Giants' Ross adjusting to playing safety
Aaron Ross has played against the Cowboys plenty of times in his career, but he's never noticed Tony Romo's eyes. But when he's on the field today, Ross will be doing nothing but staring into the quarterback's blinkers.
That's his job now. While Ross and the Giants maintain that he is a cornerback and will be a cornerback moving forward, since he returned to the field from a series of hamstring injuries three weeks ago, he's been playing safety.
That's where he's needed on this team right now, and with starting safety Kenny Phillips already on injured reserve and starter Michael Johnson listed as questionable for this game with a groin injury, Ross might be the best safety the Giants have.
Even though he's been playing the position for less than a month.
"I'm doing a little extra time with Coach on getting the plays down and the formations, just extra film study so I can learn the safety position if I'm needed to jump in," Ross said this past week, adding that he's comfortable enough now to play an entire game at the position if necessary.
Defensive coordinator Bill Sheridan said that probably won't happen even if Johnson doesn't play. But he did say Ross will have a larger role in the defense - particularly on sub packages - than he has so far.
"You will see more of him," Sheridan said. "We're still going to play the other two guys [Aaron Rouse and C.C. Brown] that are more familiar with the first- and second-down package."
Even before Ross returned to the field from his injuries during the bye week, there was speculation that he either would move to safety or return to the starting cornerback job and push Terrell Thomas to safety. With Phillips gone early in the year and Brown not playing well, the Giants were looking for answers anywhere on their roster.
Ross was questioned about possibly playing safety by reporters before he returned to the field and said that was the first he heard of it. Not long thereafter, the coaches approached him with the idea. The Giants never approached Thomas, who has played well in his first year as a starter, about moving.
"When they first brought it up to me, I felt like that was the easiest way for me to get on the field and get the feel of my legs and everything without getting thrown into the fire," Ross said. "I was all with it, and hopefully I can help the team."
Tom Coughlin said he tabbed Ross for the switch because he played a little bit of safety in college - "A little bit literally," Ross clarified, "mainly in practice" - and because it was a way to get the best 11 players on the field. When Ross, Thomas and Corey Webster are all in the secondary, the Giants have their three best players in coverage.
"He's coming," Coughlin said of Ross' transition. "He's in a position that is obviously not corner, so he is getting more and more information fed to him each week, having a greater amount of responsibility. Plus he keeps up the corner, plus he keeps up with nickel. So he has a lot of jobs."
The plan is for Ross to move back to cornerback next year when Phillips returns from microfracture surgery to repair a patellofemoral arthritic knee. But although the Giants are optimistic that Phillips will make a complete comeback from the procedure and the condition, there's a chance he will not. In that case, Ross might find himself playing safety into training camp next season.
"I think it just adds value to the team, to the secondary," he said of being versatile. It also adds value to himself nearly three years into his five-year rookie contract. "I hope so," he said with a big grin.
Playing safety is a lot different from playing cornerback. After a lifetime of being taught to defend receivers and passes in a certain way, Ross now has to force himself to not follow those cornerback instincts.
"You're being taught every day to mirror the downfield route, mirror the downfield route, stay as close as possible," Webster said. "And then they put you where you're the safety and you want to do the total opposite of that. You want to keep everything in front and inside, break sideline to sideline on the deep throws when you're normally hip-to-hip with a receiver. It is a big difference."
The biggest difference, Webster and Ross said, is realizing that safety is not a position in which gambling is encouraged.
"You can't jump stuff there. You have to make smart decisions because you're the last line of defense," Webster said. "As a corner you might jump a route if you have safety help, but at safety, if you jump a route, the consequences are a little different."
That's something Ross is aware of, even though he hasn't been burned in a game yet. "Hopefully, if the ball goes deep, I can get deeper than the deepest," he said.
Ross is suppressing that aggressive tactic that led the Giants to make him their first-round pick in the 2007 draft. He's re-wiring his football mind to think like a safety. And part of that goes back to the eyes of the quarterback.
"At corner in this defensive scheme, you have to keep your eyes on your man," Ross said. "At safety, you're basically reading the quarterback more."
It's a lot more complicated than that, locking peepers with a passer, but Ross boiled it down as simply as he could.
"You just have to not do this," he said, looking straight ahead before rotating his head a few inches to the side, "and do this. It's just a little head turn."
A few degrees difference, but a whole new perspective.
