He’s made a slew of great plays in coverage while also flashing the feisty Ben Jones Jersey , competitive personality that he’s become known for since entering the NFL. Some of those plays have come while playing in a trail technique, like the two interceptions below. This technique is Butler’s calling card as a cornerback. It’s an aggressive technique that is among the most difficult for defensive backs to master, but it can also yield some big rewards when done correctly. When Broncos receiver Emmanuel Sanders called Butler one of the five best cornerbacks he’s ever faced in an article for The Player’s Tribune, he referenced this technique as part of the reason Butler is so tough to beat. This technique pairs particularly well with a rangy, instinctive safety — like, say Kevin Byard — who can help eliminate some of the deep risk with his presence over the top. It’s part of the reason that I believe we will see the Titans be one of the most frequent practitioners of press man coverage in the NFL this year. So let’s take a look at Butler’s trail technique and break down exactly why it can be such a nuisance to opposing receivers and quarterbacks. It all starts with positioning. You can see Butler’s typical set up here. He’s tight to the receiver, usually about a yard and a half away from his opponent, and shading him to the inside to take away the inside release.Taking away the inside release is key because this entire technique relies on keeping yourself between the quarterback and his target. That’s impossible to do if you give up inside leverage right away. The play below is a good example of fighting for and winning inside leverage. Butler is in press man against Dolphins burner Kenny Stills. Stills is running a dig route and wants an inside release for his in-breaking route, but Butler uses his lateral quickness to take it away, forcing Stills outside and allowing Butler to settle in to the trail. The goal is to prevent the receiver from crossing your face.NFL Game PassHere is a good shot of what trail technique should look like after the initial press. Butler is a half-step behind Stills with a hand on his inside hip and eyes on his jersey numbers. This allows Butler to mirror Stills’ route. From this view you can really see Butler’s ability to mirror Stills’ movement. This is much more difficult than Butler makes it look here and this ability is really the secret sauce to his success with this technique. Once the receiver turns his head, Butler turns, finds the ball, and makes the play to break it up.NFL Game PassIf executed correctly, a trail technique eliminates the slant via alignment and forcing an outside release. As you can see from the play above, it also eliminates dig routes due to the corner sitting on the inside hip of the receiver when he wants to break inside. The practice plays I shared at the top were both out-breaking routes and trail technique can be a problem for offenses there as well. The next play is an out route for Jets receiver Robby Anderson. Butler is playing a trail technique again. After maintaining inside leverage at the release, he again settles in to position a half-step behind on Anderson’s hip. NFL Game PassThe view on All-22 in New York is terrible, but I wanted to give a good overview of Butler’s positioning throughout the route. From the trail position, he’s able to mirror Anderson and essentially run the route underneath him and undercut it for the interception.Here is a better view of the top of the route. Yes, the throw is poorly placed which allows Butler to make the pick, but that’s the point. This technique puts a ton of pressure on the quarterback to be perfect with his ball placement. After all Cheap Delanie Walker Jersey , a perfect throw is going to beat any coverage. What makes the trail technique dangerous is that poor throws can often lead to interceptions.NFL Game PassThe other key to the trail technique is to use the sideline as an extra defender. Once the cornerback wins inside leverage, he wants to squeeze the stem of the route as close to the sideline as possible. The next play is a good example. The Colts put T.Y. Hilton in motion which helps keep Butler from being able to get a good jam on him at the line of scrimmage. Hilton releases outside, but Butler presses him to the sideline immediately to take away the space Andrew Luck has to fit this ball in. Hilton has a step on Butler, but the cornerback’s makeup speed allows him to close and get his hands on the pass to break it up. NFL Game PassThe danger with this technique is that it leaves you susceptible to getting beat deep. Butler’s underrated speed helps minimize this risk — as can a good safety — but it can result in a big play from time to time. Here is an example of trail technique gone wrong. Butler is one on one against Odell Beckham Jr. in a Cover 1 man look. He forces the outside release and is in perfect position, but a nice throw from Eli Manning and a great job of hand fighting allows OBJ to get late separation. The safety takes a poor angle to the play and the result is an 87-yard touchdown catch. NFL Game PassThis Butler-OBJ matchup from 2015 was a really great