Brandon Meriweather is now an elite safety

patchick said:

Here's what impresses me most about Meriweather: he doesn't have elite speed. Physically, he's pretty ordinary. He's been giving the illusion of speed and making those plays out of nowhere by diagnosing situations and reacting brilliantly. He's the perfect illustration of the principle that the best way to get someplace fast is to make sure all of your steps are in the right direction.

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Reed's 40 - 4.57
Brandon - 4.47
troy p - 4.51


BW is fast for a saftey.. And he has great game speed. Its clearly getting better..

I agree with everything else

tombonneau said:

Right now I agree the bolded is the big differentiator. Once Meriweather is consistently making game-changing/winning plays (like the blitz sack end of last year) we can talk about graduating him to elite status.

But an elite safety makes that fingertip pick on the deflected pass. Not an easy play, but one an ELITE player makes.

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I think Polamula's pick against San Diego last year (the one handed scoop) may be the greatest INT I have ever seen. I'm a big fan of Meriweather, but he's not even close to being in the convo with Reed and Troy.

I do wonder if BB's admiration for Reed, and us not picking him and instead moving up for Graham ever factored into selecting Meriweather. Miami has turned out some pretty decent safeties.

Actually, if you compare stats of BW and TP for their first two years it's pretty similar. I looked at it a few days ago but after two years TP had like 2 more sacks and 1 more pick with BW having a couple more pass def. Either way, it was pretty close. BW might not be in TP's league at the moment but he is certainly on his way.

Patspsycho said:

Whether or not he is elite is not really important to me, only his impact on D is really meaningful.

Case in point: Mason has 6 catches for 77 yards on the first drive, then for the rest of the game he gets 1 rec. for 11 yards.

What happened?

Simply, the D went to split safety coverage which allowed CB's to play tight against receivers. This is the kind of trust BB has in Meriweather to handle Mason over the top in his half of the field.

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or the other side of the field too, LOL

Meriweather is not slow by any means, so I don't get where you'd get the impression that he lacked speed? 4.47 40 is fast for a safety.

2007 NFL Combine 40 Times- Day 6

As for whether or not BM is an elite safety, I don't know yet. He has certainly picked up his game this year. But does he look so good because he's making up for others mistakes *cough*sanders*cough* or is it just the natural maturation process? Could be some of both. I want to see more good play and CONSISTENCY from BM before I dub him 'elite'.

condon84 said:

I agree that Lott is probably the GOAT Safety. Awesome combination of pass and run defense. I think Polamalu is the closest as far as overall play. Ed Reed to me is just a freak. Kinda like Deon Sanders was a freak of a CB.

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Eh, I think Polamalu is great, but I also think hes terribly overrated. He's like Asante: He's a gambler. Makes some fantastic plays, but also gets burned quite a bit.

Meriweather is progressing well, but hes definitely not an elite saftey yet.

It depends on what scheme the safety is in... Ed Reed would probably be better than Meriweather in our scheme, but I'm pretty convinced that TP wouldn't. Like Synovia said before, he is a gambler.

Meriweather hasn't made many mistakes this year, and still has made some great plays.

Brandon is legit. He's very comfortable in his role, instinctive, speedy, and brings the wood. Our secondary plays like an elite secondary with him there and that's as good as I can ask for.

Yep, Lovin everything I see, can't wait till his name is mentioned as soon as top safety's convo comes up

Meriweather was making plays all over the field and must have led the team in dishing out big hits. He is making progress for sure. I wasn't sure what to think of him his first couple seasons

Meriweather is way better than I thought he'd be... but AS surprising is the rise of McGowan ! Really, nothing to put Sanders down either... can the three headed safety play (without even mentionning the Chung potential) be our strength now ?

crypto said:

Harrison was as good a player as Reed and Polamalu, in my opinion. He was one of the best inspirational defenders in history.

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Rodney was not as much of a ball hawk as Ed Reed but he hit significantly harder, no question, and in my mind he was just a more intimidating safety and harder hitting than even Polamalu. Rodney knew how to achieve maximum velocity and hit with all his weight. He flat took people out of games.

He also retired with some impressive numbers that might be hard for Polamalu to match.

Plenty of players said that Rodney was the hardest hitter in the game.

Meriweather is leading the team in total tackles with 28 -- 12 solo plus 16 assists. No one else on the team even has double digit assists, and indeed he's third in the league in assists and the only safety in the top 10.

What does it mean that he has so many assists? He's playing with great energy and is all over the field on every play. His excellent speed for a SS sure helps, but it's also about reaction time and commitment.

The INT's will come, although he'd get more opportunities if he were playing free safety, which you'd actually think he's perfectly suited for. Both Reed and Polamalu are FS's, btw. Sanders (Indy) is a SS.

