By Karen Guregian
August 17, 2012
Thanks to YouTube, we’ve already gotten the sense Nate Ebner’s special teams abilities are off the charts. Now that he’s been on the field a few weeks as an active participant, we’re starting to see his potential as a defensive back.
Today, he picked off two passses, both off tips. One was thrown by Brian Hoyer, the other by Ryan Mallett. He had an interception on Wednesday, as well.
So we’ve seen some ball skills, along with Ebner having a knack for being in the right place at the right time. He’s turned some heads this week, no doubt about it.
”This is really the first week he’s actually been on the field and been able to do a few more things defensively. (He) didn’t really have a lot of experience just defensively at Ohio State but smart kid, understood what they were doing real well defensively. I think he’s learning,” Pats director of player personnel Nick Caserio said earlier in the week. ”I think it’s a process for him. But he has good size, he’s smart, he can run. I think there are just some things he’s going to have to learn technique-wise and just seeing things, whether it’s formation, empty, just the multiplicity that goes into defense in general but that specific safety position because there’s so much communication that’s involved in that spot.”