How Bad Off Are We At Safety? Tank W.?

[mgteich]

SAFETY - THE ALTERNATIVE VIEW DEPENDING ON TANK WILLIAMS
Belichick may take a different view than we do. After all, we have our starting safeties signed through the 2011 season, hardly a current need with Belichick being well-satisfied with both players, even if posters aren't.

STARTERS
Meriweather and Sanders are young and signed though 2011. They will both likely get better as the corners improve their play and the linebacker corps is upgraded. Could one of these be upgraded by a rookie this year or in the rookie's second year? Sure! But that is true of any player not named Brady, Wilfork, Moss, Welker, Mayo or Gostkowski. Perhaps Belichick isn't looking to upgrading these starters as a high priority.

BACKUP FREE SAFETY
We have a backup FS/S signed though 2011, Shawn Springs. We also have Spann who seemed to play OK when he had the opportunity.

BACKUP STRONG SAFETY
Didn't we sign one of those in Tank Williams? Are we writing him off? Doesn't he hit hard enough? Isn't he big enough at 6'2" and 223? Yes, he was injured last year, but so was Brady. Just maybe, Tank Williams can be counted on to be our number FOUR safety, our backup SS. Do you expect us to cut Williams?

BOTTOM LINE
We have Hobbs, Bodden, Wheatley and Wilhite at the corners.
We have Meriweather, Sanders, Williams and Spann at the safeties.
We have Springs as the swing C/S.
Nine roster spots seems reasonable for the secondary.

This alternative views suggests that maybe we might draft a corner rather than a safety or perhaps just a free safety to upgrade Spann

 

[supafly]

I tend to be in somewhat of a minority, but I feel we will address CB first. It's obviously just an opinion/guess, but I think we have more of a luxury for BPA than some others here, and feel as though CB needs to be addressed for the future--next yr +.

Safety will be addressed also of course, but overall, there may be a better overall athlete first in the position of CB before S. Again, just an opinion, but I think that Safety comes somewhere between (rds 2-4), and the same with CB (2-4) depending on BPA. I also think that we'll take another Safety somewhere later on (4-7).

Hobbs will surely be gone, as someone else will throw bigger money at him. The 2 sophomores Wheatley, and Wilhite will hopefully improve to where at least one could step into a starting role for next yr. That leaves Bodden, who is somewhat of a question mark in my opinion for staying past this yr too. When you add in the injury bug we're usually unluckily faced with in the secondary specifically, that could mean losing 2 or 3 CB's by next yr. More importantly, it could leave us without a clear cut #1.

A shutdown CB is very important, particularly in our system--regardless of opinion. The numbers speak for themselves. When we had Ty Law we won Super Bowls, when we had Asante, (as a shutdown corner in his last 2 yrs) we went to the AFCCG, and had a 16-0 season losing the Super Bowl. All we have done with the position so far, is improved from last year. We have added depth and spot competition, which is important. But we will arguably lose our best CB next yr, so it does need addressed more than people are realizing. Bottom line, we need that big time shutdown CB, and there is a plethora of candidates all the way up to #47 or even #58 maybe.