Nnamdi Asomugha: The Nullifier

I am a casual Texan fan and a great admirer of Andre Johnson. I agree that he is the league’s toughest cover and that Asomugha has completely dominated him. Hope we can sign him though I am not confident that GM Rick Smith can pull that off.

Not sure which of those two videos are more impressive. If Nnamdi doesn’t easily land a sports commentary job when he retires, it’s because either he’s too busy running the Red Cross, or because future TV has degenerated into a bunch of low-paid vlogging gigs.

But I saw a couple Raiders games on TV last year (damn you, fantasy football) and didn’t come away with much of an impression. But that’s entirely because on TV you don’t see the corner at work until the ball is thrown his way. I remember watching Deion in his prime, at Texas Stadium, the first time I saw an NFL game in person. That was also the only time I really saw Deion’s impact on the game. I couldn’t take my eyes off him; it was like he was attached to his assignment with a six-inch fishing line, every damn play, all game long. Just surreal. IIRC, the only time the ball came his way that game was on punt returns.

hopeful -
 
I’m an Andre Johnson fan, too. I think the Texans have a real shot, but they have to demonstrate a broad organization commitment to winning it all. Nnamdi knows what a self-satisfied franchise feels like and he’s tired of it.
 
Dagga -
 
Yeah, that’s exactly Nnamdi’s problem. Nature of the position and the fact the The Raiders are the most boring team in football and the other team simply ignores Nnamdi altogether.
 
It’s a lot easier to get a favorable impression of Revis when he’s on TV every week in a telegenic division on football’s most interesting team.
 
And as amazing as Revis is, teams will test him. They will. That doesn’t happen with Nnamdi.

Sure would help the Texans secondary.

Of course, so would Ken Houston and Dick Layne and one of those guys is dead.

Scipio, I understand your pain of watching the niners and raiders in the Bay Area…it always killed me knowing that was the only game on for three hours on any given Sunday.

Thank you for this piece, I knew of Nnamdi, but didn’t realize he was that damn good. The stats above completely blew me away.

Any chance Vince goes to a team that gets Nnamdi? That would be nice.

“Nnamdi knows what a self-satisfied franchise feels like and he’s tired of it.”

In the history of understatements, calling the Raiders merely self-satisfied may be the biggest understatement ever.

Thanks. Enjoyed this article immensely. Sent it to many Cal friends.

You are starting an NFL D. First pick by position – DT, CB, Vince Young?

Voodoo, imo.

I’m holding on to the hope that since Dallas ignored cb in the early part of the draft they feel they have a good shot at Asomugha.

You are starting an NFL D. First pick by position – DT, CB, Vince Young?

I’d go with Hurricane Ditka.

Hah, great timing. Sports talk here in SA the other day was saying that Dallas should not go after Asomugha because of his low INT numbers the last few years and his age.

And Scipio, not to totally derail the thread, but being the Bay area I’m assuming you have seen Michael Huff play more than a couple times over the last few years. What are your thoughts on his career? I’m generally not a blind UT homer, but he was one of the few players I felt strongly would be a star at the NFL level.

It took Huff a few years to learn that you can’t take down NFL RBs by jumping on their back and tripping their legs scissor style like he could in college.

Since he got to the league he’s always been shy to drop his shoulder in run support and frankly looked lost adapting to NFL zone coverage schemes (not surprising given Akina’s inability to deploy one). But Huff took a nice step forward over the second half of last season and is starting to play at the level we’re used to seeing. He sees a lot of action in centerfield because nobody is throwing near Voodoo Child and is starting to break on those balls instead of chase down the WR that already caught it.

NOW TELL ME WHY I’M WRONG, SCIPIO.

Scipio—

Asomugha reminds me a fair amount of a cornerback the Raiders once acquired: Mike Haynes. The Raiders picked Haynes up mid-season 1983 after a dispute involving his option with the Patriots.

Haynes was, like Asomugha, inarguably the best cornerback in the league and greatly aided the Raiders winning the Super Bowl that year.

