Colts sign CB X. Rhodes

[Superman]

1 minute ago, dw49 said:

 

I read where he's had some nagging injuries the past couple of years. I think it's a good signing.

 

I don't know the money yet, but I'm very intrigued. I've always been a Rhodes fan.

[Jackie Daytona]

Would be nice to have some guys signed for more than this season... 

[Shadow_Creek]

yessssss i freakin called this.....

[Zoltan]

I believe he had a hamstring injury all year if I remember right

[Bravo]

Via Twitter: It sounds like he was BAD last year.

 

Heres a video: don’t Mind the Commentary.

 

 

[Restinpeacesweetchloe]

Wouldn’t our upgraded defensive line helip him? 

[PrincetonTiger]

4 minutes ago, dw49 said:

 

I read where he's had some nagging injuries the past couple of years. I think it's a good signing.

I believe you are right 

Just now, Chloe6124 said:

Wouldn’t our upgraded defensive line helip him? 

Yes Scheme change too

[throwing BBZ]

  

 Pray for his good health and hope he was a bargain.

[chad72]

5 minutes ago, Superman said:

 

We've been doing more man at times, but I've always assumed it was going to be a zone matching kind of 2013 Seahawks scheme. Guess we still could, both Rhodes and Ya-Sin are tall, long, and good tacklers. 

 

He will probably be playing the vet role that Sherman played for the 49ers D, where Sherman was not playing much man-to-man. Sherman could still get beat but most of the time, he made sound plays and a lot of his plays on the ball had to do with the pressure the 49ers DL brought.

 

Without the DL pressure, Rhodes will be exposed but if we get the pressure we expect with all our signings, Rhodes in the zone matching should work. Like I said, he is not built for man coverage on the outside at this point in his career. 

 

[pgt_rob]

This is an interesting signing. Instantly thought of him being a Colt in 2013 but chose Werner instead, got a little deja vu for a second. I really hope he bounces back this season. Does anyone for sure know if he’s been battling injuries through last season?

[chad72]

4 minutes ago, Zoltan said:

I believe he had a hamstring injury all year if I remember right

 

...and we have the miracle elixir for injuries with our oft injured team, I guess???  

 

J/k

[EastStreet]

I don't know enough about him to have an opinion. 

 

But he gave up 59 catches on 70 targets and had a 46.4 PFF rating. Anyway you look at it, not good. Hoping there's an injury or scheme narrative we don't know about.

[EastStreet]

9 minutes ago, Zoltan said:

I believe he had a hamstring injury all year if I remember right

Awesome. He can get an adjoining ice tub next to TY...

[chad72]

12 minutes ago, bravo4460 said:

Via Twitter: It sounds like he was BAD last year.

 

Heres a video: don’t Mind the Commentary.

 

 

 

Good video!!! It matches EXACTLY what I saw on the field vs Seahawks and Packers.

 

Just because he is a Colt, I am not going to just turn a blind eye to his loss of ability/inability last year. I am sorry, I am not a fan of this signing. He has been bad for 2 years in a row. Film don't lie. Hopes and expectations do.

 

Play him in zone and cover his weakness, that is the best we can do now.

[Dingus McGirt]

23 minutes ago, Chloe6124 said:

Is he a upgrade over Desir.  We already had are veteran so this makes no sense.

Please edit before you "submit."

[stitches]

28 minutes ago, Superman said:

He should have been a Colt all along...

 

I don't know how well he fits the defense, or why he fell off last year. I'll have to dig into what the Vikings were doing with him. 

I don't know how he will fit but one thing is becoming more and more clear with every CB acquisition - length is huge for this front office when it comes to CBs. 

 

Wilson, Rock, Marvell Tell, Kenny Moore, Desir...all have arms 32" or longer. This is the same criteria Seattle is using for their corners too.

 

Rhodes comes in with the longest arms of them all - 33 3/4ths "... That's kind of insane for his size. 

 

@NFLfan can probably give us better idea about how he was used and what happened with him the last year or so ? Whenever I watched Vikings games he didn't look good, but I can't pretend I've watched enough or even that I've concentrated on his play specifically.

[vikesfan]

I was reading a lot of your guys post on Rhodes. I was hoping I could shed some light on his play the last 2 seasons. The Vikes run a very complicated Double A scheme. In 2017 it was super effective when paired with a lot of blitzes and **Press Man**. In 2018, more teams started running the double A due to our success (it is a copycat league after all). As a result, many offenses were prepared for the double a scheme and we saw a lot of schematic counters to the defense. What Zimmer then did to counter this was to blitz less, send more corner blitzes instead of sending our Lbs and switch our CBs to a weird fusion of off man and cover 3. Both corners are press corners. They excel by putting immediate hands on a WR and then running with them. Rhodes, unfortunately, has been banged up and has continue to add one muscle to his already large frame. He looks almost like a strong safety at this point. He is too big and off man already was a weakness of his. His previous injuries have robbed him of some foot quickness and change of direction ability. When paired with being heavier, it is a recipe for disaster. He really needs to get lighter and leaner. Not sure if he added on the pounds to be more stout in run support but it has been detrimental to his ability to shadow.

