49ers rookie safety Mays is eager to dispel doubts
http://www.sacbee.com/2010/06/28/2853607/49ers-rookie-safety-mays-is-eager.html#mi_rss=49ers
SANTA CLARA – For a guy with a reputation for poor coverage skills, Taylor Mays did a fine job of sticking to Johnnie Lynn during the 49ers' practice sessions this month.
Mays is the team's 22-year-old rookie safety, a former big man on campus at USC who tumbled to the middle of the second round of the April draft.
Lynn, 53, played defensive back for the New York Jets in the early 1980s and has been the 49ers' secondary coach the last four seasons.
A typical practice found the two standing side by side in the middle of the field 35 yards behind the defense. That perspective allowed Mays to take what Lynn refers to as a "visual rep."
He wasn't part of the play. He wasn't even wearing a helmet. But Lynn had Mays give him the defensive play call, line up and then react as the play went in motion. On a squad teeming with young safeties, it was the best way to give Mays valuable practice time without robbing another player of his turn.
"It's like a tutorial back there," Lynn said. "It helps accelerate his learning in this defense."
Of the 49ers' nine draft picks, Mays is perhaps the most intriguing. He gave a stunning performance at the NFL combine in February, running the second-fastest 40-yard sprint of the 329 players invited. Only wide receiver Jacoby Ford, drafted by the Raiders, was better. Ford, a track star at Clemson, is 5-foot-9 and 186 pounds. Mays is a muscular 6-3, 230.
But in the NFL, rookie safeties rarely play fast.
Football often is compared to a chess match. But it's a chess match in which moves must be made in 40 seconds and in which the pieces are shuffled around before every snap.
The quarterback orchestrates those moves on offense. The safety does it on defense.
Dashon Goldson went through three offseasons before becoming one of the 49ers' starting safeties last year. Goldson, 25, said the chess match immediately starts after the previous play.
"First of all, you have to know what personnel group they're in – how many wide receivers, how many running backs, how many tight ends," he said. "You want to know the down and distance. Where are they on the field? Are they in the red zone? Are they near the 50? We call that the 'alumni zone' – that's where a lot of trick plays come."
At that point, he gets the call from the sideline and relays it to his teammates. Then he analyzes how the offense lines up and barks orders to the other defenders. If the receivers go in motion, that prompts more instructions. If the tight end moves from one end of the alignment to the other, Goldson shifts his men accordingly.
The 49ers envision a future in which Mays and the 6-2, 200-pound Goldson patrol the defensive backfield. The question is how much Mays can contribute in 2010.
Before the draft, evaluators questioned whether he was fluid enough to cover receivers. They criticized a tackling style that eschewed technique for the knockout blow. They wondered why the biggest, fastest safety in the nation didn't make more big plays. Mays also must erase what he learned at USC and start fresh in a 49ers system that utilizes new coverage schemes and a different language.
Lynn says there's no reason to rush. The 49ers' plan is to ease Mays into the lineup as they did Goldson – initially making him part of a substitution package and gradually increasing his responsibilities.
But perhaps no rookie is as motivated as Mays.
His draft-day plunge left him defiant and eager to prove himself to his skeptics, including former coach Pete Carroll, who now coaches the division rival Seattle Seahawks and who passed on Mays in the first round.
"I know what I can do and know what I'm capable of doing," he said. "I think it's just a misconception that I can't do a lot of things as a safety. That's why I've got coaches that are willing to work with me."
And Mays has taken full advantage of those coaches, sticking like glue to Lynn and every other assistant who can help him.
On the final day of spring practices, coach Mike Singletary described Mays as the most annoying rookie on the roster.
But he did so with a smile.
"He's driving (secondary coach) Vance Joseph and Johnnie crazy," Singletary said. "He's called me a few times. He's called them a few times. 'Hey, coach, what about this? Hey, coach, what about that? Can we get together tomorrow? Can we do this? Can I come in on Sunday?'
"That's the kind of kid he is, and I'm excited about him."