28 years later, are the Raiders about to return the favor?

Great piece. God I am old.

Haynes’s measurables: 6-2, 192. It’s almost uncanny.

Asomugha is an absolute stallion – for the last two seasons my nickname for him has been Bye Week (ugh…I felt a little like Jon Gruden just then and it felt…oily). I consider him to be a second bye week for any WR he’s facing for fantasy football purposes.

As Scip alluded to, if your team’s (regular or fantasy) receiver is lined up against Asomugha he’s unlikely to even be a consideration for his QB. Out of 786 snaps in 2010, he was targeted 27 times for a sickeningly low ‘thrown at’ rate of 3.4%. The next closest starting corner was Asante Samuel for the Eagles with a still-terrific 6.0% (Revis was 7th among starting corners with a 6.8% rate).

‘Whither Asomugha?’ is the most compelling free agent question of what promises to be the liveliest free agency period in NFL history (his only real competition for that honor could be Doug Free as a 27 year-old ‘franchise-ish’ LT, but as a Cowboys fan I fervently hope Mr. Free only remains free until about 12:01 AM on whatever day free agency kicks off before Jerrah locks him down). Asomugha’s immediate value is obvious, his list of suitors long, and while his motives may not be purely financial it is still going to take big, fat, Scrooge McDuck sacks of cash and bullion. The interesting question becomes how high you should go if you’re an avid suitor. A few arguments for and against truly backing up the Brinks truck and dumping out QB-type dollaz:

GRAB HIM:

1) Freakitude: If you’re going to make a bet on someone holding up physically, make that bet on someone with just jaw-dropping athleticism. He’s just built differently from the other humans on the planet. I’m reminded of a quote about the great Darrell Green of the Redskins – when he was 39 or so and his 40 time had ‘fallen off’ to around a 4.4 or somesuch, someone said that he’d lost a step. The immediate response was, “He had a step to lose!” Asomugha has a lot of steps to lose, and as a bonus he’s a guy that relies on football smarts as much as physical dominance.
2) PED Wins Super Bowls: Not performance-enhancing drugs (although that’s definitely a topic for another day) but Passer Efficiency Differential. Don Banks of SI had a great article up this week (I am only a simple caveman, I do not understand your ‘embedded hyperlinks’) about the dramatic correlation between your team’s Passer Efficiency Differential (the difference between the QB rating your offense achieve and the one that your defense allows) and winning Super Bowls. The passing game is what wins in the League, and FUBARing your opponent’s airshow can be just as important as putting on one of your own.
3) Character: Asomugha’s smarts and overall character are to the far, far right of the NFL bell curve. Now this can be a nice PR bonus for your franchise, and very likely a positive influence in your locker room, but I think the biggest impact is that Asomugha is not a guy who can be found in da club on da reg. The lack of ‘party miles’ on his odometer should help him age more gracefully than many.
4): The Woodson Factor: At a lot of positions, once you lose that crucial step there aren’t many places to go but the bench or the street. For all the ‘we can just move him to safety’ lines that are thrown out when a big-money corner gets signed, it rarely comes to fruition. But there’s good reason to believe that with his mix of physicality, smarts and the aforementioned freakishness, Asomugha could make a smooth transition to traditional free safety a la Rod Woodson or Elder Statesman of the Secondary/HavocBack as Charles Woodson is currently doing for the Packers. If it’s 2015 and you’re paying $12MM to a 34-year old safety it’s probably not ideal, but it likely beats paying the same to an oft-beaten corner or paying $6MM in dead money for a guy you just cut.
5) A Brave New World, Part 1: With a new CBA in the offing the salary cap becomes a dynamic and interesting question. It’s possible that it shoots up by leaps and bounds in the next few seasons (the league has floated whispers of doubling revenue by 2016), making a daunting contract as of 2011 seem much more palatable in 2014.

