Safety

[dallas72]

Wasn't saying I'll do both. just mentioning that if signing a safety in free agency.. Give me Haha Clinton Dix. If we get a safety via draft, the only two safeties i want in this draft class Xavier McKinney or Kyle Dugger.

McKinney & Winfield are my guys

 

[beware_d-ware]

It sounds like we are moving to a quarters defense under Nolan. Quarters is a very safety-centric scheme - the CBs play most coverage snaps exactly the same, the underneath defenders play most coverages exactly the same, and the play basically changes with how the safeties match up. So your safeties have to be very versatile - able to get down in the box, over the top deep, or play man to man - and they also need to be smart enough to set up their coverage correctly based on presnap looks.

Basically, the short way to say it is that we don't need a box safety. The SS does too much one-on-one coverage in this scheme to make that work.

Delpit and McKinney both have the tools to fit into that system IMO, so I'm not playing favorites there, but it does set our priorities in free agency. Cheap one-dimensional safeties like Vonn Bell would have been a great fit last year, but they're probably not going to work well this year.

On a side note, Woods is probably going to be a low key important part of this defense. His tackling woes and general mediocrity at center-fielding were shown last year, but he does well in underneath coverage and he is a very smart guy (39 Wonderlic). If we end up stuck with him at one safety spot, it's not the end of the world IMO. Heath also fits this system well, with his speed to cover in man and ability to play at an equally bad level as a single-high and down in the box. But he's shown for years now that he is a third safety at best.

 

[cnuball21]

It sounds like we are moving to a quarters defense under Nolan. Quarters is a very safety-centric scheme - the CBs play most coverage snaps exactly the same, the underneath defenders play most coverages exactly the same, and the play basically changes with how the safeties match up. So your safeties have to be very versatile - able to get down in the box, over the top deep, or play man to man - and they also need to be smart enough to set up their coverage correctly based on presnap looks.

Basically, the short way to say it is that we don't need a box safety. The SS does too much one-on-one coverage in this scheme to make that work.

Delpit and McKinney both have the tools to fit into that system IMO, so I'm not playing favorites there, but it does set our priorities in free agency. Cheap one-dimensional safeties like Vonn Bell would have been a great fit last year, but they're probably not going to work well this year.

On a side note, Woods is probably going to be a low key important part of this defense. His tackling woes and general mediocrity at center-fielding were shown last year, but he does well in underneath coverage and he is a very smart guy (39 Wonderlic). If we end up stuck with him at one safety spot, it's not the end of the world IMO. Heath also fits this system well, with his speed to cover in man and ability to play at an equally bad level as a single-high and down in the box. But he's shown for years now that he is a third safety at best.

I don’t think teams are really drafting “box safeties” anymore. When teams are evaluating safeties they have to be able to cover some.