Meriweather at Free Safety - good grief: When has anyone here seen him at Free Safety for more than a handful of plays? Prior to Rodney going down, Meriweather worked at CB and Dime/Nickel Safety with a few reps at either Safety position to rest Rodney or James.
After Rodney went down Meriweather was the primary Strong Safety, the result: nine passes defensed, four interceptions, two forced fumbles, two sacks.
Yes, he's lighter than Rodney and he doesn't pack the punch Rodney did when he tackles, but by playing closer to the LOS he's better set to disrupt plays. Can he play centerfield? Sure, he can stay deep and provide help over top for the CBs, but he's a big play man like Asante, which means you want him in the short to intermediate areas where most of the plays occur. Maybe when Chung is up to speed we'll see him working low and Meriweather working high, but as of the end of the 2008 season, the best place for Meriweather was down where the action was, and Sanders staying deep kept the Pats best Secondary Field General back where he could direct the action.
If you look at Meriweather's Combine numbers compared to Samuels', you'll see they were very close. If you'll think back to Meriweather's first season, he took a significant number of his reps at CB for Asante. I believe BB wanted him to take over Asante's playmaker role at CB, but he just wasn't able to play CB as well. Safety was his fallback position and he's in Rodney's shoes because he's a big play kid - Asante's stats his second year when he took over as starter showed fewer big plays, so think what Brandon might do as he gets more experience.
You folks who want Meriweather playing centerfield need to wake up and smell the field turf because Brandon is one heck of a short stop, don't mess with what's working.
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Gary Guyton: Yep, he took injury reps at OLB and struggled with technique before NE lost him to injury and had to bring back the retreads. I expect Guyton to crosstrain at OLB because that's how BB builds depth, but he's in the running for starter ahead of Bruschi at ILB. We'll see how much a year in the system and a full offseason program did for Gary and Jarod, both needed to get stronger and get better with their hands, but given BB and Tedy's offseason remarks, I think those two are going to be a dynamic duo inside. Let's not forget the OLB idea though, Woods and TBC are the two developed at OLB in the system, both needed more than one year to pick things up, Gary could still work out okay there and be solid as an emergency option.
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Wilhite was the starter at the end of the 2008 season, I'd expect him to start Training Camp working first string, after that we'll see. I expect Springs to be more of a nickel (outside) to keep him fresh for the entire season and postseason run. Wilhite and Wheatley and Bodden look to be the guys battling for the "starter" tag. I don't expect Butler to see a lot of time before mid-season - the same as BB & Co. handled Gay, Hobbs, and the two W's from last season. At this point, I'd say the secondary depth is quite comforting heading into this Training Camp.
