At all of his NFL stops, former Colts president Bill Polian was accused of overpaying (both in picks and salary) for cornerbacks. And Indy was no exception. In the 2005 draft, he picked Marlin Jackson in the first and Kelvin Hayden in the second. The following year, he selected Tim Jennings in the second and, the year after that, Jerraud Powers in the third.
Injuries to the more heralded and established players put Powers in a starting position and to the surprise of many, he flourished. While the others have since left, Powers quietly established himself as the team's No. 1 corner.
Headed into the 2012 season, Powers was considered the team's only NFL-quality corner. The position was declared a disaster area, and all the other holdovers (including recent draft picks Kevin Thomas and Chris Rucker) were summarily dispatched. New GM Ryan Grigson replenished the cornerback corps by trading for Vontae Davis, Cassius Vaughn, Josh Gordy and DJ Johnson, and signing Justin King and others, including, eventually, Darius Butler.
Powers remained the team's top guy at the start of the season. He started the first eight games of the season until his year was ended by a third-degree case of turf toe that included several torn ligaments.
Powers was widely criticized for his play in 2012, which saw him definitively beaten for four touchdown passes. Indeed his coverage skills did not look as sharp as they had in the past, but I think that can be attributed to his nagging injuries, being miscast as the team's No. 1 guy and comparison to Davis (who really came on after a rough start) and Butler (who looked spectacular after Powers went down). He also had an uncharacteristic problem with missed tackles. Still, he played with discipline, and did not back down or sulk when things did not go well for him.
Will other teams bid for him?: Without a doubt. Powers is a solid No. 2 corner, and could play a significant role on just about any NFL team. The recent increase in the value of cornerbacks will see players of Powers' caliber showered with big-money offers.
Chances he'll be back: Quite good. Grigson seems to value the position as highly as Polian did, and — despite his efforts — the cornerback corps is still in something of a crisis. While Davis is a given, Butler and Vaughn are free agents, and depth behind them is shaky. Even without injuries, a team needs at least four competent corners these days and the Colts would like to avoid the panic they went through last season trying to find them. They have two factors working in their favor: a huge amount of cap space and Powers' self-declared desire to return.
2 comments:
What concerns me most about Powers is the constant injury problems. He misses too much time. Granted, with a better run defense from the front seven, he is not making as many tackles that can cause injury, but his history does not make one optimistic he can stay on the field
I see that. He's played in just 42 of 64 games since he was drafted.
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