Tag: safety

Ex-Broncos safety Rahim Moore records INT in first XFL game

Former Broncos safety Rahim Moore grabbed an interception in his first game in the XFL.

Former Broncos safety Rahim Moore was cut by the DC Defenders when XFL teams trimmed their rosters from 71 players down to 52 players in January. After that, Moore was signed by the Tampa Bay Vipers.

It’s unclear what happened from there but somehow Moore ended back on the Defenders’ roster before Week 1. Either the safety was cut by Tampa Bay and ended up back in Washington, D.C. or the Defenders worked out a trade to acquire a player they had already released.

Making his XFL debut (for DC) against the Seattle Dragons on Saturday, Moore totaled three tackles and one interception. He also broke up a pass. Here is Moore’s interception in the second quarter:

DC went on to defeat Seattle 31-19 in the XFL’s first game of 2020.

Moore (6-1, 200 pounds) was selected by the Broncos in the second round of the 2011 NFL draft out of UCLA. He spent the first four years of his career in Denver and then had brief stints with the Texans, Browns and Giants.

Moore played in the now-defunct AAF with the Arizona Hotshots last year. The 29-year-old safety has now recorded 10 interceptions as a pro.

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Texas offers 2022 Defensive Back

Bryan Allen Jr. out of Aledo, TX is the latest player to receiving an offer from UT. Playing for Aledo, Allen will continue to get looks.

Bryan Allen Jr. out of Aledo, TX is the latest player to receiving an offer from the Longhorns. The 5 feet 11-inch safety is the third player Texas has offered at the position, all from within the state.

Currently unranked on 247Sports, Allen is starting to rack up offers from a few Big 12 schools. Baylor, Kansas, Oklahoma, and Oklahoma State have given offers to him, while non-Power 5 schools Houston and Illinois State have also reached out.

Allen had an outstanding sophomore season, totaling 112 tackles. When he was not bringing down offensive players, Allen was forcing turnovers. Having three interceptions of the season, he also forced two fumbles. If he was not forcing them, he was recovering fumbles, having three recoveries, two for touchdowns.

Playing for one of the best high school teams in the state with Aledo, Allen will continue to get looks as the 2022 recruiting rankings start to pour in.

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Texas offers top 2022 player from Kansas

Texas has offered four-star ATH Dasan McCullough. Ranked a four-star prospect, he is the top-rated player in the class to come out of Kansas.

The Longhorns have offered 2022 athlete Dasan McCullough out of Leawood, Kansas. Ranked a four-star prospect by 247Sports, he is the top-rated player in the class to come out of the state of Kansas. Coming in at 6 feet 4 inches and 205 pounds, McCullough’s main position at Blue Valley North High School is safety.

If McCullough were to sign with the Longhorns, he would be the highest-rated recruit from the state of Kansas to ever play at Texas. Linebacker Gary Johnson who played two seasons in 2017 and 2018 was recruited from Dodge City Community College in Kansas but was originally from Birmingham, AL.

Kansas and Oklahoma are the only other two Big 12 schools to offer McCullough. Alabama, Georgia, Florida, and LSU from the SEC have also reached out, while other big-time programs like Florida State, Michigan, and Oregon have also offered him.

Over the next two recruiting cycles, the Longhorns have already offered six other safeties. If McCullough were to stay at the position, he would just add to the possible depth for Texas.

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Dennis Smith will present Steve Atwater at Hall of Fame ceremony

Dennis Smith will serve at Steve Atwater’s presenter during the 2020 Pro Football Hall of Fame induction ceremony.

Dennis Smith was an established veteran with two Pro Bowl nods and two first-team All-Pro selections when the Broncos drafted Steve Atwater in the first round of the 1989 NFL draft. Smith quickly became a mentor for Atwater and the two safeties became one of the best DB duos in the NFL.

Smith and Atwater combined to record 54 interceptions and 20 sacks during their careers, earning 14 Pro Bowl selections along the way. Both players are now in the Broncos’ Ring of Fame.

After being voted into to the Pro Football Hall of Fame last week, Atwater revealed during a press conference Thursday that Smith will serve as his presenter in Canton, Ohio next summer.

“Dennis was the guy I had in my mind all along just because when I came into the league, he really spent a lot of time getting me up to speed and sharing things with me as a player that I never would have known,” Atwater said. “How to go about the game, the right mindset to have, and then just watching him play.

“Seeing how fast he played and how fearless he was when he went in to make tackles or make an interception when he covered one on one. He was great in man-to-man coverage, too. He played some slot corner for a while as a 6-3, 205-pound safety. That takes some skills to do that.”

