Brandon Marshall Cooks The Hell Out Of Eli Apple For Refusing To Evolve His Technique As Tyreek Hill Continues To Torch The Dolphins CB
Considering that he did start for the Bengals the past two seasons, that I grew up rooting for Ohio State, have family and friends that went to the school and that I once upon a time wrote about his commitment to the Buckeyes, you'd think I'd root a little harder for Eli Apple.
Then I see personal stories like this from Brandon Marshall and it pretty much tells me all I need to know. Not that I'm totally dialed in on what BMarsh is talking about technique-wise here, but to see Tyreek Hill smoke Apple on a back-shoulder, deep red-zone throw that was so much like the one Cooper Kupp beat his ass on in the Super Bowl? Yep. Checks out.
Tyreek and Apple have beef dating back to that postseason, when the Bengals stunned the Chiefs at Arrowhead by rallying from a 21-3 deficit to seize the AFC crown. Afterwards, Apple gloated about beating Cheetah and KC a second time:
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…Once Kupp caught the decisive Super Bowl TD in Apple's eye, the beef was on.
There was more from last season when Hill went off for 10 catches and 160 yards in a Thursday night loss at Cincinnati. Will spare you the additional embedded tweets. Save for this next one, from when Apple signed with the Dolphins this offseason:
All I'll say in Apple's defense is, at least he has inside leverage in coverage on the play. It drives me nuts when DBs play outside leverage in the red zone. I don't get how that's a beneficial strategy. One hundred times out of 100 I'd rather have the opponent try to beat me on an out-breaking route and force a tougher throw that requires a toe-drag swag catch than to get smoked across my face for an easy pitch-and-catch. If you're gonna have inside leverage, though, IDK…fucking body him or something. That's my best guess as to what Marshall is talking about here. Easier said than done when it's Tyreek Hill and he's that quick.
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Overall, Eli Apple has always yapped a bigger game than he could back up. A lot of people sneer at Pro Football Focus grades at certain positions. One common criticism I see is that they allegedly don't take into account individual player responsibility. OK. Let's pretend that's universally true for a second. This past year, Apple had the benefit of two excellent safeties in Jessie Bates and Vonn Bell at his back. He also had legit CB1 Chidobe Awuzie until a torn ACL ended his season on Halloween. Then, rookie second-rounder Cam Taylor-Britt stepped in and showed out.
With all that favorable support around him, Apple ranked 97th in PFF's coverage grades among 118 qualifying cornerbacks. To say I was relieved that Cincinnati decided to add insurance behind Awuzie and CTB with DJ Turner in the 2023 draft would be a substantial understatement.
Apple is a former top-10 pick who's never lived up to that billing. His personality is a big reason why he's bounced around to now five different teams since entering the league in 2016. It's going to be a mismatch whenever he guards Tyreek, Kupp or any other elite receiver as is. To still get called out by Brandon Marshall after all this time and all these chances in the NFL for sloppy technique is a pretty tough look. Maybe now he'll learn. I'm sure he trains and at least tries to refine his footwork and hips as a professional cornerback.
Shit. I just realized something. Brandon Marshall strikes me as the type of person who, once his mind is made up, the train has left the station. There is no turning back. It is all engines go, full steam ahead, insert preferred railroad cliché. Maybe whatever Apple was attempting to do here wasn't so off.
Then again, at least this was football-related, so I'll still stick with BMarsh's take, especially given Tyreek's mission to make Apple's life a living hell even as a teammate.
Twitter @MattFitz_gerald/TikTok