The risk of drafting a safety high
by Dan Kadar on Mar 23, 2010 8:04 PM EDT
in 2010 NFL Draft
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PrintPete King of Sports Illustrated brought up a great point in his latest column.
Of the safeties taken in the top 10 picks this century, none have become franchise players. That includes Roy Williams (Dallas, 2002), Sean Taylor (Washington, 2004), Michael Huff (Oakland, 2006), Donte Whitner (Buffalo, 2006), LaRon Landry (Washington, 2007).
Even if you don't consider Taylor, that's not a good track record. Also consider some of the bet safeties -- Ed Reed, Troy Polamalu and Bob Sanders. Those three have missed 78 games in a total of 21 seasons.
So although Eric Berry may be a rare find at safety, he may be no sure thing. And if he is, his health may not hold up. But if there's one player who can make it, it's Berry.
John Morgan of Field Gulls is working on his breakdown of Berry, so make sure to head over there and check out his play-by-play analysis. Also make sure to dig the rest of King's column. There's a good bit about Tim Tebow.
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Shame on Peter King
For putting Sean Taylor on the list. When he died he was on his way to becoming franchise player.
Yeah I saw that after, but I still dont think he should have put him in the same sentence as the other 4.
I think he was an elte Safety
2009 NY Phin PhansFantasy League Champion
2009 Best Regular Season Record in NYPPL.
2010 The Jim Mandich NewsFlash Award Winner.
Roy Williams
was the Cowboys franchise player for two or three years until he lost Darren Woodson and started slacking off from his football and training work.
And I would also say that Sean Taylor was the Redskins franchise player when he was tragically killed (regardless of whether or not King qualifies it).
If I had a nickel for every Super Bowl the Eagles have won, I would have zero nickels.
Not really fair to lump Troy and Ed in with Bob when it comes to missing games due to injury. When was th last time bob played even half a season?
You apparently only watched the later versions
because in his first two or three years he was a beast at playing in the box.
If I had a nickel for every Super Bowl the Eagles have won, I would have zero nickels.
by Cowboyfan729 on Mar 23, 2010 10:27 PM EDT up reply actions
um ...im a GIANT fan, so i remember the early and the late RW..
He was great layin a hit on someone . But not much else . And if he didn’t play in Dallas i don’t see him making as many pro bowls as he did…
Once again he sucked at covering!!!
when your in the box you are used to help defend the run not cover buddy
Per fas et nefas - Latin translation="By Any Means Necessary"
Dont u think you should have to .
do more then be a glorified linebacker playin safety, to make all them pro bowls…i do .. thats my point.. Buddy !……Good luck with all are cast offs….You can have C.C. Brown while your at . But you better keep him in the box ,because he is alot like R.W.
You are dead wrong because he certainly did not have those apparent holes in his game
when Darren Woodson was there. He was a legitimate pro bowler in his first few years when he was allowed to make impact plays near the line and not asked to cover by himself deep. He was also in much better shape then and had much more range to actually cover effectively. I will certainly agree that he did not deserve those pro bowls down the stretch of his career, but he certainly did in his early years. The reason this is important is because I think it is misleading to say that his example shows the risk of drafting a safety high. Roy was the runner up for the defensive rookie of the year and was outstanding in 2003 as Dallas had the best defense in the league. Say what you want about his later years, but at that point he was definitely a “franchise player.”
If I had a nickel for every Super Bowl the Eagles have won, I would have zero nickels.
by Cowboyfan729 on Mar 24, 2010 1:53 AM EDT up reply actions
i hope we go for mays
i feel like he has huge potential. he just needs some teaching
"Never give in, never, never, never, never, in nothing great or small, large or petty, never give in except to convictions of honor and good sense. Never yield to force; never yield to the apparently overwhelming might of the enemy.
Lets not make Reed out to be this injury bug player please
8 of those 78 missed games are from Reed while Bob Sanders has missed 37.
Actually, I just looked at their stats and those 3 are no where near 78 games. Where did you get that number? I got 64, not 78. And again, half of those are from Sanders.
You have to hate losing more than you love winning.
No its not including playoffs.
Heres a breakdown (year/games missed)
Reed= (2005/6), (2009/4) = 10
Polamalu= (2006/3), (2007/5), (2009/11) = 19
Sanders= (2004/10), (2005/2), (2006/12), (2007/1), (2008/10), (2009/14)= 49
10+19+49 = 78.
Hope this helped
Yeah you guys are looking good. With those prospects they got coming up and the young players they have making an impact, who knows they could be this years Rays. Good luck!
Eric Berry will turn out to be more like Ed Reed, but not quite as good since he wont be going to a team with Ray Lewis and a good group of pass rushers and corners. top 5 is too high for him
Now Earl Thomas is the one I am worried about being the injury prone guy, his body is more similar to Bob Sanders who has been both great, but also unavailable.
Taylor Mayes and Chad Jones are both your classic too big to play safety. I am old enough to remember Steve Atwater, a pro-bowl safety for the broncos that got abused by Jerry Rice and Joe Montana in the superbowl. You might say, well thats Rice and Montana, but history is full of 225-235 pound DBs who are great in run support, but terrible in pass coverage. Brian Urlacher and Thomas Davis were quickly converted to LBs, Roy Williams unfortunately was not.
If your goal is to improve against the run, draft Rolando McClain or one of the DTs, but if your goal is to improve your pass coverage, the better value is either Nate Allen or Morgan Burnett in the second round.
Honestly I wouldnt draft a safety in the 1st round this year, unless Berry somehow drops.
I've seen this argument before
I guess he never took a stats class – because 5 is a small sample size among 1500+ NFL players. What he fails to mention is that many people in the NFL thought that some of those guys were picked early. The Donte Whitner pick was a huge surprise. You cannot use isolated bad picks to make a technical analysis. Would you use Wood (C, Louisville, now Buffalo) in a comparison of 1st round centers? He was a 2nd-3rd round pick on most boards. In fact, you can throw out any Buffalo pick over the last few years from any serious discussions. Maybin the best DE in the draft? Seriously?
Also, is he claiming safeties get injured more than other positions? Does he have proof? Because SI has the staff to collect real data.
I can do this too. Tommie Harris, Haynesworth, and the Williams duo are have been suspended or threatened with suspension in the last few years. Therefore, Suh and McCoy do not belong in the 1st 10 picks.
Today's NFL is based on passing games like Indy and NO
Brees and Manning don’t get sacked much
Only way to beat them or Favre or Rogers is playmakers in the secondary
Berry Haden Thomas and their kind are the prizes in this draft
He’s always open. He catches a lot of balls. He’s un-guardable, no matter how old he is
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