Cheesehead
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- Mar 19, 2019
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GREEN BAY – Defensive coaches will always talk about the stress points in their scheme.
Depending on certain rush or coverage calls, the stress will be placed somewhere – or more accurately, on somebody – to hold up. A double-team here means single coverage over there, or a blitz vacates an area where help or leverage might normally reside.
In Charlie Harbison's one year as the associate head coach and cornerbacks coach at Appalachian State in 2019, there was one place he never hesitated to direct the stress – on Shemar Jean-Charles.
"We put a lot of stress on him, so that way we could help other people," said Harbison, now the cornerbacks coach at Missouri, in an interview with packers.com. "He got left alone quite a bit."
Opposing offenses challenged Jean-Charles in that situation plenty, too. That's how he tallied 10 passes defended (including one interception) as a first-time starter under Harbison two years ago, and followed it up with an NCAA-leading 17 (including one INT) last season, which earned him Sun Belt Conference player of the year honors from Pro Football Focus.
In that regard, Harbison likened Jean-Charles, whom he refers to by his nickname "Sherm," to a cornerback he coached at Clemson a decade ago, Coty Sensabaugh. At 5-11 and 190 pounds, similar dimensions to Jean-Charles, Sensabaugh parlayed a high number of pass breakups into getting drafted in the fourth round by the Tennessee Titans in 2012, the first of his eight years in the NFL with six different teams.
The Packers drafted Jean-Charles in the fifth round of the 2021 draft and were surprised he was still available. General Manager Brian Gutekunst said several of the team's scouts were high on Jean-Charles and kept reminding their boss the longer he stayed on the board.