Atwater is the eighth Bronco to enter the Hall of Fame and he hopes that Smith will one day join him. If not for Smith, Atwater might not be Canton-bound himself.

“I just learned so much from him,” Atwater said. “It’s a small way for me to say thank you for how much time he spent getting me up to speed and inspiring me. Just watching him play, it was inspiring.”

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Justin Simmons ranked No. 17 on PFF’s Top 101 players list

Broncos safety Justin Simmons is among the 20 best players in the NFL, according to Pro Football Focus.

Pro Football Focus, a website that tracks advanced NFL stats and grades players on a 0-to-100 scale, has been rolling out their Top 101 players list from the 2019 NFL season. Broncos safety Justin Simmons is ranked No. 17 on the list.

“He was particularly impactful in coverage, where he had four interceptions and 11 pass breakups, the most combined forced incompletions of any safety this season,” PFF’s Sam Monson wrote.

Simmons is scheduled to become an unrestricted free agent in March and Denver hopes to re-sign him to a multi-year contract.

Simmons is the third and final Broncos player on the list, joining inside linebacker Alexander Johnson (No. 46) and wide receiver Courtland Sutton (No. 69). Last year, outside linebacker Von Miller (No. 11) and cornerback Chris Harris (No. 23) were Denver’s only players on PFF’s Top 50 list. Miller and Harris did not make the Top 101 list this year.

To view PFF’s complete list of Top 101 NFL players, click here.

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Todd McShay mock draft 2.0 has Cowboys choosing Xavier McKinney over Grant Delpit

The Cowboys need help at the safety position, but ESPN’s Todd McShay thinks they’ll bypass the one most fans are clamoring for.

Grant Delpit got all the safety love, it seemed, from NFL teams who closed out 2019 looking to bolster their back ends in 2020. Playing for the national champs certainly helped catapult the two-time consensus All-America selection and Jim Thorpe Award winner into the spotlight. Even causal fans who may have tuned to see what all the Joe Burrow fuss was about probably came away impressed by the ballhawking defensive back who’ll certainly be a first-round talent come April.

Draft guru Todd McShay, in his most-recently-updated mock (paywall), indeed thinks Dallas will go with an SEC safety to provide the team some much-needed secondary help. But with the 17th overall pick, he has the Cowboys zigging when everyone expects them to zag.

Xavier McKinney, S, Alabama

Jerry Jones has quite an offseason ahead of him. Dak Prescott, Amari Cooper, Robert Quinn and Byron Jones headline a talented — and expensive — list of players headed toward free agency. If cornerback Jones is one of the odd men out, a secondary that mostly held passing offenses at bay but struggled to produce takeaways gets weaker. And the Cowboys have needed a safety since the days when Roy Williams and Darren Woodson roamed the defensive backfield. McKinney has some range as a deep safety — he pulled in three interceptions on the back end for Bama last season.

McShay believes the Cowboys will actually pass on Delpit, leaving him on the board to land in New England with the 23rd pick.

McKinney, bidding farewell to Tuscaloosa as a junior, is listed as a 6-foot-1-inch 200-pounder. He played in 13 games as a true freshman coming out of Roswell, Georgia. He became a starter for the Crimson Tide as a sophomore and ended the season as MVP of the 2018 Orange Bowl. Last season, he recorded 95 tackles, 3 sacks, and 4 forced fumbles to go with his three interceptions. He was named first-team All-SEC for those efforts.

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It’s about time Steve Atwater made the Hall of Fame

Steve Atwater wasn’t known for this time with the Jets but still had a long and fruitful career in the defensive backfield.

It took 16 years, but “The Smiling Assassin” will finally grin forever in Canton.

Steve Atwater, the former Broncos and Jets safety, joined the class of 2020 as a Pro Football Hall of Famer 21 years after he retired from the league. Atwater made his hay as one of the hardest hitting safeties of the 1990s, terrifying offenses at the line of scrimmage and stopping even the mightiest of running backs.

Though he only played one nondescript season with the Jets, Atwater rightfully deserved the Hall of Fame induction after 16 years of eligibility and three as a finalist. Atwater retired the year after he signed with the Jets as a free agent in 1999, a season in which he only played 12 games and tallied just 63 total tackles and one forced fumble.

Atwater didn’t bring pain and terror to the Jets defense, but he racked up stats and accolades during his 10-year career with the Broncos. He earned eight Pro Bowl nods, two All-Pro selections, won two Super Bowls and registered 1,000 tackles, 24 interceptions, five sacks, five forced fumbles and eight fumble recoveries.

