Brian Poole to play at safety and corner

I fully believe Dan Quinn could coach up a team of football bloggers into a pretty decent defense. This is on display with Brian Poole. Scouting reports call him slow, short, and a bad tackler. Despite being undrafted, Poole shot up the depth chart in a way we never saw under Mike Smith. He had a fantastic rookie campaign, and plans to become a bigger part of the defense.

Per Gabriel Burns of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Poole will have a shot at both corner and safety duties.

As another athletic, versatile piece of Quinn’s defensive unit, Poole will see time at cornerback and safety in 2017. “Wherever the team needs me at,” he said. “That’s not really my call. My job is to come out and execute wherever they put me. I just want to polish up on, you know, every aspect of my game. Really just put it all together.”

The secondary is jam packed with talent. The team will start three Pro Bowl-worthy players in Desmond Trufant, Robert Alford, and Keanu Neal. Jalen Collins is expected to sub in on nickel, with Poole, Ricardo Allen, and rookie Damontae Kazee pushing for free safety and dime work.

Quinn likes Poole if only because he wants to fight.

“I knew Poole was going to be amongst us when in training camp I saw him counting in line, not for who he didn’t want to go against, but because he wanted to go against Julio (Jones),” Quinn said during his coach’s show last November. “… That told me right then and there the competitor that he is. As opposed to backing off, he wanted to go challenge it. I’m not saying he went up there and stoned him. However, it spoke a lot to the confidence that he had in himself to say ‘I want to try it against the best.’”

The article points out that Poole was very versatile. He had 10 pass deflections and 11 quarterback pressures. That’s a pretty awesome combo, and should help him push for snaps. He could start at safety or even push Collins for some nickel work.