The Case Against SS in Round 1

[Section 310]

Below is a link to a good article be Len Pasquarelli discussing the safety position. He notes how infrequently safeties are targeted in Round #1 unless they are hellacious players (Sean Taylor, Ed Reed, etc.). According to Len, there are no safeties in this year's draft that everyone agrees will be playmakers. He discusses how many teams have Thomas Davis and even Shazor projected as linebackers.

Madieu Williams also gets a mention as a value pick from last year's draft.

http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/draft05/colu..._len&id=2038751

Does this lead anyone to change their minds about our plans in Round 1??

Are we better off to go DT or ILB with #17 and come back in Round 3 and grab

Shazor??

[chrishcovga]

The fact of the matter is that this year's safety class will only provide a bunch of "solid" starters and no impact player.

There is a list of safeties that everyone is following\

1.Thomas Davis - best in the draft, but has questionable coverage skills, but as a football player, he's a first rounder.

2. Brodney Pool - not intimidating, but should make lots of plays on the ball.

3. Josh Bullocks - Very good ball hawk, has a lot of upside if he plays in the right system.

4. Earnest Shazor - if not for his slow forty time, he'd be rated higher, but he moves like a linebacker and not like a defensive back. Great measureables though, hard to throw over a guy that has a 36' inch verticle and is already 6'4!

5. O. J. Atogwe - This year's Madieu Williams. Has played both safety spots, and is a solid tackler, he will struggle in man to man situations though, because he hasn't played cornerback like Madieu did.

- Probably just off this list of top 5 are James Butler and Jamaal Brimmer; word last year was Marvin wanted Brimmer last year if he would have declared, Brimmer has slow feet, but makes a lot of plays, Butler is solid all around and won't get beat deep, but has little to no man on man skills.

[TippCityRick]

word last year was Marvin wanted Brimmer last year if he would have declared, Brimmer has slow feet, but makes a lot of plays

And this is exactly why I don't see us taking Davis in the first or Shazor at any time. As I wrote in another post, ML wants playmakers/ball hawks in his secondary. He took a chance on Deltha simply because the man makes plays on the ball. Both Davis and Shazor are good football players, but game changers they're not. Again, JMO .

[TJJackson]

The best of all worlds might be trading down to pick up more first day picks, say our 17 to Philly for their 31, 35 and a 3 next year so they can take their stud WR, RB, or DL (whatever they want) and we get value at ILB, S, C, etc.

Something like that

[TecmoFever]

I still hope that the Bengals end up with Davis. He helps to address two needs on our team. If the health of our linebacking corps remains a problem, then we can possibly plug Davis in as a linebacker. If Nate Webster comes back strong, and/or Caleb Miller and Landon Johnson are able to contribute (as long as Kevin Hardy isn't on the field, but that's a whole other discussion), then you throw Davis into the secondary mix and hope that he can beat out Kim Herring and provide a presence against the run. I think that he and Madieu Williams would complement each other nicely.

All that being said, if Marvin thinks that Jamaal Brimmer of UNLV can provide close to what Davis would bring and we can get him on day two, then by all means, go elsewhere in Round 1.

[schweinhart]

I still like James Butler the best of the bunch for versatility at safety because he looks most able to both roam the range at free safety or come up in the box w/ solid support vs. run. He is a true intechangeable safety.

Davis, though, is the beast of the bunch. He won't be interchangeable at safety but he'd be great vs. run and would be ready at WSLB and even MLB if needed.