Matt Elam?

KontradictioN said:

I was way off on him. I thought he was going to be the next great NFL safety but he's just another example of a great college player that simply can't hack it in the pros.

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Meanwhile Tavon Wilson is in his 4th season on the World Champs and a leader on STs.

AzPatsFan said:

Meanwhile Tavon Wilson is in his 4th season on the World Champs and a leader on STs.

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still doesn't justify the 2nd round pick wasted on him.

Gronkowski123 said:

still doesn't justify the 2nd round pick wasted on him.

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Noted. But some people blame Wilson and will soon blame Richards for nothing that they did. It is just a way to criticize GM Belichick, which several exhaustive analyses, not including 13 consecutive winning seasons, prove otherwise. The results indicate he has done pretty well as a talent evaluator, as well as a Head Coach.

http://www.cbssports.com/nfl/eye-on...ety-matt-elam-out-for-season-with-torn-biceps

https://twitter.com/Edwerderespn/status/628287615284969473

Patriot Missile said:

Safety is becoming a hard position to evaluate. We've seen a lot of early round picks either not pan out or bust. Then you see 5th rounders like Chancelor or converted cbs like McCourty shine. Right now Harmon is a better option than Elam or Swearinger. At least imo anyway.

Really interested to see how Richards pans out.

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I'm wondering if the difficulty in evaluating safeties has come about recently because, with the newer NFL rules regarding receiver contact, their job has become exponentially harder. In the earlier part of the decade, CB's could more liberally jam receivers. Not only did this result in fewer plays getting to the safeties, but it increases the time it takes for a receiver to get deep, which means safeties were less often responsible for covering deep balls. This, combined with laxer rules on hitting defenseless receivers, meant that your safeties really just needed to hit hard and cover in the box. Sure, guys like Ed Reed could do it all, but you didn't NEED that player, it was a luxury to have.

Now safeties have to routinely cover deeper routes, and have to play tighter coverage since their options for jarring the ball loose after a catch are limited for player safety. It almost feels like an impossible job to be good at consistently.

I think that reasoning is a little specious, as players in all positions bust, and while you cite chancellor, we ignore similar with Sea corners, or 3rd round qb.

If safety is a little tougher to evaluate it could be because they're asked to do different jobs, so you might not see them in the situation you use them, and I think the position is maybe more interwoven to the unit than some other more 'mano a mano' positions.
Also, maybe bigger part of game is above neck, so tougher to measure

Sicilian said:

This, combined with laxer rules on hitting defenseless receivers, meant that your safeties really just needed to hit hard and cover in the box.

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Hmm, I am thinking that was sort of the problem with Big Bang Clock...the game changed after we drafted him.

Quaterbacks throw so many 50/50 balls now 5ft9 safeties have no place in the National Football league I was thinking try to make him a Nickelback because from a physical standpoint that should be his niche.
I wouldn't want a range safety to play deep field who is under 6ft unless they have a hell of a verical.