What NFL personnel people said about Sam Shields

Green Bay - Here's what three executives in personnel for National Football League teams had to say about cornerback Sam Shields in the last week.

Their comments were made before Shields was resigned by the Green Bay Packers Saturday for what a source said was worth $39 million over four years, or $9.75 million per year.

NFC scout: "He's somewhat of a mystery to me. I think he's played well enough to merit other teams liking him but I also think there's a lot of issues that go into him historically that might cause some to back off. He's a corner so he might get a look. He must think there's a big pot o' gold. There's definitely holes in his game. The board at corner shrunk because (Brent) Grimes signed with Miami. There''s still probably a handful of corners that are better than him."

AFC scout: "Rising starter. Not a No. 1. He's a solid No. 2 starting corner. If you look at some of the corner deals that got done in the past he should feel he should get a complementary contract. The market last year in free agency was depressed at corner. But here's a young player (26) who still actually may be ascending, to a degree, and be a starter for the next five years. Drew (Rosenhaus) usually is pretty good at what he thinks he can get. I wouldn't be surprised if he got somewhere between $7 million and $8 million (per year)."

AFC scout: "He can run and cover with most people. If people are comfortable with his lack of physicalness then he's got a chance to get paid. If you look at him and say, 'OK, this is a cover corner and that's what he's going to be doing, and I'm going to pay him for his coverage skills and not dwell on the lack of tackling,' then he's got a chance to make pretty good money out there. Somebody could ante up, maybe somebody's that familiar with him. I'm not sure how the guys in Oakland feel about him because they could lose a couple of their corners. That ($6.5 million average) is pretty dang good money."


(jsonline.com)