Safety - How Bad Is It?

[mgteich]

Safety is our biggest weakness. Obviously, one sad thing is that many of us considered that safety was a strength going into the off-season.

How bad is it with the three we have? After all, Belichick's original choices were Chung, Barrett and Brown.

We have Chung, Ihedigbo and Moore. We also have special teamers Slater and Brown for emergency or garbage time help.

Chung is injured. One must hope that he will be healthy for the playoffs.

Belichick picked up Ihedigbo in free agency and he has turned out to be much better than Belichick's chosen #2 and #3 safeties Barrettt and Brown. He has learned the defense and has played reasonably well.

Belichick pick up Moore as a street free agent and he seems fine as a #3 safety.

 

[shmessy]

I still can't fathom the reasoning behind cutting James Sanders before the season.

That was the most unforgivable Belichick move in his entire tenure in New England. Was he slow? Yes. But he played the angles perfectly, made the big plays in crunch time and was lauded as a future leader by none other than Rodney Harrison in his rookie year.

Then there is that clip of a miked up Belichick last year congratulating him on the sidelines after he intercepted Manning to win the Colts game. "Now THAT'S a Champion! That's a TRUE champion!!!"

So, now he catches on with Atlanta Falcons and gains the starter's job there. Just perusing, I see he had 10 tackles and a forced fumble this week.

How do you cut that for Sergio Brown and Sterling Moore?

 

[mgteich]

I agree 100%. I would mention that Moore wasn't even here. Belichick chose Barrett and Brown over Sanders.

Ihedigbo was brought in with the idea that he could be a special teamer if he wasn't good enough for reps at safety. That was fine.

I still can't fathom the reasoning behind cutting James Sanders before the season.

That was the most unforgivable Belichick move in his entire tenure in New England. Was he slow? Yes. But he played the angles perfectly, made the big plays in crunch time and was lauded as a future leader by none other than Rodney Harrison in his rookie year.

Then there is that clip of a miked up Belichick last year congratulating him on the sidelines after he intercepted Manning to win the Colts game. "Now THAT'S a Champion! That's a TRUE champion!!!"

So, now he catches on with Atlanta Falcons and gains the starter's job there. Just perusing, I see he had 10 tackles and a forced fumble this week.

How do you cut that for Sergio Brown and Sterling Moore?

 

[Mainefan]

Good question, Shmessy. And I'll bet there's a good answer. We just don't know it.

 

[Triumph]

Its not any worse than it was with Merriweather.

I thought Barret was doing a decent job before going to IR. Ideghabo is doing OK for himself too.

S and CB are top draft needs though.

 

[Deus Irae]

I haven't gone through a year-by-year comparison, but I can't think of a worse group of safeties during BB's tenure off the top of my head.

 

[supafly]

Chung is injured. One must hope that he will be healthy for the playoffs.

Why??

We have guys back there who can tackle already.

We need someone who can actually, you know--defend the pass...

What exactly does Chung bring to this group besides experience? He can't cover worth a damn, he's absolutely pathetic. He's fast, and his tackling skills are very good. Other than that, he doesn't offer anything else that we don't already have.

I won't argue that he will be an improvement, and that his presence is needed, that'd be stupid. What I will ask is why Chung is so completely overrated by so many?

With McCourty and Chung back there, we can all hold all breath the whole game come playoff time. It's negative and unfortunate, but sadly it is true.

 

[Funktopus]

I still can't fathom the reasoning behind cutting James Sanders before the season.

Ditto on that. Remember when McGowan was looking good early last season, then not so good by mid-season. Who did BB turn to to settle things down.

 

[supafly]

Ditto on that. Remember when McGowan was looking good early last season, then not so good by mid-season. Who did BB turn to to settle things down.

Sanders had been a great role player and leader here, able to start in a pinch with no problem and QB the secondary.

His loss/release will be felt for awhile, in my opinion.

I can live with the rest of the 4 (Meri, Sanders, McGowan, Page) being cut or released/not signed, but there was no reason to cut Sanders this yr.

 

[Funktopus]

Sanders had been a great role player and leader here, able to start in a pinch with no problem and QB the secondary.

His loss/release will be felt for awhile, in my opinion.

I can live with the rest of the 4 (Meri, Sanders, McGowan, Page) being cut or released/not signed, but there was no reason to cut Sanders this yr.

Heh, almost like BB was trying to cure a dependence on competent mediocrity by sending Sanders away.

 

[supafly]

Heh, almost like BB was trying to cure a dependence on competent mediocrity by sending Sanders away.

What you say is probably true.

It seemed by many of the moves and the playoff game in January that Belichick was not too happy or impressed with the secondary.

