Player development isn’t linear. That’s been the case for cornerback Ken Crawley, and for the Saints it will also be true for Eli Apple. Taking a quick glance at his stat sheet, one will find that Apple hasn’t seemed to live up to his first-round selection in the 2016 NFL Draft. Through 30 games (25 starts), Apple has one interception, 120 total tackles, 20 pass deflections and two forced fumbles.



Those numbers aren’t terrible, but Crawley has been able to put up similar as an undrafted free agent. In 34 games (23 starts), Crawley has one interception, 126 total tackles, 28 pass deflections and one forced fumble. Box scores never tell the entire story though. After the trade was announced, I went through four games (over 200 snaps) in 2018 to see how Apple is playing.



The Good



Dennis Allen, Sean Payton and the Saints front office likely made this trade due to the defense’s struggle in deep coverage. Specifically, the Saints have...