Walter Thurmond wasn’t a Giant for very long.
The Eagles’ starting safety joined New York on a one-year deal before the beginning of last season but tore his pec against the Cardinals in Week 2 and was placed on injured reserve.
Once the 2014 season was over, Thurmond wanted a chance to compete to be a starting cornerback. He didn’t want to be just a nickel corner anymore.
The Eagles gave him that chance.
And with it, his short-lived career as a New York Giant was over.
“I liked my time there. It was a great organization,” Thurmond said this week as the Eagles prepare to host the Giants on Monday night (see scouting report). “Things just didn’t work out. I wanted an opportunity to be able to compete for a starting job and I didn’t want to just play the nickel back position. And that’s what really allowed me to go venture out and Philly gave me an opportunity to compete for the corner spot I thought it was gonna be. Then they offered me the safety spot and I liked that situation better than the corner spot and here I am today.”
While Thurmond was brought in to play corner, he noticed the logjam at the position before the season and elected to play safety instead.
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The decision has paid off as Thurmond has started all five games at safety and is playing at a high level for a revamped secondary.
“Walter Thurmond, the reason we moved him was because of his vision and instincts and the ability to play the ball from the nickel spot, really, is what you saw him do,” Eagles defensive coordinator Bill Davis said. “And then, when we moved him back, his football intelligence and IQ is very high; he really understands formation of personnel grouping, route tendencies, what two-and-out means with one coming in and those type of things. So that, together with some of the defenses we have to kind of highlight that where he can roam a little bit and pick what route the quarterback is looking at and what looks like is coming, that combination has had Walt playing at a pretty high level.”
Thurmond played for Chip Kelly at Oregon in 2009, so the Eagles’ head coach had a pretty good idea about what he would get from the career corner.
Kelly was so impressed with Thurmond in college he thought Thurmond would have been a first-round pick if he didn’t injure his knee. After the injury, Thurmond went in the fourth round in 2010.
“He was all over the field, was our best defensive football player, was always around the ball,” Kelly said of his time with Thurmond at Oregon. “I mean, we really struggled my first spring of doing things when Walt was on the field defensively because he was always making plays, and so what I saw when I coached Walt in 2009 is kind of what we're seeing now, and that's the type of football player he is.”