 

The good news is, not all is lost. He is still one of the best press corners in the league, when allowed to press. If you DC puts him in a press role, he will improve and if he decides to shed all of that excess weight, he will return close to his old form. These are all big ifs though. If your scheme is off man or a lot of cover 3's/clouds, it is going to be Roads Open.  

 

[Restinpeacesweetchloe]

Fountain is excited.

 

 

[atapcl]

Looks like we will have an offensive draft: WR, TE, QB, T.

[Restored]

11 minutes ago, EastStreet said:

I don't know enough about him to have an opinion. 

 

But he gave up 59 catches on 70 targets and had a 46.4 PFF rating. Anyway you look at it, not good. Hoping there's an injury or scheme narrative we don't know about.

I agree. I hope for the best but nothing looks good on the surface.

 

This is giving me flashbacks of the Patrick Robinson signing.

[stitches]

4 minutes ago, Chloe6124 said:

Fountain is excited.

 

 

Kenny is past Desir too it seems:

 

 

[Dingus McGirt]

3 minutes ago, atapcl said:

Looks like we will have an offensive draft: WR, TE, QB, T.

So, you have CB figured out, have you?  :^)  

[Patrick Miller]

Good signing. If healthy Rhodes will be great! Love the one year prove it deals...

[The Peytonator]

I know this is seven years later than it should have been and he was terrible last year, but I’m excited to get my boy from the 2013 draft. I don’t know what the deal has been in Zimmer’s D to where the safeties have been so great while the corners terrible, but I’m gonna hope a change in scenery/scheme gets him back to form. It’s not like he’s too old. 

[Yoshinator]

Not sure how to feel here. Rhodes had a bad year last year, however, he was an excellent player. Fine with one year here. I think he'll turn it around with us on our defense. Curious on the cost. In any case, glad we made a move!

[EastStreet]

2 minutes ago, Restored said:

I agree. I hope for the best but nothing looks good on the surface.

 

This is giving me flashbacks of the Patrick Robinson signing.

He was lights out in 16 and 17. Especially 16. 

Not sure how he made the PB with those 19 status/grades.

Had to be gimpy.

[NewColtsFan]

34 minutes ago, runthepost said:

Twitter is clowning the colts for signing open rhodes 

Uh oh....

 

Twitter opposes!    Is it too late to void the deal?!?   Twitter!!  Twitter!!  Twitter!!

 

[atapcl]

3 minutes ago, Dingus McGirt said:

So, you have CB figured out, have you?  :^)  

Just being logical and I’ll let you figure out CB.

[CurBeatElite]

 

36 minutes ago, Superman said:

He should have been a Colt all along...

 

I don't know how well he fits the defense, or why he fell off last year. I'll have to dig into what the Vikings were doing with him. 

Good article here:  https://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/28959305/former-viking-cb-xavier-rhodes-sign-colts

 

He was playing with groin and hamstring issues.  And Zimmer had him shadowing the opposing #1 WR early in the year (sounds like a lot of man coverage).  Later in the year, they started rotating him around.

 

 

25 minutes ago, Superman said:

 

We've been doing more man at times, but I've always assumed it was going to be a zone matching kind of 2013 Seahawks scheme. Guess we still could, both Rhodes and Ya-Sin are tall, long, and good tacklers. 

 

I expect we'll see a mix of formations on our D, but imagine we'll still see a bit of zone.  I think the main issue Desir was let go is because his tackling was very poor last season.  Ballard likes long DBs who can tackle.  Rhodes can still do that.  Even though he gave up a higher completion rate than Desir last year, he's a much more competent tackler.

[Rackeen305]

45 minutes ago, runthepost said:

 He was pure trash last year

So was Rivers...

[vikesfan]

2 minutes ago, CurBeatElite said:

 

Good article here:  https://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/28959305/former-viking-cb-xavier-rhodes-sign-colts

 

He was playing with groin and hamstring issues.  And Zimmer had him shadowing the opposing #1 WR early in the year (sounds like a lot of man coverage).  Later in the year, they started rotating him around.

 

 

 

I expect we'll see a mix of formations on our D, but imagine we'll still see a bit of zone.  I think the main issue Desir was let go is because his tackling was very poor last season.  Ballard likes long DBs who can tackle.  Rhodes can still do that.  Even though he gave up a higher completion rate than Desir last year, he's a much more competent tackler.

