Opinion on the value of a safety...

[playmakers]

Thinking about the saftey thread it came to my attention (and see if you guys agree or not) that safties arent that important as compared to other postions. Let me explain

Remember, back in the day, no team would ever take a saftey until minmum the second round. I beileve Ronnie Lott was the previous highest drafted saftey. Then guys came along such as Roy Williams, Ed Reed, Troy Palumba[sp], Bob Sanders and now teams have taken these players high. Well, IMO the orginal theory about safties is holding up. Ed Reed and Roy Williams have had their share of time dominating a few games in their careers but let me ask you this is any saftey worth a 1st round grade anymore? I love Roy as a player but if anyone says Roy Williams does is a homer. Nice player, but makes too many mental errors. Hes a playmaker both postivly and negativly. Ed Reed had his time of Mr Invincible recently but minus a speacil teams play what has he done in the last year or so. No 1st round grade there either. Same could be said about Polomuba. Does Sean Taylor dominate a game? How about Donte Whitner and Micheal Huff? Bob Sanders seems to be the guy of the moment but it wont be for long. Were see about Laron Landry too. If there was a guy to consider the only one I can think of is Adrian Wilson from the Cards. You cant argue with near 100 tackles, 8 sacks and 7 ints.(Dont quote the stats)


If I were a GM I wouldnt touch a saftey in the top 20 of the draft. I guess you can say I think the poistion is slightly overrated. Look at Adrian Wilson from Arizona is a prime example. What do you think? Do you think like me that teams overvalue where to pick a saftey at. Or, do you think theres value at taking a saftey in the top 10.


Lastly, this isnt a Roy Williams dislike thread. Im talking about safties in general and how I think teams over value them.

 

[Billy Bullocks]

I like having Roy on the team, and a good safety certainly can help your secondary.

But I think a Safety should not be drafted over a Pass Rusher or a CB. Generally Safeties struggle if they don't have good CB's around them, and obviously, any secondary struggles with no pass rush.

If you are picking high enough where you would say a safety wouldn't be good value, chances are your team is not good anyway, and probably lacks the said positions as well.

Ed Reed was at his finest when he played with a VERY strong supporting cast. He's still a great football player. But he had a chance to shine and stand out when he had hte pass rush and hte CBs.


Bottom line...I would much rather have a healthy Newman and no Roy than the situation we had for the first 2 games.

 

[dwmyers]

I suspect without Ken Hamlin and the deep support he provides, that our CBs don't jump the routes they do and we don't intercept anything.

This is the first secondary - injured or no - where we have 4 players you can trust.

How many interceptions have we had the last 3 games?

That's the *true* value of having 2 good safeties.

David.

 

[morieeel]

Before the Ed Reeds, Williams, and Taylor etc.eras, the belief was that the safeties in college were too slow to play corner back even in the collegiate level, so they didn't like spending high picks for slow DB's. They figured they could plug a good hitting cornerback that maybe lost a step into that postion, or draft a good safety in the latter rounds.

 

[rlgiv]

A good safety can change the way the DC calls a game. He is just as important as any other starter on the D and if the player is good enough take em in the first round if you have the need.

 

[JPM]

Ronnie Lott was drafted as a CB and then converted to safety.

 

[DallasEast]

I have no clue as to how Kenny Easley didn't get mentioned in this thread.

 

[TheCount]

I think Safety, much like a Kicker, is a position you never really notice unless you had a bad one or a really good one.

 

[Yakuza Rich]

I think teams generally value a good safety quite a bit, it's just that they tend to believe you can find plenty of good safeties throughout the draft and the league. Probably the reason for this is that many corners have made the transition and other positions as well like former running backs.





YAKUZA