“Well, Hobbs just started practicing this week for the first time since July, when he dropped out of practice due to a knee injury and had to have meniscus surgery. They sort of worked two lineups before then: They had one nickel set where Hobbs kicked inside from outside cornerback and Carrington Valentine was brought off the bench to play outside cornerback.
Then there was one where Hobbs remained at outside cornerback and Javon Bullard came off the bench to play the slot. Keisean Nixon should start at cornerback with Xavier McKinney and Evan Williams at safety in every look, but the expectation is that Hobbs will be an outside cornerback, at minimum, in base 4-3 looks.
That’s sort of where it stands today. I’m pretty confident, because Nixon looked a lot better at outside cornerback than in the slot last year, and Valentine played well last year, too, even though the team continued to try to make Eric Stokes happen (spoiler: He’s bad.) My biggest worry, honestly, is Bullard’s coverage ability if they give him the slot job this year. Hopefully, Parsons can just kick the secondary up to the next level.”