SKIP HIM:

1) WARNING – 30 YEAR OLD DEFENSIVE FREE AGENT! 30 YEAR OLD DEFENSIVE FREE AGENT! 30 YEAR OLD DEFENSIVE FREE AGENT! If a DB made from the DNA of Jesus Christ, Night Train Lane and a velociraptor was turning 30, it would have to give you a little big of pause. Despite all the pretty arguments for longevity above, it just has to.
2) CB Impact – Can you pay a non-QB QB money? As impact a position as corner is, it just doesn’t have the same impact on your defense’s ability to stop passes as a QB does on your offense’s ability to complete them. In one sense, Asomugha’s entire career to this point could be viewed as a case study in the limitation on a great CB’s impact on a team’s overall fortunes.
3) Brave New World – With a new CBA in the offing the salary cap becomes a dynamic and interesting question. It’s been suggested that the ‘traditional’ long, big money, big-bonus contracts may become a thing of the past with the new dynamics of the cap – especially the machinations required by the hard ‘cap floor’ that will bring all teams into near-parity in spending. Shorter deals and year-to-year flexibility may become paramount – do you want to be the team that signed the biggest, longest deal at the outset of this new frontier and possibly find yourself handicapped in comparison to your more flexible division rivals?

For me, the answer shakes out to ‘pay the man’ IF you’re the right team. He doesn’t make sense for the Lions – their secondary sucks, but they’re still just too far away from contention and they’d essentially be ‘wasting’ the first 2-3 years of his deal. The Texans are interesting – obviously their need is beyond dire, but they look to have the offensive pieces to compete (including a stellar OL – somewhere David Carr is weeping) and the defense (Williams, McClain, Cushing with a better masking agent) is not devoid of talent. I’m not too well versed in Houston’s salary cap situation but I could see them being both a logical and attractive landing spot – if nothing else, Texans fans, please keep him the hell away from the Eagles! I’d love to see him with a star on his helmet but I’m afraid the Boys will be too cash-strapped unless we see a higher than anticipated cap number ($135MM+) and/or there are some MAJOR amnesty provisions to allow the harmless dumping of the Newmans, Barbers, Davises and Williamses of the world.

It’s easy to look like Night Train Jesus Velociraptor when you’re playing with Michael Huff.

great piece, thanks.

Having known Nnamdi from back in the dorms at Cal, i can say his talent is only paralleled by his character. He’ll make some team very happy.

Just the kind of player for Dan Snyder to throw bucket loads of money at, then waste the talent because of shit coaching and poor draft day decision making.

3-4 years down the road, start whisper campaign about Nnamdi losing a step and then encourage him to give back contract money by treating him horribly.

Wash, rinse, repeat with 2014’s free agent flavor of the year.

“The only NFL joy of living in the Bay Area and being forced to watch putrid 49er and Raider football over the past six years has been the gift of watching Nnamdi.”

I have to imagine watching L. Houston last season was enjoyable, no?

nordberg -

I’m hoping Huff gets the chance to work his Night Train Jesus Velociraptor transmogrification skills with the Cowboys this year, but I’m afraid not even that would be enough to save Terence Newman. Dude got coooooked last year.

Bates -

Hopefully (for his sake) Nnamdi’s consideration of elements beyond the financial will move him to quickly strike the Skins from his list of suitors.

Horncasting -
 
Local sports radio, as best I can tell, from Philly to Oakland, Laredo to Minneapolis, is a bunch of fat guys in hockey jerseys who don’t know much about sports beyond repeating platitudes and hitting a fart sound effect. There are some exceptions, but they’re rare.
 
As for Huff, evaluating any Raider is almost impossible. The pettiness, the stupidity, the strange whims of Al Davis, mean evaluating any player’s performance is folly.
 
jonestopten -
 
Yep, that’s a good comp. Nnamdi is basically Haynes +10% across the board in terms of size, speed, quicks. It’s very interesting when you look at the number of Hall of Fame corners over 6’ vs the number of corners in the NFL at any height. Basically, the highest levels of cornerback play are usually provided by a tall freak.
 
nobis -
 
Great post. You’ve been on fire. First, you go all Neal Stephenson, then you provide a useful scorecard for any GM.
 
