Disgusting and contagious.
The two words are usually reserved for negative circumstances, but they drive Charlotte’s development of defensive backs. An ideal room embodies those terms: being obnoxious in communication and causing turnovers that can often impact the entire defense. There will also be plenty of participants.
Top corner and junior Dontae Balfour is making national headlines. He was on the Jim Thorpe Award Watch List, which is given to the best defensive back in the country. The All-Conference honors were piling up before his second season with the 49ers, but he’s not alone.
Junior Ali Ali will play behind him as safety and was also selected to the All-Conference First Team in the preseason. Senior CJ Burton is back too, but they won’t have to handle the burden of a full game again this season.
Redshirt Juniors Ja’Qurious Conley And Elijah Culp Enter the fray after a year of learning on the sidelines. Junior Jaavan Mack has been flying around fall camp after joining the 49ers from Georgia Military College. The depth of the meeting room has Biff Poggi upset.
“There’s a lot of good players back there, a lot of depth,” the head coach said. “We have a number of cornerbacks that are really good players and come from really good schools. What plagued us last year was that our cornerbacks were playing 75 snaps a game, which is pretty tough.”
“We believe we can halve those repetitions with equally good players.”
In addition, he brought a professional headliner into the coaching staff.
Dre’Blyan 11-year NFL veteran, arrived in Charlotte this spring as a defensive analyst. His decade-plus career as a professional football player includes two Pro Bowls and a Super Bowl victory with the St. Louis Rams in 2000. He has 43 interceptions in 167 games during his decade-plus career, and learned the consequences of a room full of defensive backs who don’t have enough body or bulk.
“When you get tired, the first thing you lose is concentration and attention to detail,” Bly said. “Then you end up with misreporting and missed tasks.”
They’ve learned to handle the big plays when they happen, but having more depth will help make them less common.
Bly sees a lot of these in college football, which are more likely to be the result of overlooked details than talent gaps between programs. He spent four years coaching cornerbacks at North Carolina. He has enough experience in college football to know that small miscommunications or mistakes can have bigger consequences than recruiting profiles.
The practices put the group to the test thanks to a number of deep threats. Balfour sees talent emerging on the other side of the line of scrimmage between quarterbacks and wide receivers and the challenge was met during the team’s periods.
Bly, together with Ty Greenwood who trains the corners, and Justin Sanders Leading the safeties allows Balfour and his teammates to speak their minds. On the field, this shows in passing coverage and making sure assignments are correct before the snap. Off the field, meeting rooms are places to bond through understanding and build further chemistry.
“We have to agree that this starts with intrusive communication,” Sanders said. “Everyone feels better when people talk. We’ve put the safeties in charge of leading this.”
Defensive Coordinator Ryan Osborn does not want his message to go unheard, so he repeats it daily.
Losing the ball, losing the ball, losing the ball. This is how the defense pulls off big plays.
At each meeting, Osborn emphasizes the key points to creating it: hit the ball, swing at it. And when it’s in the air, that’s the 49ers’ ball, especially if it’s deflected. Drills during practice remain the focus, and deflection drills take center stage before team periods when contagion can spread. With every turnover, the defense’s presence is felt – players sprint to the defender, celebrate, and bring the same energy to their teammates that can be generated by winning the ball in a game.
“It’s contagious when you have the mindset that the ball is yours when it’s in the air,” Ali said. “We want to hit the ball too, we want to get it out. That mentality comes from coach (Osborn), but it’s about the whole defense always attacking.”
Hall of Fame safety Ed Reed once ran the Baltimore corridors that Osborn came from before becoming Charlotte’s coordinator. He’s the player Ali wants to be, and the Ravens’ defense that led to the 2001 Super Bowl victory — thanks to turnovers and eight opponents scoring 13 points or fewer — is one of many examples of what a cohesive unit can contribute to victory.
The defensive line has a similar depth. The defensive backs see the pressure of a good defense in front of them as a challenge to be strong on defense. Just as cornerbacks and safeties have to act fluidly, the same applies to the linemen who build up pressure and the defensive backs who take advantage of it.
Charlotte’s cornerbacks and safeties are well-equipped and are doing their best to get better. Being intrusively social and infectiously productive is their motto.
