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As late-season pickups go, the New England Patriots could do worse than landing a 24-year-old cornerback who is only three years removed from being a fourth-round pick out of Florida.
Especially when that 24-year-old has been a starter during all three seasons, including 37 of his 43 career NFL appearances.
No surprise, then, that there was some Patriots news when they picked up former Arizona Cardinals cornerback Marco Wilson on Wednesday, December 27.
As ESPN’s Adam Schefter wrote on Twitter/X, “Patriots claimed CB Marco Wilson on waivers from the Cardinals, per source.”
The Cardinals had let Wilson go on Tuesday. He had started the first 11 games of the season for Arizona but was benched for the last four games. The fact that the Cardinals gave up on him completely is a pretty good indication that he has struggled badly in his third year.
According to Pro Football Focus, Wilson had 41 tackles this year, but also nine missed tackles. Quarterbacks had a passer rating of 139.2 when throwing his way—the worst in the NFL among corners who played at least 200 snaps.
Wilson gave up five touchdowns in 11 weeks, which still ranks as 12th-most in the NFL despite having missed four weeks. His overall grade at PFF is 41.2, which is 121st out of 123 cornerbacks in the NFL.
Marco Wilson Joins Pile of Patriots Defensive Backs
Certainly, Josh Allen of the Bills and Zach Wilson of the Jets—the quarterbacks the Patriots are slated to face in the final two weeks—will be happy to see Marco Wilson, especially with J.C. Jackson, who happens to be the 123rd-ranked corner out of 123 in the NFL, per PFF, gone for the year.
The fact that the Patriots employed Jackson, and now Wilson, is a testament to what a disaster of a year it has been in the secondary for the Patriots. The bad news started when Marcus Jones went out in Week 3, and Christian Gonzalez, who was an early frontrunner for Defensive Rookie of the Year, went out with a shoulder injury in Week 4.
Now, the Patriots have cycled through countless cornerbacks in the weeks since. The Jackson experiment was a disaster and the team waived Jack Jones, who has since had a resurgence with the Raiders.
The Patriots have gone through 11 different starters at the defensive back positions.
Myles Bryant Provided Some Spark vs. Broncos in Week 16
Myles Bryant is one of the only defensive backs who has been healthy for all 15 Patriots games this season and played well against Denver in the Christmas Eve win.
With all the flux the Patriots have had, Bryant has been the lone bit of optimism among the defensive backs. He drew praise from coach Bill Belichick for his ability to be a jack-of-all-trades at corner and safety—and even as the punt returner.
“Myles did a great job. Obviously, he’s been handling punt return duties,” Belichick said in his weekly press conference. “The way we set the game plan up, he played multiple positions – played perimeter corner, played inside, and played safety – depending on what they had, and what we had called, and so forth.
“He really made the game plan flow a lot smoother for us defensively because of his ability to move in and out of those positions against a team like Denver.”
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