Sam Shields: 'I'm Getting Better And Better'

GREEN BAY, Wis. – To fully appreciate just how far Sam Shields as come – and understand just how much it took for the Green Bay Packers rookie cornerback to get to this point – you have to listen to what Joe Whitt says about him now, and what he was muttering to himself about Shields about six months ago.

But first, understand this: Whitt, the Packers’ young and exuberant cornerbacks coach, is not afraid to make bold pronouncements. Before the season, he told anyone who’d listen that Tramon Williams – not Charles Woodson, the reigning NFL Defensive Player of the Year; not Al Harris, a two-time Pro Bowler coming off a major knee injury – was the team’s best cover corner. After nine games, what sounded like blasphemy at the time has become abundantly clear, with Williams making a strong case for the NFC Pro Bowl team and a break-the-bank contract extension.

After the ultra-fast – but ultra-raw – Shields went undrafted this spring and the Packers signed him as a rookie free agent, Whitt knew what kind of potential Shields had. What Whitt did not know, given the fact that Shields had spent the first three years of his college career at Miami (Fla.) playing wide receiver and had just 10 games of cornerback experience as a senior for the Hurricanes, was how well he understood the position.

The answer?

“He had no clue. Trust me. No clue,” Whitt said bluntly. “There was one day, I almost lost my mind."

And now?

“Write this down,” Whitt said of Shields, the Packers’ No. 3 cornerback in their nickel defense. “Sam is going to be one of the top corners in this league in two years.”

That’s heady stuff for a guy with Shields’ thin cornerback resume, but the Packers’ actions – releasing Harris, whom they waived off the physically unable to perform list Nov. 8 – spoke even louder than Whitt’s words.

“I don’t think anybody can stand here and say Sam Shields was going to be (one of) your starting corner(s) in Week 10, especially the way he arrived here as a free agent,” Packers coach Mike McCarthy said Wednesday, as his team prepared for Sunday’s game against the Minnesota Vikings at Mall of America Field at the Metrodome, “But you never questioned the ability. You could see that from Day 1. He’s a young man that’s been very thorough, very coachable, very detailed in everything he’s doing. He has a tremendous upside, and we’re excited about the progress he’s made.”

Much of the credit for that goes to Whitt, who was at his wits’ end when he found that Shields had no idea how to watch film, learn defenses or prepare for games at the cornerback position. So Whitt began at Square One.

“Basically, I got flashcards. I drew a formation on one side, I drew the check on the back side, just like you do in school,” explained Whitt, who had taken a similar approach as an assistant coach at the University of Louisville, where he turned two former offensive players – Arizona Cardinals safety Kerry Rhodes and Philadelphia Eagles safety Antoine Harris – into NFL-caliber defensive players. “The next day, I come in, he has a stack of flashcards, two inches deep, and he has everything on it.

“And from that day on, it was a total transformation because he understood the defense from that day on because he understood how to study."

And he’s been a quick study at that. In the Packers’ 45-7 victory over Dallas before their bye week, Shields recorded his first NFL interception (an acrobatic one-handed catch) and, while also responsible for the Cowboys’ only touchdown, proved once again on a big stage that the job isn’t too big for him. In fact, his play solidified the Packers’ difficult decision to sever ties with Harris, a 13-year NFL veteran who’d started 106 career games in Green Bay and wound up with the Miami Dolphins.

“Back when we started training camp, not many people knew who Sam Shields was, and I didn't know much about Sam Shields. But we thought he had potential, and he's continued to make improvement,” defensive coordinator Dom Capers said. “We've played nine games with him out there now, and that's a tough position to stick a rookie out there because everybody in the National Football League knows."

Whitt isn’t the only one who’s worked extensively with Shields. On Tuesdays – the players’ day off – he comes in and watches film with Woodson, who is well known for his film work. (“You can tell he studies the little details, a lot of stuff people don’t pay attention to,” Vikings wide receiver Percy Harvin said of Woodson Wednesday.)

In addition, Shields has gone from a shaky returner – another job he had next to no experience with when camp began – who couldn’t catch the ball consistently to the team’s primary kickoff returner, with a 49-yard take-back against the Cowboys.

It’s all part of Shields’ wise-beyond-his-years approach (“He's very mature; he's not like a lot of rookies,” Whitt said) and constant growth – which could one day lead to him proving Whitt prescient again, just like he’s been right about Williams.

“I’m still learning. But each day, I’m getting better and better. Each game, I’m getting better and better,” Shields said. “I’ve got to continue to keep doing that.

“If I keep working at staying focused, I can be that guy.”



(channel3000.com)