Of course I would try. That is silly. I was always taught in lifting that I gain the most when I lift to failure. In wrestling I would wrestle everyday a person who was much better than me, and I would fail every day. Telling a player he's expected to fail is actually giving that player the highest expectation possible. You are expecting him to work harder and pass through the failure.
Victories aren't equal neither are failures. A coach is their to get the best from his players and the main way they do that is teach. Saying the failure of a guy off the street is the same as the failure of a vet is silly.
The point of it though wasn't the expectation of failure as much as it was the expectation that you were to learn from that failure, and fast. The expectation of failure was there because that is what history has shown was very likely to occur. There was no encouragement to fail, or to not try. Nor do I imagine a rookie trying to make an NFL roster being comfortable in failure. But if history had told them there was a likelihood of it occurring then the player needed to learn from it as soon as possible.
Because Chris plays better when he's closer to the Los, Also, Chris doesn't have the ball skills you want to play deep, he can cover but he doesn't own the ball when it's in the air.
Clemons to me seems much more aware playing deep center field with the mindset that no one must get behind him. Jones seems more reckless and less cerebral to me. I'd much rather have the more reliable player mentally at free safety. I see that as Clemons, or even Culver, not Jones.
I've always felt that Jones was a guy that naturally played moving forward. I feel that results in being beaten over the top too often. I prefer my FS to be more of a last line of defense type. The best ones are the ones that figure out when to gamble and when not to gamble. If Jones doesn't figure that part out he'd be best in a system that had a more clear SS/FS division. Clemons has more of that last line of defense mentality, but he doesn't seem to be the vocal leader that gets everybody else in place. Everyone of our safety candidates has some areas of their game they need to work on. We'll see which ones succeed.
I watched Clemons game real close in 2010, what I saw was a player that enjoys and excels at playing the run from the safety position, I think he's good at it, and I think he has a nasty disposition for it, when I see him in coverage I agree that he is cognizant of not getting beat deep, but his thought process is the problem, he doesn't seem to understand the concept that when the ball is in the air, it belongs to both players, he can cover, he can mimick, but he doesn't flip his switch from defensive to offensive mentality when the ball is in the air..So that's why I see him more as a in the box strong safety, I think his potential to inflict punishment and play at, or behind the LOS is there.
Which does not address the fact that Jones is much more risky at FS because he doesn't always use his head. Maybe both are better off at SS, but Clemons is much less risky at FS than Jones is. I agree it would be nice if Clemons was a better ball athlete, but I'd rather have his (play is safe don't get burned mentality) than Jones with his (go for the big play even when it isn't there and risk giving up the big play be damned) mentality...
