Problem Areas
A mistake I fully admit to being guilty of – and am positive I’m not alone in – when it comes to football is lumping speed and shiftiness together. If a guy posts a fast 40 time, my assumption is that he also must be quick and shifty. While I’ve gotten better at not making such broad-stroke generalizations when studying players, Albert Wilson sure helped emphasize the point.
This lack of “wiggle,” as Mike Mayock likes to say, manifests itself in two areas with Wilson: his ability to beat press coverage, and when running routes that require precise cuts. Let’s take a look at the former first:
On this play, Wilson is going to run a go route down the field against press coverage. Notice how absolutely no separation is created at the line of scrimmage, the corner is on him all the way. Wilson is covered, and remains so, the moment he takes his first step. This was, by far, the easiest way for defenses to take Wilson completely out of games. There were only a couple instances where I saw him garner any sort of separation when a man was lined up in his face.
If I may hypothesize for a second, I believe he is too reliant upon his speed. By believing he can out run the defender across from him, he is less concerned about getting a good release at the line, instead concentrating on sprinting by the guy. Once again, the NFL proves you can’t solely rely on physical attributes.
As for his route-running, we saw how Wilson’s pretty good when running routes that allow him to build up some speed. But when it comes to shorter routes that require precise cuts to get open, Wilson just doesn’t cut it (pun completely intended).
This is quick dig route where the corner stays in Albert’s hip pocket the whole way. These types of quick-hitters make up the very foundation of a West Coast Offense, so it’s a big drawback when a receiver can’t gain an inch of separation when running them.
While it hurts predominantly on the shorter routes, Wilson also shows the inability to run precise deep routes. Take this attempted double move for example:
Running a killer double-move is a fairly intricate process. Defensive backs have studied hours of your tape and are so athletic that they can recover from a misstep fairly quickly. It requires good feet, hips, and speed to execute successfully. There is nothing intricate about Wilson’s route here; his lack of shiftiness prevents this type of route from even registering as a threat to defensive backs.
I had high hopes for Wilson in 2015, so it pains me to see so many aspects of his game needing improvement. There is potential here, but Dorsey and the Chiefs can ill afford to wait for it to be realized since the championship window is open right now. Albert Wilson undoubtedly deserves to have a spot on this roster, but I’d be more than a little surprised if No. 12 starts across from No. 19 in Week 1 of 2016.