5 Plays to know the new Arizona Cardinals: Marco Wilson has athleticism to spare, can he find the technique to pair with it?

When the Arizona Cardinals finally made the move at cornerback that everyone was waiting for, they did so with a trade up.

When the Cardinals took Marco Wilson in the fourth round, they finally addressed the cornerback position and did so with an elite athlete.

There are a couple of questions on Wilson.

1. Can he stay healthy? He has two torn ACL’s in his career already.
2. Can he turn being an elite athlete into a good cornerback?

Let’s take a look at five plays that show us a bit about Marco Wilson.

In Wilson’s best plays he is playing downhill with the play in front of him. Will Vance Joseph’s zone matching make a comeback?

Wilson is an elite athlete and it shows in his recovery abilities on plays down the field.

Wilson has shorter arms, but he can compete because of his athleticism.

Where it becomes an issue is when he relies on that make up athleticism. This isn’t terrible coverage, but the reason he gets beat is because he loses at the line of scrimmage. He doesn’t get hands on the receiver, then can’t recover even though he looks to be in good position. That is where the length can become an issue.

This is where you see it. Wilson is a great athlete, but he needs a ton of technique work for man coverage.

If he is going to take the next step, that is where it will be.