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There will be no pronouncements from ‘Breaux Island’. No bragging, no posturing.
There will only be preparation and readiness for Hamilton Ticats’ cornerback Delvin Breaux, the man who might just be the best pass defender in the CFL.
As he readies for a Grey Cup showdown against a formidable fleet of Calgary Stampeders’ receivers, Breaux is not resting on laurels. He’s studying film in the early morning hours and paying attention to detail in practices. He has confidence, but doesn’t feel the need to flaunt it.
“I know I’m a great corner, but I don’t talk it. I show it,” he said, without any hint of haughtiness. Breaux was merely responding to a question about his personality and whether he likes to talk up his game.
It’s a pretty darned good game, too, garnering the 25 year old an East Division all-star berth in 2014.
The native of New Orleans, in his second year with the Ticats, has risen to top of the pass defenders’ pyramid. This week, the quarterback whose eyes he’ll try to read, Calgary’s Bo Levi Mitchell, called him the best corner in the CFL.
“I appreciate that,” was Breaux’s response to that news. “He’s a great guy, too. He’s a leader. He’s taken over that team and did amazing things with ‘em. I highly respect him. I even follow him on Twitter. I need to see what’s goin’ on!”
No stone unturned, it seems, with Breaux’s game preparation. As a short side corner (boundary corner, as it’s called) he is getting set to see anybody from that Calgary pass-catching stable lined up against him on any given play.
“82, 17, 80,” he says, referring to Nik Lewis, Maurice Price and Eric Rogers, respectively, when asked who he believes he’ll see the most. “I study all of my opponents. I study all the guys that play in the boundary.”
That’s why Breaux has been up very early this week, looking at game film. Outside of Lewis, Price and Rogers, he’s also been gleaning information on Marquay McDaniel, Joe West and Anthony Parker. You can bet he’s even had a look at the receiving tendencies of running backs Jon Cornish and Matt Walter.
“All their receivers go in the boundary,” said Breaux. “That’s why I was up this morning at five o’clock. I went and got a little extra study time, watching film. I just want to make sure that I’ve got everything down pat, so that whenever they come out in certain formations I know what they’re running.”
Breaux’s success goes beyond film study, of course. He’s big, he’s physical, he’s athletic. “Fast, aggressive, competitive,” were the words Ticats’ defensive coordinator Orlondo Steinauer used to describe him.
He’s a nightmare for opposing receivers, mostly. He’s also a very determined young man, one who’s reached the pro football level after playing no college ball and recovering from a terrible injury as a teenager.
Just before his 17th birthday, Breaux suffered a spinal injury.
As he talks about the night he was injured during a kick return, he turns to show the large surgical scar that runs down the back of his neck. Lying prone on the field after the play, Breaux had badly injured three vertebrae.
“It was pretty devastating,” he recalls. “But I ended up jogging off the field. I was trying to get back in but then my neck started hurting me even more.”
The damage was done, however and the long road back began.
Breaux ran a little track and field after surgery and recovery, but his football career was put on a rather long hold. He attended university but didn’t play ball – outside of a little pick up – until he hooked up with the semi-pro Louisiana Bayou Vipers seven years after his horrible high school injury.
“I worked,” he said of the rehab. “I worked hard. I knew my career wasn’t over, because I was still young.”
Breaux’s rookie season with the Ticats came in 2013 and it was a pretty good one, especially when you consider he suffered a torn labrum part way through the campaign.
Still, his star was rising and it continued to do so into 2014. For a time, he became such a danger to opposing quarterbacks that opponents started to give him that lonely feeling.
“As the weeks went on, I saw no action in a couple of games,” he says, before adding that there’s been a bit of a change in that lull. “Then, all of a sudden they just started throwing at me. I was, like ‘okay, they must wanna try me again.’ That’s just how teams think and I have to be ready at all costs,” he shrugged. “I can never sleep out there.”
Or through an entire night, it seems, what with those 5 am study sessions. Those sessions – or at least real dedication to them – are the difference between a good rookie season and a great sophomore season, according to Steinauer, who indicated that Breaux takes that side of the game more seriously now.
It does take some time to pack away all the information a corner needs to deal with so many potential threats. For Breaux, each man brings a different set of circumstances, tendencies and skills.
“I can’t just focus on one because, you know, one may have great route running. One may be fast. One may be a guy that likes to get physical with you. I have to know my opponent whenever they step in the boundary. I have to know who I’m going against and what I’m going against.”
We’ll see if the Stampeders – and the quarterback who has so much respect for Breaux – decide to tempt the fates by throwing into the boundary. Breaux’s been hot, lately, with two interceptions in his last three games, including a pick in last week’s Eastern Final.
“I just do my job,” he says, about his recent performances. “Do whatever Coach O (Steinauer) tells me to do and I just play the game.”
There is no Breaux Island, however, at least not according to the man, himself. Breaux is quick to spread credit and appreciation among his pals in the Hamilton secondary.
“It’s exciting, man. I’m happy for those guys. They’re sticking together. We all are sticking together. We’re not a secondary that’s gonna lay down to anybody.”
“That’s what I like about those guys. They fight,” he said.
