SS Vonn Bell

Estimated average annual salary: $5.1 million

Projected compensatory pick: 6th round

There’s a very clear disparity in how safeties are paid in the NFL these days. Ball-hawking, wide-ranging free safeties who can cover broad parts of the field and intercept passes are setting the market with $14 million per-year salaries; think of players like Eddie Jackson, Kevin Byard, and Tyrann Mathieu — and soon, Marcus Williams. The box safeties who excel in run defense and tackles in the open field, doing their best work in traffic close to the line of scrimmage, are topping out around $7.5 million. That’s the high end of Bell’s projection, but it’s more likely he earns something more like the $5.1 million per year that Chuck Clark got. Bell’s only intercepted one pass in 66 career games (including the playoffs), and that may turn off suitors.

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