Which team has the best starting Safeties?

[5 Rings for Brady!!]

Remix6: If we are going to stick with this year to stay strictly on topic, I have trouble putting Rodney anywhere on the list until he is proven to be healthy. If he spends 6 weeks on IR and returns as the #5 safety for the rest of the year, that makes him maybe #20 overall, because he misses 6 games. I think the idea of Rodney at #5 this year is not going to be accurate, and it seems to be so speculative as to not provide much insight. I just can't think of a way of ranking Rodney for this upcoming season without making some really wild guesses.

I think #5 for Rodney is probably a really, really best case scenario at this point. I will be thrilled as hell if he is #5 overall for a whole season next year. It would be an amazing physical feat.

One way of looking at it, however, would be if Tebucky (Sanders) plays good for a while and then Rodney comes in and replaces him (or swap T-Buck with Geno), and the overall position ends up at #5 cumulatively. But that is also way speculative. I think we have to look at our total depth to rate our safety position this year, and not consider Rodney as the most likely starter from week 1.

 

[Bostonian1962]

Am I the only guy that thinks Troy Palamalu is seriously overrated?

I don't think his cover skills or his hands are anything out of the ordinary, and I don't think he hits harder than a Rodney or Lynch.

I just think that people want to talk him up a bit because he is on the defense which was #1 before he got there, and will probably be #1 after he is gone.

He is a solid player, but I think that he gets a lot of hype and I'm not sure I would put him at #2 on the list. The Steelers have a lot of things working well on their defense, and I think a few safeties would look good back there.

5 Rings, you are not the only one. I haven't said anything, because he improved alot last year over the year before, and I wanted to wait. His hype is better than his play. Oh, he's an excellent player, but not the first or second best in the league, like I hear many say.

 

[atlpatsfan]

I don't think he is over rated at all. I don't watch any other teams players very closely...but I have seen a few Pitt games and he is one of the few players I actually enjoy watching on the squeelers. The guy is everywhere making plays, and I am not talking about the "Ray Lewis" pile on celebration plays either. I also don't think he gets crazy with the "celebrations" either which I like. Not sure if he hits hard, I seem to remeber a few good hits...of course not like Rodney but few do so I'm not holding anybody to Rodneys standard of a hard hit as that isn't fair as that is far and away his calling card.

I think he is a great hitter but he gets burned deep WAY to often for a safety. His cover skills are getting better but still not good enough to make the top 5.

 

[5 Rings for Brady!!]

I don't want to imply that Troy is not solid, I just look at the gold standard of safety play, which lately, has been Rodney, and Troy to me is just another of several hard hitting safeties with fairly good instincts and hands.

The media is going to put him at number one from now on, I believe, as soon as they grow tired of hyping Ed Reed. Ed Reed might have the cover skills to play cornerback, but he is far from being an intimidator on defense.

 

[shakadave]

1. Ed Reed (Deserved)
2. Polamalu (Probably deserved)
3.Brian Dawkins
4.Darius
5.Rodney:rocker: (If still in his prime, wouldn't trade for any of the above)
6.Sharper
7.Lynch (I'd put him closer to #11.)
8.Roy Williams
9.bob Sanders (Unlike other posters, I'd put him around #7.)
10.Archuleta (I'd put around #16.)
11. Adrian Wilson
12. Mike Brown
13.Chavous
14.tony Parrish
15.Michael Lewis
16.Gino:rocker:
17.Sean Taylor (We'll see --- single digits in a year.)
18.Michael Boulware
19.Dwight Smith
20.Chris Hope

(comments in parentheses above)

 

[VJCPatriot]

I think Polamalu IS a key to the Steelers defense. Their secondary was terrible and picked on all the time before they drafted Polamalu and made other moves to shore up that defensive backfield. Let's just say if the Steelers hadn't upgraded their secondary and also have Polamalu back there I don't think they beat out the Colts in 2005, even with their very solid front 7.

That being said I agree that Polamalu looks like he can be beat in coverage at times and he doesn't seem to hit as hard as Harrison. But he does have the advantage of being younger and not coming off injury. So I think Rodney is ranked about where he should be. I think the perhaps overly high ranking on Polamalu is due to those factors and probably the fact they want to give some props to a player on the championship team.

 

[Mike the Brit]

I think Polamalu IS a key to the Steelers defense. Their secondary was terrible and picked on all the time before they drafted Polamalu and made other moves to shore up that defensive backfield. Let's just say if the Steelers hadn't upgraded their secondary and also have Polamalu back there I don't think they beat out the Colts in 2005, even with their very solid front 7.

That being said I agree that Polamalu looks like he can be beat in coverage at times and he doesn't seem to hit as hard as Harrison. But he does have the advantage of being younger and not coming off injury. So I think Rodney is ranked about where he should be. I think the perhaps overly high ranking on Polamalu is due to those factors and probably the fact they want to give some props to a player on the championship team.

Yes, that's the point!

Polamalu looks great for the Steelers. Their defense is based around flexibility -- weird blitzes and stunts from unexpected directions. All of which means that you have to have people who are able to do what they might not be best at. And Polamalu's all-round ability coupled with his amazing mobility makes him very valuable for them. You only have to look at how the secondary turned around after he was drafted.

How great he is taken out of context, it's hard to say.

 

[primetime]

I think he is a great hitter but he gets burned deep WAY to often for a safety. His cover skills are getting better but still not good enough to make the top 5.

The same could be said about Roy Williams, except he has no cover skills at all and is simply the product of so much hype. Sean Taylor is ridiculously low on this list. At least everyone agrees Ed Reed is the best (and the best defensive player in the league, in my opinion).