I certainly didn't do a scientific All-22 analysis. I guess its a possibility that Wilcox was so terrible teams chose to target him more often than not in the middle of the field.
I grant you that's may have something to do with Church's 0 interceptions and 0 passes defensed...
Having said that, let's be honest with ourselves -- I don't think Church is the safety version of Deion Sanders where teams are doing everything humanly possible to avoid his area of the field.
No, he's definitely not. He's not even a great coverage safety, and no one should mistake him for that.
He's a crafty safety who covers for his limited speed by usually being in the right spot, which leads to QBs generally attacking an easier target. However, being in the right spot doesn't mean you aren't going to get beaten at times by superior athletes, which happens.
Church's run defense, which is definitely his strength, slipped last year and that was disappointing. His pass defense was about what it has been in his career, which means he doesn't get out of position to be targeted often.
Put it this way: If your options are to throw at a receiver who has an underneath defender holding his ground like he's supposed to or to throw at a receiver whose defender has turned his hips because of another receiver's route, which one are you going to choose?
There's the difference between Church and Wilcox. Church is dependable without the ability to be stellar, while Wilcox actually has the skill-set to be stellar but is not dependable.
Quarterbacks will attack Church when there isn't a better option available because they know he's limited, but he doesn't make it easy enough on him to pick him over a blown coverage or wide-open receiver.
Ideally, you replace both Wilcox and Church, but you can live with the dependable guy. However, he did make some mistakes that aren't typical for him in run defense last year and he needs to get that shored up.