The Broncos used Atwater the way a lot of big-bodied safeties play now – at the line of scrimmage. There, he crushed running backs and played a pivotal role in the Broncos’ run defense. Two moments encapsulate Atwater’s career: His devastating hit on Chiefs running back Christian Okoye and his dominating performance in Super Bowl XXXII.

Atwater somehow derailed Okoye in Week 2 of the 1990 season, a feat now many could accomplish given Okoye’s 6-foot-1, 260-pound frame. At 6-foot-3, 218 pounds, Atwater proved himself up to the task. Atwater played a pivotal role in the Broncos’ first of two consecutive Super Bowl wins. He terrorized the Green Bay Packers offense in Super Bowl XXXII with six solo tackles, two sacks and a forced fumble. 

Once his career concluded in Denver, Atwater joined the Bill Parcells-led Jets in 1999. Atwater played alongside Victor Green in the deep secondary with cornerbacks Marcus Coleman and Aaron Glen on the outside. The Jets went 8-8 in Parcells’ first year in New York and Atwater finished sixth on the team in total tackles with 63.

Atwater paved the way for safeties like Ed Reed, Brian Dawkins and Landon Collins to become staples of the defenses as imposing defensive backs. He won’t be remembered for his time with the Jets, but Atwater’s career as a whole certainly deserved Hall of Fame recognition.

Texas Longhorns Offer 2021 Four-Star Safety

The Texas Longhorns have made their fourth offer to a four-star safety of the 2021 recruiting class. Kaine Williams of Marrero, Louisiana.

The third-rated safety in the state of Louisiana, Kaine Williams has picked up an offer from the University of Texas. Williams becomes the fourth safety to be offered a scholarship from Texas and the highest rated of the four. Williams could come in and challenge for playing time immediately.

Williams is a ball-hawk that the Longhorns defense could definitely use to help out their defense. He can be dangerous after the change of possession as he looks to score and a very solid tackler as well. Most analysts are projecting him to Louisiana State but it would be a huge get for Tom Herman if they could sway the safety to patrol the secondary in Austin.

John Lynch snubbed by Pro Football Hall of Fame

John Lynch is not part of the 2020 Pro Football Hall of Fame class.

Broncos safety Steve Atwater is part of this year’s Pro Football Hall of Fame class but fellow safety John Lynch will have to wait at least one more year to be enshrined in Canton, Ohio.

Lynch is one of just seven players in NFL history who made at least four Pro Bowls with two different teams (Buccaneers and Denver). He made the league’s All-Star Game in each of the four seasons he played with the Broncos.

During his 15-year career, Lynch totaled more than 1,000 tackles, 13 sacks, 26 interceptions and 10 forced fumbles. One of the hardest-hitting safeties of his era, Lynch now serves as the 49ers’ general manager.

Lynch was named the 2019 PFWA Executive of the Year after San Francisco advanced to Super Bowl LIV. Lynch’s 49ers will take on the Chiefs in the Super Bowl on Sunday afternoon.

A Super Bowl champion and nine-time Pro Bowler, Lynch is hoping to one day join the eight ex-Broncos already in Canton: Atwater, quarterback John Elway, running back Floyd Little, tight end Shannon Sharpe, offensive lineman Gary Zimmerman, running back Terrell Davis, cornerback Champ Bailey and late club owner Pat Bowlen.

Former defensive backs Willie Brown and Brian Dawkins are also in the Hall of Fame but they are best-known for their careers outside of Denver.

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Broncos legend Steve Atwater voted into Pro Football Hall of Fame

Broncos safety Steve Atwater has been voted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame!

Denver Broncos legend Steve Atwater was voted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame on Saturday.

Atwater is one of just two position players from the 1990s All-Decade Team who was not already in the Pro Football Hall of Fame before this year’s voting (the other is safety LeRoy Butler, who didn’t have as an accomplished career as Atwater).

During his 11-year career, Atwater totaled over 1,000 tackles, 24 interceptions and five sacks. Atwater was one of the hardest-hitting safeties of his era and he is perhaps best-known for his massive hit on former Chiefs running back Christian Okoye.

A two-time Super Bowl champion and eight-time Pro Bowler, Atwater is the eighth former Bronco to enter Canton, joining quarterback John Elway, running back Floyd Little, tight end Shannon Sharpe, offensive lineman Gary Zimmerman, running back Terrell Davis, cornerback Champ Bailey and late club owner Pat Bowlen.

Former defensive backs Willie Brown and Brian Dawkins are also in the Hall of Fame but they are best-known for their careers outside of Denver.

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