I think he felt that youth, speed, and upside/potential would be a better choice than just 'ho hum Sanders.'

Unfortunately, it did not work out too well.

 

[goheels22002]

I haven't gone through a year-by-year comparison, but I can't think of a worse group of safeties during BB's tenure off the top of my head.

This is the least talented group since before Bill Parcells. If Sanders and Merriweather were still around to go along with Chung and the other guys, this would be a pretty decent group back there, even with Merriweather's tendency to freelance and get out of position from time to time.

This group just isn't physically capable of covering the space needed to defend over the top or to close rapidly enough to stop guys in the middle of the zone. The Steelers exploited the softness and slow-footedness of this group like no other team. Fortunately there are very few QBs in the AFC who can read and release to really torch this group.

 

[Palm Beach Pats Fan]

sometimes it seems this bad:

 

[PATRIOTSFANINPA]

Is Safety position Bad?......I think we all look like this watching them each sunday on TV

 

[Ivan]

I still can't fathom the reasoning behind cutting James Sanders before the season.

That was the most unforgivable Belichick move in his entire tenure in New England. Was he slow? Yes. But he played the angles perfectly, made the big plays in crunch time and was lauded as a future leader by none other than Rodney Harrison in his rookie year.

Then there is that clip of a miked up Belichick last year congratulating him on the sidelines after he intercepted Manning to win the Colts game. "Now THAT'S a Champion! That's a TRUE champion!!!"

So, now he catches on with Atlanta Falcons and gains the starter's job there. Just perusing, I see he had 10 tackles and a forced fumble this week.

How do you cut that for Sergio Brown and Sterling Moore?

Meriweather I understood but Sanders still confuses the hell out of me and the only thing i can come up with is that he had been calling the signals and running the secondary the past few seasons and Belichik wants Chung to be the voice on the field. There was a moment in the pre-season when there was a major breakdown where the secondary was standing in the end zone pointing fingers at each other and shortly afterwards Belichik released Sanders. I may be wrong but i can't come up with any other reason.

 

[Funktopus]

Meriweather I understood but Sanders still confuses the hell out of me and the only thing i can come up with is that he had been calling the signals and running the secondary the past few seasons and Belichik wants Chung to be the voice on the field. There was a moment in the pre-season when there was a major breakdown where the secondary was standing in the end zone pointing fingers at each other and shortly afterwards Belichik released Sanders. I may be wrong but i can't come up with any other reason.

There was an interesting (to me anyway) paragraph buried in Reiss's blog entry about Andre Carter this morning. Carter has fans on all sides - New England Patriots Blog - ESPN Boston

Ironically, if not for the lockout, Carter probably wouldn't be in New England as the shortened offseason was the reason Belichick switched from a base 3-4 defense to a 4-3, his thinking that there wouldn't be enough time to successfully implement a more complex scheme.

Is it possible that Sanders value is emphasized when the scheme is more complex? Therefore, a switch to a faster but less sophisticated player would be desirable in a simpler scheme?

 

[eom]

every thread I read on here about the secondary is littered with these sanders posts and the way I remember it is sanders was making a ton of dough for a nickel safety -- chung made him expendable, and his contract probably got him cut.

everybody crying about his 10 tackles must know he got those snaps due to an injury ahead of him, and bb's crystal ball probably didn't clue him into the chung injury when sanders was cut.
you don't keep a guy hanging around on the bench playing part time and waiting for an injury on that contract.

 

[Deus Irae]

every thread I read on here about the secondary is littered with these sanders posts and the way I remember it is sanders was making a ton of dough for a nickel safety -- chung made him expendable, and his contract probably got him cut.

everybody crying about his 10 tackles must know he got those snaps due to an injury ahead of him, and bb's crystal ball probably didn't clue him into the chung injury when sanders was cut.
you don't keep a guy hanging around on the bench playing part time and waiting for an injury on that contract.

So you think BB didn't expect any injuries, at all, with his safeties?

 

[eom]

btw, how is sanders helping us in coverage when he's an in the box hybrid s/lb?
8 of his tackles against houston were on their rb on a day when houston ran the ball 42x.

stop crying about sanders, plz.

 

[sbpatfan]

every thread I read on here about the secondary is littered with these sanders posts and the way I remember it is sanders was making a ton of dough for a nickel safety -- chung made him expendable, and his contract probably got him cut.

everybody crying about his 10 tackles must know he got those snaps due to an injury ahead of him, and bb's crystal ball probably didn't clue him into the chung injury when sanders was cut.
you don't keep a guy hanging around on the bench playing part time and waiting for an injury on that contract.

Do you mind explaining Shaun Ellis and Chad Ochosucko then?