Ronde Speaks

July 31, 2009 at 10:31am by Scott   •  2 Comments »

I didn’t realize Ronde Barber had been intentionally avoiding the press this summer. I had just assumed that since he lost a quarterback in coverage on a go route that went for a touchdown that he just had nothing left to say. Who knew?

“I didn’t want to spend the whole offseason talking about me. ‘They cut Derrick. They cut Warrick (Dunn). They cut Ike (Hilliard). … What in the hell are you still doing here?’ How do you answer that? The best way for me to prove myself is to do it out there on the field.”

He’s got a point. One of the first questions I asked was how Ronde survived the veteran purge when he, despite going to the Pro Bowl, had more than his share of burns. In fact, here’s an interesting little nugget that you may have missed.

Here’s a stat, courtesy of Sports Illustrated’s Fantasy Football issue. No corner in the NFL was burned more last season than Barber. He gave up eight touchdowns in coverage in 94 targets, which gives him a burn percentage (SI’s term) of 8.5 percent.

And now that the coverage will put him on even more of an island than it did before, he still thinks he’s going to be all right.

“I’m confident enough to know I can do it, but I’m not arrogant enough to talk about it.”

Except just then.

I love Ronde and I don’t doubt his heart or his football smarts. I doubt that he can physically play man to man with Terrell Owens, Lee Evans, Steve Smith, Randy Moss, Wes Welker… shall I keep going? They’re going to give him his shot, but how long will they let him twist in the wind if he’s getting consistently beaten? I’d like nothing more than for him to prove me wrong, but I wouldn’t be the least bit surprised to see Elbert Mack starting at corner and Barber playing nickel exclusively after the team comes back from London.