2011 49ers Grades: Tramaine Brock
by David Fucillo on Feb 8, 2012 10:00 AM PST
in 49ers Season-In-Review
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PrintThus far we've had a pair of easy grades in David Akers and NaVorro Bowman, and then a tough but not necessarily critical grading of Alex Boone. Akers and Bowman had monster years, while Boone basically filled the roll that was asked of him on a daily basis.
Now we move back to another depth player with cornerback Tramaine Brock. It really was a tale of two seasons for Brock and the 49ers nickel back position. Brock earned the job coming out of training camp and got off to a flashy start with interceptions in each of the 49ers first two games. Of course, against the Cowboys in week two, the secondary had plenty of struggles late when Tony Romo was on the field (as opposed to Jon Kitna).
As the first quarter of the season wore on, Shawntae Spencer worked his way back into the rotation. Shortly thereafter, Brock broke his right hand and was sidelined long enough where by the time he returned, Chris Culliver appeared to be firmly entrenched in the nickel back role. Brock saw limited action and was a healthy scratch in some games as well. He returned for the playoffs, and was the defender on Mario Manningham when the Giants receiver caught a go-ahead touchdown early in the fourth quarter of the NFC Championship Game.
Tramaine Brock is an exclusive rights free agent this offseason. That means that he is a free agent only in the sense that he does not have a contract for 2012. However, he can only negotiate with the 49ers for a new contract. I would imagine he will get a bump in pay, but the 49ers have the leverage in this situation.
Brock's role in 2012 will depend in part on the 49ers plans with regards to Carlos Rogers. Whether or not Rogers returns in 2012, Brock will battle Chris Culliver, Curtis Holcomb and possibly Cory Nelms (if he does't move to safety as some speculation indicates is possible) for playing time in the 49ers secondary. Culliver would seem to be locked in at the nickel back (if Rogers returns) or as the number two cornerback (if Rogers leaves).
It is entirely possible Brock could sufficiently impress and/or Culliver or Brown take a step backward in training camp. For now he would seem to be sitting a notch back on the depth chart. It will make for an interesting battle at the cornerback position no matter what happens with Carlos Rogers. The 49ers have a lot of young talent that will be battling for playing time in their secondary. Brock showed some signs of improvement in 2011, but he faces a stiff challenge for more playing time in 2012.
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I don't see him beating out Culliver or Brown.
He’s nice a 4th CB, but if Rogers is gone in the offseason, I don’t think I’d be comfortable with Brock in a nickel role again.
this.
Brock is an interesting prospect, but Culliver and Brown are both clearly better than him at this point. I think his ceiling is the same as Tarell Brown — that is, he might be a cheap, solid #2 CB down the road who the 49ers can rely on to not make a huge mistake. But he’s not even at that level yet.
He did pretty good considering
1. In the NFC Championship game he came in cold and while he gave up some separation on the underneath routes he didn’t get beat deep even though the Giants were going after it. The touchdown he played pretty well, there are actually very few corners in the league that make that play. With outside leverage and no press at the line any deep inside breaking route has to have safety help. Unfortunately we had Reggie Smith in the game and the Giants ran the same play that got 7 on us in week 10. Both times Reggie didn’t read the route fast enough, didn’t react fast enough, and took a piss poor angle when he did.
It’s not easy to come in cold on the second biggest stage in football and cover quality receivers.
2. He is younger than Chris Culliver.
Every time Jamie Dukes says something enlightening and informative about football Jerry Rice and I mount up on our flying grizzly bears and claim pirate treasure from the moon. That's how often it happens.
agreed
I don’t blame him on the manningham touchdown because Reggie was supposed to provide help in case the WR cut in the middle. There wasn’t much he could’ve done to prevent that TD
Rule #1) If you hate Joe Buck, watch this www.youtube.com/watch?v=fkCSZKbyL94
Rule #2) Follow rule #1
Speaking of Culliver, I was impressed with him this year.
I didn’t like the pick and I questioned his ability to play corner coming out of college, but he played pretty well this year, especially considering how raw he was billed to be.
He’s one of the players I’m most excited to see how he progresses over the offseason.
Incomplete needs to be a poll option
he’s a guy that was getting a minimal number of snaps anyway, injured for a large part of the season, no idea what we have in him.
hm... maybe...
Sorry but I believe Brock needs a new start elsewhere and we could use a different cornerback. But maybe he needs a few years.
I just didn’t see anything good from him in the games after the first game. He tripped big time for a Cowboy’s touchdown in week 2. Although we ended up going 9-1 we were a few mistakes from being undefeated and that was one of them.
Although the man is young… I’m not too happy with my generation right now as big mistakes are happening on big stages (Sigh, Kyle).
With Rogers taking control of that number 1 spot and Brown playing like he has… I’m not entirely worried. Culliver has been pretty good.
"Hey, the offensive linemen are the biggest guys on the field, they’re bigger than everybody else, and that’s what makes them the biggest guys on the field." ~ John Madden
Need to draft at least 1 more cb. depth is needed, more so if Rogers is not back. Don’t like the idea of moving Nelms to safety either, tired of Niners drafting players that played 1 position in college and they move them to another in the pros.
by bmcrae83@yahoo.com on Feb 8, 2012 1:47 PM PST reply actions
But he's from Miami... and he's fast.
But seriously, players sometimes NEED to be moved once they get to the NFL, because of the different levels of competition, and also because sometimes coaches at the college level will put a player at cornerback when they should be a safety, or as a wide receiver when they should be a cornerback, etc. Supposedly Nelms has picked up weight with the NFL weight room, and I’d like to point out that Vic Fangio has done a good job of taking players from one position and making them into another. ( Richard Sherman of the Seahawks was a WR at stanford before Fangio coached him at corner, and last season by the end of the year he was Seattle’s best corner.)
Remember, the talent level in the NFL is just that much better than in college, so while you may play a guy at one position in college due to his freakish gifts and who else you had on the team, in the NFL you may play him elsewhere because of other factors.
I hope we cut him
Seems like I never see him unless he’s doing something bad, which means he really isn’t doing anything good. Draft another CB.
Alex Smith: 25 or more TD's, 15 or fewer INT's in 2012. I'm not a AS apologist or defender, I'm a believer.
You never see him because he rarely gets defensive snaps.
But when he was in there he did not look bad like you say.
What?!
Brock is a interesting player, with a lot of potential. Earlier in the year before he got hurt he was leading our team in interceptions. Brock can become a very good corner in this league.
I believe in excellence. I believe in Alex Smith.
Voted 6
He didn’t get very much playing time on defense. He did have two picks in the first two games, but the broken hand pretty much ended his shot of having a significant role on D.
You can’t blame him for the Manningham TD. It was good coverage and Reggie Smith didn’t get over in time and give him help over the top.
Doesn’t really look #1 material, maybe an okay #2 or #3. Wouldn’t mind re-signing him but if he’s not back it won’t have an impact.
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