Camryn Bynum is making the switch to safety look easy
A corner at California, Bynum spent the year transitioning under the watchful eye of DBs coach Karl Scott
By Sam Ekstrom
EAGAN — Thrown into the starting lineup just hours before a difficult road game against a high-powered offense, rookie Camryn Bynum looked like he belonged.
Playing an astonishing 98 plays, Bynum filled in for Harrison Smith with aplomb against the Baltimore Ravens, making a team-high four run stops, intercepting a Lamar Jackson pass and recording the defense’s highest Pro Football Focus grade.
“I never had any doubts about it because I know my preparation is always going to be there,” Bynum said Monday, “and my will, and me being a student of the game.”
“He didn’t seem to be nervous or look like it was too big for him,” said co-defensive coordinator Andre Patterson.
It makes sense that Bynum would showcase his adaptability in his first NFL start. Since the beginning of the year — even before the draft — the former California corner has been adjusting to a new position, perhaps on the fast track to becoming a full-time Vikings starter sometime in the future.
The Vikings can only hope Sunday’s glimpse is a sign of things to come.
“I think he actually was playing a different position in the game than he’s been practicing,” head coach Mike Zimmer said Monday. “So for him to be able to come in there and, for the most part, understand exactly where he has to be and what he has to do, I thought was good. I thought he did a nice job in some of the run support things he had to do. He’ll continue to get better from there.”
Bynum practiced primarily at a strong safety spot but was asked Sunday to play free safety, which lined him up on the weak side of the formation most of the time. The Vikings have always tried to coach their safeties to be interchangeable, which benefited Bynum in his sudden elevation into the lineup.
Bynum’s crash course has come under the watchful eyes of Zimmer and first-year defensive backs coach Karl Scott.
From early in the pre-draft process, teams inquired with Bynum about a possible position switch, even though he was a four-year starter at corner for Cal. His recorded 40-yard dash times of 4.58 and 4.49 indicated that Bynum may not possess enough high-end speed to be an NFL corner, but his six college interceptions and strong tackling numbers seemed to offer hope of Bynum becoming a physical safety with ball-hawking capability.
Bynum played safety in the Senior Bowl in an effort to show teams early on that he could pull off the switch.
”It’s kind of funny: every single team I’ve met with asked about the possibility of me playing other positions,” Bynum said back in May, “and that’s something I was fine with, because at the end of the day, I’m a football player. I’m a defensive back. I’m not going to confine myself to just playing corner or playing nickel or safety. If I can play it all, I’ll play it all.”
That’s the type of do-it-all mentality Zimmer loves to see from his defensive players. For similar reasons, the Vikings signed Xavier Woods to fill a starting role at safety next to Harrison Smith — two players known for their intellect.
Bynum left a strong impression with Scott in their two pre-draft interviews, both for his football IQ and his preparedness. Scott says Bynum “wasn’t a blinker,” indicating from the outset that a daunting position switch wasn’t going to give him pause.
“From the start he kind of set himself apart kind of by the way he carried himself and handled business,” Scott told Purple Insider. “I knew he was the type of guy that this was important to him, just little things like him dressing [nicely], he probably had a better dry erase board in his interview than I had in my office at the time. It was a business interview for him.”
But mapping out the Xs and Os on a chalkboard is different than reacting in real time to a formation or a play developing before your eyes.
Scott put Bynum through the paces throughout spring practices, getting him up to speed on the Vikings’ terminology and the verbal nature of the safety position.
“[At corner], you don't have to talk too much. You don't have to communicate,” Scott said. “You're usually looking for somebody to communicate to you and you're co-signing it. At safety, it's completely different. Backers are looking at you for checks in the run game. Corners are looking at you for checks in the passing game. The safety is trying to play off of you, so it's the verbal part of it, too. The mental part of the game as well as the physical.”
The Vikings quickly had their fourth-round pick working with the second team early in the offseason and occasionally with the 1s when Woods or Smith got some reps off.
Bynum says he made a lot of “good mistakes” early in the process which served as lessons for the future. Scott said Bynum would spend evenings alone in the team’s film room or occasionally text his defensive backs coach late into the night, leaving no stone unturned.
Perhaps his biggest adjustments was expanding his vision from the myopic nature of being a man corner to the holistic view required for safeties.
“One thing I had to break out of my muscle memory from being a corner was my eyes,” Bynum said. “As a corner, you’re so locked in. Half the time you’re in man coverage, and other times you’re on the edge, so your vision is a lot easier because you’re looking from the outside in, but at safety now, my vision has to see the whole field. I have to see the formation and how that folds out pre-snap, and then once the ball snaps, I’ve got to be able to see guys coming on crossing routes, overs, everything coming from both sides of the field, so that’s probably the biggest thing I had to adjust to, getting my vision right.
“It’s still a process and something I’m working on, being able to see and have big vision and not see too much to where I end up with paralysis by analysis and not seeing anything at all. It’s always a fine line between getting your vision right and knowing exactly what to see as a safety now versus at corner, you’re locked in on your guy, you’re in man coverage or Cover 2 in the flats, but there’s a lot more vision at safety.”
Scott was asked if there are many corners who could make the transition like Bynum has.
“Not a lot of guys,” he said. “That’s very unique.
“Corner is the hardest job to do physically,” Scott continued. “You're probably covering the best athlete on the team. In the secondary, it's probably the easiest position to learn, though. Hardest to do, easiest to learn. At safety, you're not asked to do some of the physical things that a corner has … but the thinking and the learning, it's a lot more. It's harder to learn it, I think, than do it.”
Bynum has now learned it and done it. And done it well, at least for one game.
With family and friends in attendance Sunday, the California-born Bynum will look to build on his 98-snap debut at Baltimore.
With Smith’s impending return in Week 11, the date of Bynum’s next start isn’t clear, but if his early career is any indication he’ll be prepared when that day comes.
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Yeah.... Maybe this year`s draft will not be a disaster... But it would be nice for some of the 3rd rounders to start showing they belong (PJ2 this is your week to man up!)... I get that Mond was not meant to do much this year, but even given that.... Oh well at least our 4th rounders look useful.