By Jack Ryan
So, Jim Schwartz, how are you going to stop the Giants’ Odell Beckham Jr. on Sunday?
Eagles defensive coordinator Schwartz says the his team won’t specifically try to get under Beckham’s skin and/or inside his head, in that precise way.
“[W]e certainly want to frustrate every receiver, and the way we do that is to keep him from catching the ball and limit his ability after the catch,” Schwartz told reporters yesterday. “But that’s the only thing we’ve talked about with him. And that’s no different than every week when we talk about guys. Particularly guys that are marquee players, you certainly want to take them out of the game plan. You want to make the quarterback press to have to throw it to them. I think that goes into everybody. But the rest of it, it hasn’t been an item of conversation this week.”
Maybe it hasn’t been an item of conversation because it’s implied. One thing that Schwartz and company will expressly be discussing is the importance of defending Beckham.
“[T]his guy might be the best hitch runner in the NFL, just meaning a three-step hitch,” Schwartz said. “He’s strong. He can stop on a dime. He’s strong coming back to make the catch, and then he can run after the catch. All of those things make him very dangerous, not just down the field, which a lot of people see, but in that short area.
“We have our work cut out for us. We’re going to have to mix our coverages up. We’re going to have to tackle when he does catch the ball because sometimes he is going to catch it, and we have to limit those big plays. He makes plays all over the field.”
