"For what the Patriots need, they don’t need Ed Reed. They need an Adrian Wilson,” Harrison said. “They don’t need a free safety that can intercept balls. They have that.
Devin McCourty is that Ed Reed [role]. He doesn’t have that name behind him."
http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.co...-thinks-pats-got-it-right-with-adrian-wilson/
Actually, bruh, it just could be that Rodney has got it wrong. Rodney probably will never get into the HOF because of his pre-Patriots rep, but he's qualified. However, even though he's less than 10 years out of the league, the fact is that he played in what amounts to another era. If the game was still played the way it was when he played it, Rodney would be exactly right, and maybe some 6'3 220lb guy would be competing for a SS job.
But the game just isn't played the same way these days. Having a SS's skills like size, big hitting, strong play against the run, and the ability to cover plodding TE's and FB's out of the backfield, just doesn't cut it these days. Speed and quickness are paramount now. Skills that would allow a player like Rodney thrive, now would make him a liability in certain situations. In today's game, BOTH safeties have to be able to cover well, have a lot of range, and be able to play well in open space.
Back in the day (which isn't too long ago) you could protect the prototypical SS and give him reasonable match ups most of the time. Believe me, as good as Rodney was, he was never asked to cover the likes of Gronk, Graham, or any of the other TE's team have to threaten the seams EVERY week in today's game.
Back then there were just a couple of TE's in the league who threaten the seams, but today almost every team in the league has one or more.
BB knows this and started looking for "this guy" going all the back to the Merriweather pick, to find that guy who can do both things. So he started looking at guys who played BOTH safety and CB in college. Guys who have a little more size than most CB's, but NOT true SS size. That describes Wilson, Harmon, Chung, Merriweather and the first Wilso etc. All were Safeties who had some CB skills, He is like Ahab looking for that white whale. We saw him do the same thing with TE's before he struck gold with Hernandez and Gronk.
I'm not saying he found the right guy yet, but he has the prototype in mind and if he doesn't find it in this group, he will keep on looking. But understand what he's looking for clearly isn't what guys like Adrian Wilson had to offer
