masomenos
Less is more
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If one thing can be said about my WR rankings it's that it stirred up a lot of discussion, some people agreed, some people vehemently disagreed and some people thought I was wasting my time. Originally I was supposed to post these safety rankings as part of a discussion about Michael Griffin, but I got so absorbed in the WR discussion and I was out of town this weekend so they're not getting posted until now. It's been more difficult to do these than it was to do the WR rankings because while I can place a value on their coverage ability and I can place a value on their run stopping ability I can't really create a total safety ranking without using a little personal bias (I'd so coverage is more important than run stopping). Anyways, here they are...
Coverage Ability
1. Michael Griffin 9.0
2. Reggie Nelson 8.6
3. Sabby Pisticelli 8.5
4. Eric Weddle 8.4
5. Josh Gattis 8.3
6. Laron Landry 8.0
7. Brandon Merriweather 7.5
8. Marvin White 7.5
9. Aaron Rouse 7.3
10. John Wendling 7.3
The coverage ability score takes into account how quickly a player can cover ground in short-medium coverage (10yards), medium-long coverage (20yards aka "to sideline time") and deep coverage (40yards) and combines it with other timed drills that indicate hip flexibilty and burst. For comparison Ed Reed would have rated around a 9.5, Roy Williams is around an 8.1, and Pat Watkins is around a 6.9. Production in the past 2 years is also thrown into the rating, with the '05 season counting significantly less than the '06 season.
Run Stopping Ability
1. Michael Griffin 9.8
2. Laron Landry 8.2
3. Eric Weddle 8.0
4. Sabby Piscitelli 7.8
5. Marvin White 7.8
6. Brandon Merriweather 7.6
7. Reggie Nelson 7.6
8. John Wendling 7.4
9. Aaron Rouse 7.2
10. Josh Gattis 7.0
The runs stopping ability is best described as a players ability to quickly close towards the LOS and production in college. I don't have any comparisons for this statistical group.
Overall Safety Rating (out of 5)
Player of Rare Ability - Top 5 Pick
none
Potential Pro Bowler - Early to Mid 1st
1. Michael Griffin 4.4
Very Good Player - Mid to Late 1st
2. Eric Weddle 3.9
3. Laron Landy 3.8
Good Player - Early to Mid 2nd
4. Reggie Nelson 3.3
5. Sabby Piscitelli 3.3
Above Average Player - Mid to Late 2nd
6. Marvin White 2.6
7. Josh Gattis 2.6
Average Player - Third
8. Brandon Merriweather 2.0
Below Average Player - Fourth through Fifth
9. John Wendling 1.8
10. Aaron Rouse 1.7
I know I'm going to catch hell for a few things, Griffin being #1 when he was on a bad pass defense in college, Landry NOT being #1, Merriweather so low, etc. Like my WR rankings this isn't a projection of where the players will go but instead a projection of what their talent level will be in the NFL and where they should go based on that. I don't feel as confident in this rating system as I did the WR one and I wasn't able to find as much back information to plug old players into the system. I have worked on it for a while though and it's something I'm comfortable posting now.
Go ahead and start asking questions / posting
and 
... it's ok to criticize, I can take it.
Coverage Ability
1. Michael Griffin 9.0
2. Reggie Nelson 8.6
3. Sabby Pisticelli 8.5
4. Eric Weddle 8.4
5. Josh Gattis 8.3
6. Laron Landry 8.0
7. Brandon Merriweather 7.5
8. Marvin White 7.5
9. Aaron Rouse 7.3
10. John Wendling 7.3
The coverage ability score takes into account how quickly a player can cover ground in short-medium coverage (10yards), medium-long coverage (20yards aka "to sideline time") and deep coverage (40yards) and combines it with other timed drills that indicate hip flexibilty and burst. For comparison Ed Reed would have rated around a 9.5, Roy Williams is around an 8.1, and Pat Watkins is around a 6.9. Production in the past 2 years is also thrown into the rating, with the '05 season counting significantly less than the '06 season.
Run Stopping Ability
1. Michael Griffin 9.8
2. Laron Landry 8.2
3. Eric Weddle 8.0
4. Sabby Piscitelli 7.8
5. Marvin White 7.8
6. Brandon Merriweather 7.6
7. Reggie Nelson 7.6
8. John Wendling 7.4
9. Aaron Rouse 7.2
10. Josh Gattis 7.0
The runs stopping ability is best described as a players ability to quickly close towards the LOS and production in college. I don't have any comparisons for this statistical group.
Overall Safety Rating (out of 5)
Player of Rare Ability - Top 5 Pick
none
Potential Pro Bowler - Early to Mid 1st
1. Michael Griffin 4.4
Very Good Player - Mid to Late 1st
2. Eric Weddle 3.9
3. Laron Landy 3.8
Good Player - Early to Mid 2nd
4. Reggie Nelson 3.3
5. Sabby Piscitelli 3.3
Above Average Player - Mid to Late 2nd
6. Marvin White 2.6
7. Josh Gattis 2.6
Average Player - Third
8. Brandon Merriweather 2.0
Below Average Player - Fourth through Fifth
9. John Wendling 1.8
10. Aaron Rouse 1.7
I know I'm going to catch hell for a few things, Griffin being #1 when he was on a bad pass defense in college, Landry NOT being #1, Merriweather so low, etc. Like my WR rankings this isn't a projection of where the players will go but instead a projection of what their talent level will be in the NFL and where they should go based on that. I don't feel as confident in this rating system as I did the WR one and I wasn't able to find as much back information to plug old players into the system. I have worked on it for a while though and it's something I'm comfortable posting now.
Go ahead and start asking questions / posting
and ... it's ok to criticize, I can take it.
