NY Jets Friday Spotlight: Darrin Walls

Welcome to the Friday Spotlight. Here we spotlight one key player for each game of the season, hopefully putting a different player in the spotlight each week. Today's player in the spotlight is cornerback Darrin Walls.  Walls, a 6' 0", 190 pound, 26 year old cornerback out of Notre Dame, was originally signed by the Atlanta Falcons as an undrafted free agent in 2011.  Sports Illustrated featured Walls that year as one of their top ten undrafted free agent values.  Walls lasted a year as a Falcons reserve before being released and signed by the New York Jets in 2012.  Walls earned a little playing time late in the 2012 season and flashed some decent cover skills.  In 2013 Walls had a terrific training camp and preseason and entered the season as the Jets' fourth cornerback behind Antonio Cromartie, Dee Milliner and Kyle Wilson.  When Milliner was out Walls got three starts and he seemed to be coming into his own a bit entering the 2014 season.  After another good training camp Walls finally earned his shot as a starter when the Jets lost Dmitri Patterson, Dexter McDougle and Dee Milliner to injuries and AWOL incidents.  While it was too much to expect Walls to step into the #1 cornerback role and dominate against opposing teams' best receivers week after week, what we have seen from Wallls in his ten starts this season casts serious doubt on his NFL future.  He has been, in a word, unwatchable.  He has been beaten short, long and everything in between.  He consistently gets out-muscled for balls.  He has good but not great speed and cannot recover after losing a step on a receiver.  Walls has pretty good mirroring skills but consistently fails to take advantage of being in good position, as he is outfought, outjumped, and simply outplayed by better, more gifted receivers.  He misses many too many tackles and consistently fails to wrap up. Walls gets himself in position to make interceptions more than any other defensive back on the roster, but consistently fails to capitalize by catching the ball.  If he made those plays perhaps one could live with his other shortcomings.  As it is, his poor hands just exacerbate the frustration with a cornerback who is actually fairly decent at putting himself in position for making plays, but rarely actually makes them.  With McDougle and Milliner coming back next year, newcomer Marcus Williams seemingly carving out a future here, and the likelihood that the Jets will sign and/or draft at least one cornerback in the offseason, Walls' future with the Jets looks very much in doubt.  Here are Darrin Walls' NFL statistics:

Darrin Walls has waited four years to get a chance to start in the NFL.  This year he finally got that chance, and the results have not been pretty.  In a terrible season like the Jets are currently enduring nearly every player on the roster is playing for a job next season.  Walls is certainly among those trying to state his case for continued employment in the NFL.   He is set up with an excellent opportunity to intercept a pass or two against a Titans passing attack that is not among the better ones at protecting the ball, and that does not have great weapons at wide receiver.  Walls is virtually the only hope the Jets have of taking advantage of this opportunity.  It's time for Walls to try to salvage something from this season and state his case for continued employment in 2015.  It's time for him to break out and justify his starting spot.  It's time to take the darn ball away for a change.   One would not have thought Darrin Walls would have any chance to be a game changer for the Jets going into the 2014 season, but here he is and the opportunity is there for the taking.   This is Darrin Walls' time in the spotlight.  Let's hope he shines come Sunday afternoon.