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Falcons would love a healthy Webster Premium Story
By Staff Reports
Date: Sep 30, 2005

FLOWERY BRANCH - Coach Jim Mora would love for Atlanta fans to see the Jason Webster who worked efficiently at cornerback from 2000-02 in San Francisco.

Jason Webster has played his entire career for Mora, the former 49ers defensive coordinator who took charge of the Falcons in January 2004. Unfortunately, a variety of injuries caused Webster to make only two starts in 2003, a season in which he played just five games.

In his first season with Atlanta last year, Webster made just nine starts after the Falcons gave him a $7 million signing bonus two months after Mora arrived. Still, the former Texas A&M standout, whom San Francisco drafted in the second round of 2000, finished with a team-high 10 passes defended.

"He worked hard this off-season to not get injured, and you can't control some things that happen," Mora said. "He'll have a good year for us. He's a good player, a tough kid. I just feel bad that people haven't gotten to see it yet like I got to see it for three or four years."

Though he always looks his audience squarely in the eye and speaks with sincerity, Webster rarely offers more than stock quotes, so it's hard to understand what's really affecting him underneath the surface. What hurts as much as anything, according to Mora, is playing as well as Webster did at Seattle, where he drilled Shaun Alexander and batted a pass away from Bobby Engram on consecutive third-quarter plays, only to return home with a sore knee.

Webster missed his seventh regular-season game in last week's win at Buffalo. With Kevin Mathis out for the season and Allen Rossum nursing a tweaked hamstring, Christian Morton started at Webster's spot on the right side.

"There's no question that Jason's a tough kid," Mora said. "Up until last year he only had minor injuries, he didn't have anything that kept him out a long time. As a matter of fact, in his whole college career and through his first three years in the league, he never missed a game.

"He had some unfortunate things happen to him and you just try and encourage him along. It's hard on him. He's a competitor and he doesn't like to feel like he's letting his team or his teammates down. He does feel that way, I know he does. He's of strong faith and I'm sure that's how he's getting through it. That's Jason. He's a pretty spiritual guy.[/b]

How do you give a $7 million signing bonus to a guy who basically missed the entire previous season?

when he is 100% he's a pretty good player....I wouldn't have given him that kind of money but he was one of Mora's players in SF and he was one of the few devent cb's available at the time and we really needed one...

7 Million... ouch!

MF1

So far webster has proven unreliable in terms of health plus he makes alot of money.We need a corner in this upcoming draft faiirly high maybe webster could be cut in 1or 2 years!

I think Webster would be a hell of a nickel corner for passing situations but he is too fragile to be a starter in the NFL.

Webster, like so many other FAs that off-season was paid because the class was weak. It was expected to be a strong class, but then a lot of hte top guys like Champ Bailey, Woodson, etc. were tagged and basically meant that teams had to go after 2nd and 3rd tier guys (like Webster) in order to fix their cornerback needs.

The Falcons panicked because Webster was one of the last FAs available and overpayed him. The reasoning from Falcons HQ is that the Dolphins were prepared to offer him the same contract, and in order to sign him we needed to match. Which IMO, may be a valid reason, but it is a blatant admission that the team knew it was overpaying.