5 Questions with Cat Scratch Reader on Kurt Coleman

Our friends over at SB Nation's Cat Scratch Reader on the Carolina Panthers, was kind enough to answer a few questions about one of the new additions to the New Orleans Saints: Safety Kurt Coleman

Early reports are that Coleman signed a three-year deal worth “up to” 18M with a 6.5M cap hit in 2018. Think the Saints overpaid, underpaid, or got a fair deal? Why?

It’s tough to tell right now because the details about his contract (most importantly how much guaranteed money he’ll get) haven’t been released yet.

What is the strongest aspect of Coleman’s game?

Coleman is a ball-hawking safety with a versatile overall skill-set that allows him to play both free and strong safety as needed. In Carolina’s scheme the safeties rotate from single high to the box or vice versa depending on offensive alignment quite frequently and during most of his time in Carolina, he held up well at both spots.

Where would you see he could look most to improve?

Coleman is a big hitter but sometimes he needs to cleanly wrap up against the ball carrier. His angles against the ball carrier in the open field aren’t always the greatest either.

The Saints are likely to use Coleman as a replacement for SS Kenny Vaccaro who played at or near the line for most of his snaps. How would you expect the Saints to utilize Coleman to best take advantage of his strengths and hide his weaknesses?

At this stage in his career, his best role might be as a robber in a man scheme or as an underneath zone defender. He would be able to play both of those roles in the Saints defense at the SS spot. Carolina’s defensive scheme heavily emphasizes safeties blitzing off the edge. Although Coleman didn’t put up big sack numbers in Carolina, he showed he was capable of getting pressure on opposing QB’s when blitzing, so the Saints could get some production from him too in that role.

What, if any, were reports of Coleman’s presence in the locker room? Any behavioral issues? The Saints have a lot of young kids on an exciting defense (Marshon Lattimore, Marcus Williams, and others), so it would be nice to know if Coleman is a veteran they could look to and learn from.

The Panthers voted him as one of the team captains for the 2017 season. According to head coach Ron Rivera, Coleman is a natural leader on the field: “All you’ve got to do is watch when something happens – Kurt’s one of the first ones to go over there to put his arm around somebody to try to explain something and help them out,” head coach Ron Rivera said Friday. “But then when something positive happens, he’s also one of the first ones over there. It’s not like he’s always looking for something negative. He’s always looking for something positive to help build on.”

Thank-you, for taking the time to talk with us! Saints fans, make sure you check out their work over at Cat Scratch Reader You can follow them on Twitter at @CatScratchReadr. Of course, as always, you can follow me on Twitter @dunnellz.