He wasn't really playing the number 1 much. Zimmer's scheme puts our CBs on a side. When we played Julio, he would move inside if Julio went inside and outside but stayed primarily on the right side of the defense (Defense POV). Waynes was used almost exclusively on the left side. 

Later in the year he got benched as our other CB got healthy. We drafted Hughes in 2018 in the first and had to see what we had in him. Waynes was playing poorly, so shuffling was natural. 

[The Peytonator]

We have got to be moving to a man heavy coverage scheme. Pretty much all of our d is suited for such, I hope we don’t go with a square peg/round hole philosophy. 

[Rackeen305]

25 minutes ago, EastStreet said:

I don't know enough about him to have an opinion. 

 

But he gave up 59 catches on 70 targets and had a 46.4 PFF rating. Anyway you look at it, not good. Hoping there's an injury or scheme narrative we don't know about.

 

23 minutes ago, EastStreet said:

Awesome. He can get an adjoining ice tub next to TY...

Lets just say a motivated and healthy Xavier Rhodes is of the same quality and school as Jalen Ramsey. Can play Man to Man and good tackler. FSU alum and was highly touted coming into the draft. Had a injury lately from last I heard but a Pro Bowl level CB. Something the Colts hasn't had since like Vontae Davis.

[bestQBever]

If he regains his old form, this was a steal. If not, we better have a backup plan...

[Yoshinator]

If Rhodes returns to form, we'll have a top 10 defense next year easily. We know Buckner will ball out and improve the D-Line.

[Dingus McGirt]

14 minutes ago, atapcl said:

Just being logical and I’ll let you figure out CB.

Understood.  Was just commenting on CB surprising us all occasionally.

[vikesfan]

Last point. Him making the pro bowl was a joke. He was bad last season based on what he was asked to do. When he was asked to press, he played well. When he was asked to play zone, he struggled.  

[King Colt]

48 minutes ago, ProblChld32 said:

 

SOLID signing, he had a down year but I believe it was due to injury, I fully expect him to get healthy and come in and compete. 

ESPN shot in a quickie one liner about this trade saying he did suffer some groin issues. They did not elaborate.

[wordofmouth]

25 minutes ago, vikesfan said:

I was reading a lot of your guys post on Rhodes. I was hoping I could shed some light on his play the last 2 seasons. The Vikes run a very complicated Double A scheme. In 2017 it was super effective when paired with a lot of blitzes and **Press Man**. In 2018, more teams started running the double A due to our success (it is a copycat league after all). As a result, many offenses were prepared for the double a scheme and we saw a lot of schematic counters to the defense. What Zimmer then did to counter this was to blitz less, send more corner blitzes instead of sending our Lbs and switch our CBs to a weird fusion of off man and cover 3. Both corners are press corners. They excel by putting immediate hands on a WR and then running with them. Rhodes, unfortunately, has been banged up and has continue to add one muscle to his already large frame. He looks almost like a strong safety at this point. He is too big and off man already was a weakness of his. His previous injuries have robbed him of some foot quickness and change of direction ability. When paired with being heavier, it is a recipe for disaster. He really needs to get lighter and leaner. Not sure if he added on the pounds to be more stout in run support but it has been detrimental to his ability to shadow.

 

The good news is, not all is lost. He is still one of the best press corners in the league, when allowed to press. If you DC puts him in a press role, he will improve and if he decides to shed all of that excess weight, he will return close to his old form. These are all big ifs though. If your scheme is off man or a lot of cover 3's/clouds, it is going to be Roads Open.  

 

Thanks for the info Vikesfan !  That sounds pretty spot on. I remember a couple of years ago going on a tirade to my brother about how we could have had him and drafted Warner instead.   I think if he can healthy he will be an upgrade. Interesting what you  said about  his weight, I wonder if they will be on him about that.   

 

Will see you in the Super Bowl

[21isSuperman]

52 minutes ago, jvan1973 said:

How did he make the Pro bowl?

 

56 minutes ago, superrep1967 said:

Yeah that’s why he made the pro bowl last season come on now

Pro Bowl nods don't real mean anything anymore, so I wouldn't really use that as a basis of how well a player is playing.

 

As for Rhodes, this is just a 1 year deal.  If he comes in and is awful, we don't re-sign him next year and we move on.  At the very least, he's a veteran with plenty of success, so he can mentor guys like Rock Ya-Sin and Marvell Tell.

 

Yes, he was awful last year.  But he'll be 30 when the season starts, so still plenty of football left in him and plenty of opportunity for him to regain form