxie, whose current title is just “secondary” along with Dave Campo, but was the “safeties” coach in 2010.
Who better to ask than Maxie to try and assess Alan Ball’s season at free safety.
“He played like a player that was playing the position for the very first time,” Maxie said. “There was good and bad. The athletic part of it – we knew he had the physical toughness, we knew he had the mental capability. But we knew he had the unknown, and we had to work through that.
He just had to go out and play the position the way it was supposed to be played. He obviously wasn’t seasoned at playing. But that was the adjustment. He needed to go out and learn how to play the position.”
Maxie used Hall of Famer Rod Woodson as an example. Woodson was a Pro Bowl cornerback who successfully made the transition to safety to prolong his career. And while Woodson hasn’t played since 2003, I think Maxie used him as an example because there just aren’t many corners who have made the transition without a drop-off.
“Rod Woodson is a perfect example,” Maxie said. “Rod was a corner in the NFL. He made the transition because of the obvious reasons. He couldn’t compete on the edge anymore. If you were to ask Rod Woodson about his first season of playing safety, he would tell you that the nuances of playing the position was somewhat there, but the overall knowledge of the game allowed me to have some success . . . Well, it was different for Alan. He didn’t have a lot of playing experience. So he didn’t have that knowledge of the game to fall back on.”
However, Maxie isn’t ruling out Ball’s chance of making that transition to safety.
“I think he’s still in the mix (for this season),” Maxie said. “I think he would be. He’s been here. He knows the coaches. His competitive nature is going to help him. He’ll compete for a position.”
Getting the chance to talk to the assistant coaches proved to beneficial in lots of ways last week, especially with the news guys like Rob Ryan and Jimmy Robinson.
But all of the assistants were available last week, including the holdovers from last year’s staff. So I chatted some with Brett Maxie, whose current title is just “secondary” along with Dave Campo, but was the “safeties” coach in 2010.
Who better to ask than Maxie to try and assess Alan Ball’s season at free safety.
“He played like a player that was playing the position for the very first time,” Maxie said. “There was good and bad. The athletic part of it – we knew he had the physical toughness, we knew he had the mental capability. But we knew he had the unknown, and we had to work through that.
He just had to go out and play the position the way it was supposed to be played. He obviously wasn’t seasoned at playing. But that was the adjustment. He needed to go out and learn how to play the position.”
Maxie used Hall of Famer Rod Woodson as an example. Woodson was a Pro Bowl cornerback who successfully made the transition to safety to prolong his career. And while Woodson hasn’t played since 2003, I think Maxie used him as an example because there just aren’t many corners who have made the transition without a drop-off.
“Rod Woodson is a perfect example,” Maxie said. “Rod was a corner in the NFL. He made the transition because of the obvious reasons. He couldn’t compete on the edge anymore. If you were to ask Rod Woodson about his first season of playing safety, he would tell you that the nuances of playing the position was somewhat there, but the overall knowledge of the game allowed me to have some success . . . Well, it was different for Alan. He didn’t have a lot of playing experience. So he didn’t have that knowledge of the game to fall back on.”
However, Maxie isn’t ruling out Ball’s chance of making that transition to safety.
“I think he’s still in the mix (for this season),” Maxie said. “I think he would be. He’s been here. He knows the coaches. His competitive nature is going to help him. He’ll compete for a position.”
