Florence ready for busy day

Thursday, Jan 11, 2007
By Tom Shanahan, Chargers.com

Popular opinion in today’s NFL is that the rules of the passing game so favor quarterbacks and wide receivers that the days of the shutdown cornerback have gone the way of the single-wing offense and dropkick.

But don’t try and tell that to Chargers cornerbacks Drayton Florence and Quentin Jammer. History may be against them, but they strive to turn the clock back to a time when Hall of Famers such as Mel Blount, Herb Adderly and Mike Haynes roamed NFL fields as shutdown cornerbacks.

“You have to have that mindset you can be a shutdown cornerback,” Florence said. “It’s harder now than in the past with rules the way they are, but you have to play this game with the attitude that you can shut down receivers.”

Florence and Jammer face one of the toughest tests a cornerback can encounter in today’s NFL when New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady, who wears three Super Bowl rings, arrives for a Divisional Round playoff game between the AFC East champion Patriots (13-4) and the AFC West champion Chargers (14-2) Sunday at Qualcomm Stadium.

“Oh, yeah, it’s a challenge any time that a Super Bowl quarterback is coming to town,” Florence said. “But you have to look forward to playing a game like this. He’s a great quarterback.”

The Chargers expect Florence and rookie Antonio Cromartie, who enters the game on passing downs as a fifth defensive back, to be tested by Brady more than the other defensive backs. In the second half of the season, opponents have stopped throwing Jammer’s way.

Jammer leads the team in interceptions with four and passes defended with 17, but Florence is close behind him with three interceptions and 16 passes defended. Florence also has a 63 tackles on the season, topping last year’s previous career-high of 54. Jammer was second on the team in tackles with 89, but that’s an exceptional total for a cornerback who is considered possibly the best tackling cornerback in the game.

“It doesn’t bother me that they’re throwing at me instead of Jammer,” Florence said. “He’s having a great year, so it’s natural that teams are going to stop throwing at him. They have to throw it somewhere. I look at it as an opportunity to make plays. If you’re a cornerback, you want them to throw your way so you can make plays.”

Free safety Marlon McCree, the leader of the secondary, says Florence’s aggressiveness is another reason Brady will aim passes his way.

“I think they’ll go after Drayton,” McCree said. “I told him that just because Drayton is more aggressive, but I don’t think that there’s a weakness in the secondary. Drayton understands that. He knows that teams aren’t throwing at (Jammer) as much because Jammer has been getting a lot of (pass breakups) and he’s led the team in interceptions.”

Florence, a 6-foot, 195-pound fourth-year pro who was a second-round draft pick out of Tuskegee in 2003, is in his second full season as a starter. He had to hold off a challenge from Cromartie, the Chargers’ first-round pick in 2006 out of Florida State.

Florence said both he and Jammer, a 6-0, 204-pound first-round pick in 2002 out of Texas, have worked hard to improve their ball skills both during the season and in the offseasons.

“We’re out there catching punts and kickoffs with special teams,” Florence said. “We’re always trying to get better.”

Florence pointed out one of his areas of improvement he was happiest with this year was the plays he made on third- and fourth-down situations.

“Two of my three interceptions have come on fourth-down plays,” he said. “I want to show I can make plays at crucial times. That’s part of being a shutdown cornerback.”

That’s true for any era of the NFL.