Last year SJ said we weren't looking at players because they were SS and not FS. What changed this year?
The previous year, we were making Heath and Byron Jones our starters. Last year, when Jones moved to corner, we moved Woods (who had played some nickel corner for us) to starting free safety. At that time, he was just an unproven late-round pick at the spot. The trade for Earl Thomas didn't manifest so we ended up starting Woods and he played well.
Our problem was the other spot. In 2017, we started off with Heath as the SS and Jones as the FS. Jones had played well at FS the year before (although some fans deny this), when Church was the SS. Church left, so Heath, who had played well in reserve as a deep safety, was given the starting SS spot by default. Heath looked very poor in run defense, so in the middle of the season we moved Jones to SS, which he wasn't good at either and led to Frazier splitting some time with him there.
I thought we needed to be looking for a new SS in 2018 (worse than a FS, so I didn't agree with the Joneses) but we ended up keeping Heath there as the starter. He improved, but still was a run-support weakness. I think Dallas finally was forced to recognize that, which is why our focus has been the SS spot this year. Woods cemented the FS spot.
I hope that's not too convoluted of an explanation. Essentially, it's a change in priorities because Woods proved himself at FS and Heath continued to be iffy at best at SS. (My priority, though, has always been SS since Church left because I felt we had at least three FS candidates: Jones, Heath and Woods, while Frazier was our only true SS.)
