Can Benjamin St-Juste fill Washington's need at slot corner?
Evaluating if Benjamin St-Juste can succeed in winning the starting slot cornerback role in training camp
One of the surprising storylines to come out of Washington Commanders OTAs has been second-year cornerback Benjamin St-Juste playing slot cornerback. Washington drafted the 6-foot-3 St-Juste in the third-round last year with the hopes of him developing outside opposite William Jackson, allowing Kendall Fuller to move into the slot. However, St-Juste had some bumps as he was developing, like most rookie corners, and then missed a large portion of the season due to a concussion. Fuller, meanwhile, struggled in the slot and played much better when shifted back outside and allowed to play off and with vision.
On the face of it, moving St-Juste inside to the nickel would go against the Commanders original plan when they drafted him. But with Fuller staying outside and William Jackson a highly paid outside corner as well, St-Juste is unlikely to see much playing time outside without one of those two getting hurt. So can he work in the slot? It’s certainly unusual to see a corner with his size play inside, typically because those corners lack the quickness to be able to flip their hips and feet and go either way. However, when you look at the combine testing numbers and St-Juste’s relative athletic score, you can see that he tested in the elite category for agility testing.
With that type of quickness, St-Juste could in theory survive in the slot against smaller, quicker receivers that have the ability to work both ways against him, as opposed to what he’s used to outside where he has the sideline to help protect him. If he’s quick enough to stay with smaller receivers, then his length, size and ability to press could give him a big advantage inside. St-Juste’s primary strength is his pressing ability. When he’s able to get his hands on receivers and jam them at the line, he can significantly disrupt the route and often take it away from the quarterback.
On this play, St-Juste works against Bills receiver Emmanuel Sanders on a comeback route. Sanders is the type of player St-Juste would face often in the slot, as he’s been one of the better slot receivers in the league over the last few seasons. Here he faces him on the outside but does a nice job with his technique. He starts off playing with inside leverage and mirrors Sanders’ release outside. After he confirms Sanders is definitely releasing outside, St-Juste extends his inside arm and jams him a few yards off the line of scrimmage. This causes Sanders to almost stop as he attempts to clear the jam. Sanders does manage to get St-Justes’ hand clear, but the delay in doing so negates any burst off the snap. St-Juste is able to stay on top of the route from there, sticking tight to Sanders and forcing him wider towards the sideline, closing the potential throwing window for the quarterback, who is forced to look elsewhere.
When Washington used St-Juste outside last season, Fuller shifted into the slot. He struggled to play press coverage in the slot because that’s not really his game. He’s always been better playing off and with vision rather than trying to jam at the line of scrimmage.
From that same game against the Bills last year, here’s Fuller working in press against Cole Beasley in the slot. Beasley runs a slant route, first widening off the snap before bursting inside. Fuller tries to stay patient and wait for Beasley to declare his intentions, but once Beasley bursts inside, Fuller is unable to reach and jam him to cut him off. Beasley gets by and makes the catch for a first down.
So in theory, St-Juste would be an upgrade over Fuller in terms of pressing from the slot. However, St-Juste will have to adjust and learn some different pressing techniques when in the slot. When playing outside, the cornerback can play with inside leverage knowing they have the sideline to help them outside, force the receiver to take an outside release and then jam them with their inside hand, which is exactly what we saw from St-Juste in the first clip of this post. But in the slot, the receiver has more space to work with outside and can legitimately go both inside and outside. Because of this, St-Juste can’t rely on the sideline for help and therefore the technique needs to adjust.
Against the Packers last season, St-Juste ended up working in the slot on a couple of plays and on both occasions, he attempted the same press technique he used outside and got beat both times.
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