battle. Beckham got the big touchdown above, but was limited to just 3 catches on 11 targets for 17 yards for the rest of the game. Here is one of those targets as the Giants tried to go back to the same play later in the game. This time Butler wins the hand fight and is able to stay in perfect trail position and prevent the completion. You can really see it all on this rep. Inside leverage, squeeze to the sideline, stay on inside hip, and then make a play on the ball.NFL Game PassWhen you look at the typical NFL route tree, you can see why this technique is appealing. The slant, curl, and dig are essentially taken away at the line of scrimmage with inside leverage. The speed out, comeback, out, and corner can all be undercut using this technique. That leaves the go and the post as the most dangerous routes for a corner in trail. Safety help can mitigate those concerns to an extent, as can makeup speed. It’s a technique that takes away most of the easy completions and leaves the quarterback low percentage throws. An accurate quarterback can certainly make you pay over the top from time to time, but if a defense wants to be aggressive and make quarterbacks uncomfortable, this is a good way to do it. Butler is one of the best in the NFL at this technique and Titans fans should expect to see it quite a bit in 2018.“Igniting the Fire” Episode Four Recap The Titans released the fourth installment of their Igniting the Fire video series tonight. This episode, titled “The Fury of the Secondary”, features everyone’s favorite new position coach Kerry Coombs and his ultra-talented defensive backs. If you missed the first three episodes you can check them out via the links below.Episode 1: Who is Mike Vrabel?Episode 2: Taking FlightEpisode 3: Implementing the Run GameHere is tonight’s new episode for your viewing pleasure.First Wesley Woodyard Jersey , it’s impossible not to love Kerry Coombs. The energy and passion that he brings to the job is incredible and comes across as genuine. The shot of him running to the end zone to go celebrate after a Logan Ryan pick 6 in practice was fantastic. I’m looking forward to getting to see him work in person when camp opens in a couple weeks.One of Coombs’ points of emphasis was that the proverbial “game of inches” is particularly true in the secondary where those inches can be the difference between a pass break up and a completion. They intend to win those inches by making slight improvements to technique. They also discussed the importance of conditioning, particularly when it comes to making those crucial game winning plays in the 4th quarter. The episode also introduced us to the Titans sports dietician, Jill Merkel, and gave some insight in to how they design the player’s diets to fit their offseason goals. That’s something most probably take for granted from an NFL team — and it should be a given — but for a franchise that recently had former quarterback Matt Hasselbeck tell Sports Illustrated that the “organization was really bizarre, and so far behind in terms of nutrition and everything else”, it’s good to see them taking a more modern sports science approach to nutrition in particular. The episode then wraps up with more quotes from Coombs, Pees, and members of the Titans secondary discussing how the group really goes out of their way to try to help each other improve. I think that mentality is primarily owed to two players: Logan Ryan and Kevin Byard. Those two seem to be natural leaders and both are known to be extremely hard workers on and off the field.Malcolm Butler seems to be fitting right in and his feisty personality will bring some additional attitude and swagger to the entire DB group this fall. I’m kind of surprised to be saying this just two years removed from The Perrish Cox Experience, but I think I’m more confident in the defensive back position group than any other unit on the Titans roster heading in to 2018. Byard, Cyprien, Butler, Jackson, Ryan, and Sims have a chance to be a special unit.This was also our first extended time with Dean Pees outside of a few scattered press conferences and I found him to be the calming “yin” to Coombs’ high energy “yang”. Many of his more notable quotes revolved around his expectations of elite effort over everything else. He wraps up the episode by saying that he wants his defense to play hard and play fast, which fall right in line with Mike Vrabel’s drumbeat of “know what to do, play fast and aggressive”.Speaking of Vrabel, next week’s episode features his former position group as the linebackers take center stage. The preview gives glimpses of Vrabel being hands on with coaching this group. It also means we will likely get a look at the two big draft picks from the 2018 class, Rashaan Evans and Harold Landry (I still have to pinch myself every now and then to make sure it’s real).This was probably my favorite episode yet, mostly due to the personalities. Coombs is probably the most interesting of the position coaches with his demeanor and many of the biggest player personalities on the team are in the secondary. The expectations should be pretty high for this group when camp starts in a couple weeks.