Xavier Woods Is In For a Bounce-Back in 2021
Tanishka Mhaskar
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The Vikings signed former Cowboys safety Xavier Woods in March to replace Anthony Harris. Woods was coming off his worst year in the NFL, letting up a career-high of four touchdowns and a 129.0 passer rating. There were a few reasons for Woods’ demise in Dallas and playing in Minnesota should help Woods bounce back to his 2017-2019 form.
For starters, Woods played on one of the worst defenses in football last year with Dallas. The weak front seven highlighted by the struggling linebackers and nonexistent defensive tackles allowed 2,541 rushing yards, second-most in the NFL, forcing Woods to play more in the box than he ever had in his career.
Woods played 441 of his 990 total snaps (44.5%) either on the DL or in the box. For comparison, from 2017-2019 he played 388 of his 2408 (16.1%) snaps either on the DL or in the box. It is no coincidence that his play fell off as soon as the Cowboys stopped dropping him into coverage. In coverage, Woods ranked 6th among safeties with at least 300 coverage snaps, giving up just 0.29 yards per coverage snap.
The Vikings front seven currently heralds two stout defensive tackles versus the run game in Dalvin Tomlinson and Michael Pierce and one of the better linebacker duos in the NFL, with Anthony Barr and Eric Kendricks.
Due to having such a strong front seven, they will not be forced to stack the box as much as Dallas did, and even when they have to, they should avoid putting Woods in the box as much as they can to maximize where he is best.
Additionally, the Vikings have more proven players all over their defense which should help Woods. For example, Harrison Smith is the driving force of the Vikings secondary. Players like Andrew Sendejo and Anthony Harris have played their best seasons playing alongside Smith, posting PFF grades of 77.1 and 90.5 respectively.
Woods said Smith was one of the biggest motivators to signing with the Vikings. “I was watching Harrison (Smith). That was one of the main reasons why I wanted to be here, to be able to learn from him, be able to play (with).”