Not to again take this thread off topic, but I think some fans have slightly hazy memories when it comes to Rodney Harrison. I know it's an increasingly "what have you done for me lately" world in which we live in, but Let's go over Rodney's career. Rodney retired after racking up 1198 tackles, 114 PD's, 30.5 sacks, 16 Forced Fumbles, and 34 INT's. Those are ridiculous statistics, and mirror my opinion that Rodney in his prime was among the best Safeties the NFL has ever seen. Let's compare some of his stats to one of todays "elite" Safeties, Troy Polamalu.

Rodney went over the 100 tackle mark seven times during his career, and three times during his first six years as a pro. Troy Polamalu has already played six seasons in the NFL, and has yet to even come close to totaling 100 tackles. Rodney's racking up those 120-138 tackle seasons shouldn't be overlooked either, as he wasn't the only elite member on those defenses, and wasn't simply cleaning up mistakes.

When it comes to game changing plays, Rodney had 22 INT's after seven seasons in the league. After having played six seasons (and one game), Polamalu has 18 INT's, and while his current injury hurts his ability to pass Rodney's early efforts, let's not forget that Rodney missed eleven games during his first seven years as a pro. This is also something to keep in mind when comparing Rodney's 16 sacks over seven years to Polamalu's current 7 sacks in six years. Troy would have to rack up 9 sacks by the end of the season to catch Rodney, and I don't see it happening.



Getting back to the topic at hand, Brandon's playing quite well, and has become a leader on New England's defense. I think he's heading in that direction, but he's not yet what I would call an "elite" safety. However, I will say that I haven't noticed many teams throwing directly toward Meriweather, which is a sign that his coverage is usually very good, and apposing teams know throwing it in his direction can be dangerous. That pass breakup on a would be TD to Mason was an outstanding play, as he diagnosed the pass, and got there faster than McGowan who was actually covering Mason's half.

I was so impressed that CBS and Phil Simms showed that replay of Brandon crossing across the field to knock down that long pass.Sanders just doesn't have the speed or athleticism to play FS in a cover 2 scheme.He's a SS,with good tackling skills,but,put him in space,he has very poor instincts.

Also,for those who might b-tch about the lack of interceptions,I believe Dean Pees and BB stress that,you can make the INT,but make damn sure you knock the ball down,as your first priority.
When Meriweather broke on that ball in the flat,he took the correct angle,but,wisely concluded that the speed of the pass made an interception ,an iffy propisition........good instincts.

patchick said:

Here's what impresses me most about Meriweather: he doesn't have elite speed. Physically, he's pretty ordinary. He's been giving the illusion of speed and making those plays out of nowhere by diagnosing situations and reacting brilliantly. He's the perfect illustration of the principle that the best way to get someplace fast is to make sure all of your steps are in the right direction.

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From day one I just saw him as a football player. He fell into the trap of bouncing off opposing players on tackles, but hasn't done that this year. Remember, he broke Benny Blades old records for solo tackles, and total tackles. When you are the record holder for tackles at the University of Miami, you have a nose for the ball. He's instinctive, has loose hips, and is a natural playmaker.

Willhite and Butler also seem to me to have loose hips. The fact that McGowan is one of the league's surprise free agent standout aquisitions, and I think the excitement is warranted.

BadMoFo said:

We're also seem to be forgetting Kerry Rhodes, and Reggue Nelson in Jax is having a similar type start to Meriweather.

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on top of Nelson (who i can't say i know how well he's playing) and meriweather, that draft class had a number of solid first round db's. Revis (Jersey Jets), Ross (Giants), Leon Hall (Cincy), Griffin (Tenn). i think those were all in that same class if my memory serves me well. not a bad crop.

As for Meriweather, let's stop with the lovey dovey stuff. remember what happens whenever a commentator on TV lauds a player on the field. they get hurt or don't play well (jinxed). so easy on the laudatory comments. or everyone on the board be sure to knock on wood.

I had a more elegant reply but I closed the window by mistake... summary, Merriweather is good, not great. He is playing with a lot of confidence and getting better, held back by his bad hands and lack of mass (gets pushed back).
Solid player, take him as a starter any day of the week.

List of current NFL team rosters - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

My List of good (and great safeties):
Polamalu, Reed, Sanders (if healthy), Landry, Adrian Wilson
Whitner, Rhodes, Hope, Phillips, Sharper, Atogwe, Merriweather

and a whole lot of JAGs, have to admit I mostly watch the Patriots.

VJCPatriot said:

Meriweather is not slow by any means, so I don't get where you'd get the impression that he lacked speed? 4.47 40 is fast for a safety.

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I never said he was slow, just that "he doesn't have elite speed." Which he certainly doesn't, given that he weighs all of 195 lbs. 4.47 for a 195-lb. DB is nothing extraordinary -- it's Eugene Wilson numbers. When I think about safeties with "elite speed" I think of guys like Bob Sanders at 204/4.35 or Nick Collins at 206/4.36 LaRon Landry at 213/4.35.

That's why when I hear people marveling over Meriweather's speed, I take it as a tribute to his alert and instinctive play.