First, a confession.
I love watching safeties.
It likely stems from a background playing quarterback, where you are taught at an early age to read the safeties first to figure out what the defense is doing. Are they showing single-high, or two-deep? Is one down in the box showing blitz? How do they respond to shifts or motion? How often are they rolling the coverage at the snap? If footwork is a window into the mind of a quarterback, the safeties are a window into the soul of a defense.
That fascination continues to this day. When you spend so much of your time studying the quarterback position, you end up watching a ton of safety play, going through the same checklists. What are the safeties doing before the snap? Are they rolling coverages post-snap? Are they making the quarterback’s life miserable?
A few years ago Dan Hatman, a former NFL scout and current director of The Scouting Academy, gave me an assignment. He asked me to take a hypothetical NFL team and rank the starting 22 positions (offense and defense) in terms of importance. Starting with QB and moving on through the positions. It is a fascinating exercise.
In a similar vein, Dan was astounded how quickly I got to both safety positions.
Safeties are taking on a more important – and diverse – role in today’s NFL. If we truly are in the midst of an offensive paradigm shift, with matchup-based gameplans, more athleticism at the quarterback position and more “college style” designs working into the NFL, then defenses need to adjust. Adjust they have, as the league is trending towards more lighter personnel packages, more three-safety packages, and more hybrid defenders. Because of those latter two reasons, safeties are key to the future of the NFL.
Here are the best the game has to offer. In terms of methodology, rankings are made with an eye towards the 2020 season, based upon film study and available and relevant statistical data.
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Honorable Mentions
Making lists are hard, and no one is ever satisfied with the finished product. In an effort – likely a failed one – to stave off timeline rage I wanted to highlight some players that did not crack the Top 11, but are tremendous talents at the position. Players like Patrick Chung, who serves so many roles for Bill Belichick, and Marcus Maye who does the same. Jimmie Ward was a big part of San Francisco’s defense in 2019, and looks to do the same in the season to come. Tre Boston with the Carolina Panthers, Quandre Diggs with the Seattle Seahawks, Adrian Amos with the Green Bay Packers and Justin Reid with the Houston Texans; all of these men are tremendous players at the safety position that were hard cuts to make. Eddie Jackson with the Chicago Bears had a down season by his lofty standards in 2019, but should certainly be back on this list next summer. Finally, there is Derwin James. James is one of my favorite players to watch in the league, period. Full stop. But with the injury he failed to see 50% of his team’s snaps last season, so he did not qualify. It caused me legitimate anguish to leave him off, and I again have no doubt that he belongs on lists like this when healthy…and near the top. There will be lists that include these players and they are certainly defensible.
Then there is a tandem that I carved out another exception for. (As an aside, my editors are gonna hate me this week I think, more than usual).
Best Safety Tandems: Micah Hyde/Jordan Poyer and Harrison Smith/Anthony Harris
In today’s NFL safeties need to be versatile, and they need to work in tandem. When offenses do so much to confuse safeties pre-snap, and to get them out of position with motion and shifting, safeties need to be able to play both down in the box, or deep downfield. If you lack all the tools, an offensive coordinator is going to see that on film, and exploit that on Sunday.
That is why tandems are so important. The abilty to work in concert to respond to an offense, and shut it down, is critical. These two pairings do it so well.
Both Harrison Smith and Anthony Harris are going to be on this list, but their ability to work in concert and fill a variety of roles is special at the back of Minnesota’s defense. They are great players in their own right, but what they do together is art.
Earlier I mentioned the idea of a safety tandem frustrating a quarterback to no end. Over the past few seasons, perhaps no tandem has frustrated a quarterback more than what the Buffalo Bills’ pair of Micah Hyde and Jordan Poyer has done to Tom Brady. Whenever you get a chance, study the Bills’ defense and their tandem of Hyde and Poyer. They do such a tremendous job of rolling their coverage, disguising looks and moving in concert that it is difficult for any quarterback – including arguably the best of all time – to get a read on what the defense is doing. Poyer is on the outside looking in with this list, but I wanted to give them a special mention as the game’s best safety pair.
Now, to the Top 11.