I hate that I have to write this, but I do think we need to talk about it. Antoine Winfield Jr has not been particularly good this season. There is just no way around it. Even if you want to chalk it all up to injury, it still doesn’t excuse some things in my personal opinion. The 49ers game in particular stands out in particular as one of his worst games this season.
I’m sure most of us have seen the clip of Ricky Pearsall touchdown pass. Towards the end of it, you may notice Winfield Jr attempt to take him down. I say attempt, but it was hardly an attempt. Winfield Jr for whatever reason just takes a really bad angle and even worse technique to try and force him out. It looks like he is just trying to arm tackle him and fails miserably. Even Brady seemed surprised that Winfield Jr didn’t make the play.
If it was just this one play, I wouldn’t be doing this, but there was another play in this game where Winfield Jr just didn’t make the play. He attempted to tackle a 49ers WR in the final drive (I think it was Jennings) but just couldn’t bring them down and they got out of bounds, giving them critical yards and stopping the clock.
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In the Chiefs game, he displayed a frankly stunning lack of hands and allowed De’Andre Hopkins to catch a pass instead of defending it. He also failed to bring down a Patrick Mahomes tipped pass, although it would’ve been tricky due to how short the throw was and the torrential rain. And in the Ravens game, it looked like at several points he tried to arm tackle Derrick Henry. I will give everyone a moment to ponder how ridiculous that is.
On the season, he has one sack, no picks, no forced fumbles, and only two passes defended. Those are really poor stats, especially for him. According to PFF, he has a grade of 53.5 and has allowed 7 receptions on nine targets. Again, that is really bad.
Over and over this season Winfield Jr just hasn’t really made the plays we have gotten used to from him. It’s not because he’s just cashing in a check. I refuse to believe a guy who has proven to be a hard worker and one of the best has just decided to stop trying. I do think the injury has limited him in a big way, more than might be expected.
However, I think his play is indicative of the team as a whole on defense. I called out his bad tackling, but nearly every defender on this team has displayed some piss-poor tackling effort. He is far from the worst player on defense. However, I do expect a guy who was an all-pro last year and got the deal he did to be playing at a high standard. Injury or not, he is still on the field. He has had opportunities to make a play, and unlike last year, he hasn’t. I still have faith in him and do think he is one of the better safeties in the NFL. Hopefully the bye is enough to turn it around.
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