ESPN: Titans Safety Michael Griffin expected to be tagged

[Crazy Patriot Guy]

[]Tennessee Titans likely to franchise safety Michael Griffin, according to source - ESPN

I know we have a thread for franchise tags but considering Branch and Goldson are already off the market and we're heading into a draft with little to offer at the safety position, I figured this would get a lot of discussion.

It certainly gets tricky now. With the overall talent left in free agency at that spot, it will be tough to sign anyone without being forced to overspend. (similar to re-signing Bodden)

 

[supafly]

It's more than possible that (unfortunately) our safety core may be improved via the draft and a low level castoff/cut FA signing.

We'd then go into the season with:

--Chung
--McCourty for subs ?
--low level vet/maybe even a chance on a guy like Dawkins/Landry or similar
--Ihedigbo as a 4th safety/situational guy
--high draft pick (first 2 rounds) to battle it out with the vet pickup

(probably a 5-6 safety, since DMcC will be classified as a CB still--that would be a guy like Barrett/Brown etc)

It may not be ideal, it actually may look pathetic to many; but the bottom line is that the position should still be improved. We saw it improved a bit as the season went on.

The improvements would be hopefully made by:

--another yr of McCourty's knowledge at the position, even though he would only be rotational and probably wouldn't play in 'all' sub-packages. Regardless, he should improve over his play there last year

--a young rookie for speed, depth, and competition. It may take a full yr before any kind of contribution is truly made that is very beneficial

--a vet who has some of the qualities that BB will look for, even though it won't be the big name that we'd hoped for. Our coach will likely be looking for decent value here, and feel as though the said player is an upgrade at the position

--another yr of knowledge and improvement from Ihedigbo, if he returns. While we wasn't anything spectacular, he filled in decently at times as an average JAG role player. What we don't wanna see is his presence on most downs. Either way, it may not be a huge stretch to think that he can get better with a full off-season, mini-camps/TC and improved cohesion with the unit and Belichick

--Guys like Barrett and Brown etc are wild-cards, but there must have been something that BB liked about them in the first place

I suppose to wrap it up, it's still possible to make an improvement at the position without the kind of guy that most are assuming for whatever reason, that we'd get. Personally, I wasn't too sure that a guy like Griffen or Goldson would end up here, so it would be as much of a let-down for me personally.

All in all, one of the big name FA guys would be great, but they all have their pluses and minuses, so we'll have to trust Belichick in this case. It can't be as bad as it was last yr, and they should have won the SB.

 

[Wilfork#75]

To be honests, taking all things into consideration, I would prefer his teammate Jordan Babineaux anyway. I don't like any of the high priced FA's this year and the draft is incredibly weak. I would move McCourty to FS full time, draft another big, physical CB to pair with Ras-I and sign a cheap vet like Babineaux to add depth at safety.

 

[supafly]

To be honests, taking all things into consideration, I would prefer his teammate Jordan Babineaux anyway. I don't like any of the high priced FA's this year and the draft is incredibly weak. I would move McCourty to FS full time, draft another big, physical CB to pair with Ras-I and sign a cheap vet like Babineaux to add depth at safety.

And a route such as the one you mentioned may very well be the way they go.

In the infamous words of Richard Seymour regarding the 2008 season, "there's more than one way to skin a cat."

 

[Fencer]

If everybody's healthy, our four best DBs will probably be Chung, Dowling, McCourty, and Arrington, in some order. Having all four play in the base package is fine by me.

 

[UK_Pat37]

The safety position is getting weaker by the day in free agency. I'm high on the Pats picking players like Dennard or Trumaine Johnson who project nicely at safety as well as a little corner. If people can stay healthy I wouldn't be overly concerned. IMO we need a more consistent pass rush.

 

[supafly]

The safety position is getting weaker by the day in free agency. I'm high on the Pats picking players like Dennard or Trumaine Johnson who project nicely at safety as well as a little corner. If people can stay healthy I wouldn't be overly concerned. IMO we need a more consistent pass rush.

Yes, the position of safety is probably not too hot right now as far as upper-echelon free agents.

However, I am pretty confident that Belichick can possibly find someone who did not attract a lot of attention during the past few weeks, and that person can still come in and contribute effectively.

Another way to go is targeting the CB spot with a potential FA (such as Marshall etc), and that would trickle down to the safety spot too.

Regardless, a draft pick is probably in the works also at one of the positions.

 

[patsfan-1982]

could see #32 at FS full time next year if there is no upgrade

 

[patsinthesnow]

And now Dwight Lowery is the #1 FA available.........