Nnamdi’s low mileage and great size/technique suggest to me a guy that can do this at a high level until age 35.
 
Bates -
 
You sound like a Redskin fan who has been burned many times. At least the Redskins have a pass rush to offer Nnamdi.
 
TxinDC -
 
Yeah, I like Lamar a lot.

You guys continue to educate me. I am humbled and grateful for your wisdom.

Now I want this guy for the Bears.

" The pettiness, the stupidity, the strange whims of Al Davis, mean evaluating any player’s performance is folly. "

Ah, now we’re getting closer, not quite there yet though.

It probably speaks more to the dominance of Asomugha that he plays for the Raiders than any other stat you’ve sited. When I was watching the clip above, I kept thinking that it was all Asomugha could do to keep from telling Bayless:

 “Look you little OU whore, I play for the fucking Raiders the Al fucking Davis coached Raiders, and I’m still bitch slapping the rest of the league. You’re telling me I don’t play with passion? Our coaches beat the shit out of each other and our quarterback weighed more than 3 of our offensive linemen and your telling me I don’t have passion?”

I consider it a mark of pure class that Asomugha could sit across the table from Bayless without beating his head in with a table leg.

Local sports radio, as best I can tell, from Philly to Oakland, Laredo to Minneapolis, is a bunch of fat guys in hockey jerseys who don’t know much about sports beyond repeating platitudes and hitting a fart sound effect. There are some exceptions, but they’re rare.

You don’t know what you’re talking about. Just this morning Lance Zierlein taught me, and this is almost verbatim, “the Texans don’t need Nnamdi, the Texans need winners. What has Nnamdi won? He’s a Raider.”

I would have driven off the road after hearing that had he been changing a tire.

magnus -
 
Someone send that guy this post – at least let him attempt to educate himself.

magnus -

That is just shocking. It shouldn’t be shocking for a number of reasons, but it’s still shocking for so many more.

I remember having a lengthy argument with a girl I worked with (pretty football-savvy, knew a bunch of the UT players from years past, but a girl nonetheless) when she blamed Tony Romo, first and foremost, for the Cowboys’ loss against the Vikings (the one where he could not complete a five-step drop without getting bushwhacked by Ray Edwards or Jared Allen). I finally had to raise my voice and yell, “The quarterback is not the whole team!”

There are damned Hooters waitresses that would understand that the CORNERBACK is not the whole team.

Someone wants to argue that Revis is a better pure corner than Asomugha? Go ahead – I’ll listen. Someone wants to say that at $XMM, your team is better off spreading that money around at several positions? Could be. But someone wants to argue that the Texans – they of the 4200+ passing yards surrendered at 8.2 per ATTEMPT – don’t NEED Asomugha because he’s not a WINNER? I’m not sure exactly what he was doing with his Sundays last fall, but I assume it didn’t involve watching too many Texans games.

Quinn was below par giving up 7.9 yards every time someone threw his way.

McCain got filleted, giving up 9.1 yards a pop.

Kareem Jackson could not have been burned more thoroughly if he had been launched into the surface of the Sun, giving up a shocking 10.7 yards every time a quarterback decided to play pitch and catch with whichever receiver he was trying to vaguely stay close to. Not per completion – per ATTEMPT. I don’t know if I’ve ever seen a stat that bad for a full-time corner.

What an outright imbecile.

I pay as close to the NFL as just about anybody. I always had a good appreciation for him because the Texans play the Raiders seemingly every year and Andre Johnson speaks extremely highly of him. That written, I had no idea he was that freaking dominant until the NFL Network started rattling off his stats on their countdown.

Oh yeah, Zierlein wanted the Texans to go after Baltimore safety Dawan Landry – because he’s a winner.

nobis – that’s my problem with Zierlein….his job is to cover the Texans. He’d rather add a safety rather than a guy that is a lock to take away his third of the field.

Fuck sending this article to LZ, somebody send this to Bob McNair.