Broncos cornerback Champ Bailey will spend most of Sunday covering Lions receiver Calvin Johnson, but he won’t do it alone.
Bailey said it’s just not realistic to think any cornerback is going to consistently match up one-on-one with Johnson, and that every team has to be ready to give safety help to the cornerback who draws the Megatron assignment.
“I think one guy could be successful, but it does take a team effort to defend him all day,” Bailey said. “You can’t just match up on him and think it’s going to work all day, if he has a good quarterback throwing the ball. There’s sometimes when he goes up, nobody can get to that height that he reaches. He’s about as tall, strong and unique as they come.”
Johnson has said that Lions quarterback Matthew Stafford will audible to a pass to Johnson any time he sees one-on-one coverage, so it’s not exactly a secret that the Lions think Johnson is a mismatch against every quarterback in the league. And that’s how Bailey sees it, too.