Ihedigbo needs to be sign cheap for emergency backup fail plan.

Edit: Really, when you look at the available FAs and the draft, it's almost a given FS will be a hole in 2012.

 

[Rob0729]

Not surprising. Forget free agency and the draft, there are just very few good safeties in the league these days. Ironically with the growing impact of TEs through out the leagues, the NFL is at a low in terms of safety talent. You look around the league and few teams have one good safety never mind two. Even some of the elite safeties had bad years last year.

I would consider Dwight Lowrey (although LaRon Landry is now the top safety in free agency, not him). In his first year at safety, he did pretty well. The Jets were stupid to let him go.

I would stay away from Landry because of his injury history. He is a lite version of Bob Sanders just a little less talented and injury prone.

One out of the box consideration is Richard Marshall from the Cards. He is a CB, but actually played really well filling in at safety for Kerry Rhodes when he was injured. You could platoon him and McCourty at both positions (although I am still holding out hope that McCourty rebounds after a sophomore slump).

 

[Rob0729]

And now Dwight Lowery is the #1 FA available.........

Ihedigbo needs to be sign cheap for emergency backup fail plan.

Edit: Really, when you look at the available FAs and the draft, it's almost a given FS will be a hole in 2012.

Way too early to say it is almost a given FS will be a hole. A lot of things can happen. A lot of times, the difference between a good secondary and a bad one is the front seven. If the Pats can improve their ability to pressure the QB, the secondary could improve exponentially without making a single upgrade.

 

[JackBauer]

As Rob said, this is pretty much reflective of the lack of safety talent across the league, as Griffin isn't even that great of a player.

I would love us to sign Marshall, whether for CB or a transition to S.

LaRon Landry might be the top safety left on the market, but he's on some serious PEDs and might be even more of an injury risk now as a result. Not to mention the fact that he's too top heavy to be the cover safety we need back the next to Chung.

 

[makoute]

I would've like for the Pats to take a look at this guy. Guess that is off the table for now.

 

[patsinthesnow]

Lowery is the best choice left for FS. (Landry is a SS, is injury prone, and the photos of him scare the crap out of me, something is wrong in that guy's head.)

If the Pats can't obtain him, I wouldn't trust a rookie safety, except Barron, but he isnt really a FS and will go too high.

The Pats best defensive choice out of what they have IMO would be: Mccourty/Dowling, Arrington in the slot, Chung at SS and Moore at FS. I trust Mccourty to bounce back and he wasn't that good of a safety. Moore played every snap at FS in our biggest regular season game (@Jets).

EDIT: Rob, good point about the front seven, although I thought our front seven played well at times.

 

[patsderoer]

If there's such a shortage of good safeties, the Pats could look at safeties that went undrafted in the past. A good one went undrafted in 2010.

Matt O'Hanlon top 12 safety 2010 draft class - YouTube

Matt O'Hanlon - Huskers.com - Nebraska Athletics Official Web Site
O'Hanlon ranked as the team leader in interceptions and among the top five Blackshirt tacklers in 2009.

O'Hanlon totaled 69 tackles, including 39 solo stops and a pair of tackles for loss. He had at least four tackles in 13 of 14 games during his senior season, helping the Huskers lead the nation in scoring defense and pass efficiency defense, while also ranking in the top 10 in rushing and total defense. His play earned O'Hanlon honorable-mention All-Big 12 honors.

O'Hanlon's six interceptions led the team and were the most by a Husker since 2003. He also ranked second in the Big 12, and among the top 20 nationally in interceptions. His ball-hawking skills helped Nebraska to 20 interceptions, good for seventh nationally. In addition to the interception total Nebraska held 10 opponents to 50 percent or less in the passing game and allowed just seven passing touchdowns.

Could bring this guy to training camp to see what he can do.

 

[supafly]

As Rob said, this is pretty much reflective of the lack of safety talent across the league, as Griffin isn't even that great of a player.

I would love us to sign Marshall, whether for CB or a transition to S.

LaRon Landry might be the top safety left on the market, but he's on some serious PEDs and might be even more of an injury risk now as a result. Not to mention the fact that he's too top heavy to be the cover safety we need back the next to Chung.

I couldn't agree with you (or Rob) more.

The thought of a guy like Richard Marshall or maybe even Eric Wright would go a long way towards solving this problem.

The position will get better, whether they are forced to platoon McCourty there again, or they take a high draft pick, or another decent secondary signing.

I'm not sure why people are assuming that all of these top tiered FA's would have actually ended up here in the first place.