What Is Happening With Cam Dantzler?
Henrique Gucciardi
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At this time last year, we didn’t have pre-season games, so the only thing to evaluate our players was practice. And, in those, Cam Dantzler distinguished himself as a rookie to watch during 2020. Basically every day there was a video of him making a highlight play or a comment about how good he was. This wasn’t a fluke, as he was arguably our second-best rookie last year (no one could compete with the real Rookie of The Year, a.k.a Justin Jefferson) and also elected to the All-Rookie Team alongside Kansas City’s L’Jarius Sneed.
However, he had a quiet offseason this year. He got bigger, which is a good sign, but he missed a couple of practices during OTAs and minicamp. During those, he saw Harrison Hand getting a lot of praise, but it wasn’t concerning since he still was the projected starter opposite Patrick Peterson. But the Bashaud Breeland signing meant he would have competition for the CB2 spot. At the time, I remember saying that Dantzler should be the starter after his good rookie campaign, but he didn’t help himself with a quiet training camp.
If it wasn’t clear that Breeland had won the starting job, the Broncos game made it evident. With Breeland resting and Dantzler playing, the dispute was over. But it gets worse. Although it’s fair to say that the whole defense played poorly, Cam was among the worst, with KJ Hamler burning past him and our safeties for an 80-yard TD. If this wasn’t enough, Kris Boyd had some good plays, including a PBU against Jerry Jeudy in the endzone.
Mike Zimmer decided to play most of his starters against the Colts, but still rested a couple of them. One starter who didn’t play was Patrick Peterson, so a backup corner would have a chance to play among the 1s. It was logical to assume that Dantzler would be the one to start since he was our CB1 last season and was battling for the starting job. It was Kris Boyd, though, who earned that opportunity, and, to be fair, he had a solid game. He made a few mistakes – and was flagged for illegal hands to the face – but, at the end of the day, he was OK.
Afterward, Zimmer was asked about Boyd starting, he simply said “Boyd’s been doing better.” It’s hard to know exactly what happened to last year’s 3rd round pick. He seems healthy and has experienced guys to learn from (including a future Hall of Famer), so he should be on an upward trajectory and being ready to be our CB1 next year and beyond. But, for some reason, he’s not.
It’s not the end of the world for him. He will turn 23 next week, so he’s still very young, and a sophomore slump is normal to happen. We all know that the talent and upside are there, and, as I said earlier, he will be learning from a future Hall of Famer this season. It may look silly, but I believe he just needs to relax and have more fun out on the field. When Boyd and Dantzler are on the field you can see a big difference between them. While Boyd is looser and enjoying himself, Dantzler looks nervous out there, and he ends up overthinking plays. I know this is a weird answer to this question, but sometimes the problem isn’t X’s and O’s.