Yahoo Sports host Andrew Siciliano is joined by the former Pro Bowl safety on why the position doesn’t often get the respect it deserves. Check out the full conversation on “Inside Coverage” on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube or wherever you listen.
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Video Transcript
Can we talk about safeties, and the positional value overall?
I would love to get your thoughts on that, just how the position is viewed.
Caleb Downs, oh my God, gonna fall out of the top 10, and, and Emmanuel McNeil Warren, who the Browns got at 58, no one thought he’d be there.
Nick Evenworry was a second round pick.
Kyle Hamilton, quote unquote, “fell” in the draft.
Ryan Branch was a second round pick.
You were a third round pick, a- and you, you were fearful, y- you, you said it last week, that you were gonna fall to day three.
Why can’t we give safeties And so many teams are playing three safeties these days anyway, why, why can’t we give them more respect?
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That’s a great question.
I actually was having this conversation with, Quandre Diggs and, Kareem Jackson, and PJ Locke.
We were all in this, like, little group text, and we were just talking about even through our careers, like, coming to the tail end of it, like the respect factor for a safety has kinda dipped a little bit.
I, I feel like when I first got into the league there was a lot of respect that, like, there was Eric Berry, right?
there were so many other guys around.
Earl Thomas was still playing, like, at a high level, and there Like, I was like, “These are the guys, right?
That, that are setting the standard right now.”
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And, I don’t know, just over the years it kept falling.
I feel like the formula for some teams has kinda taken over the NFL in whole, and for some teams, I mean, like the San Francisco 49ers, they’re always lethal with their front seven, and they’ve, they’ve had that push for multiple years.
They had, obviously had a really good offense and a great play caller in Kyle Shanahan, but, you know, with Robert Saleh and that front four that they had, they were just so dominant.
So maybe teams are leaning more towards an elite front end.
You know, if you’re bolstering more the front, you don’t need as much in the back end.
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But I don’t know.
Like, I- every team that wins the Super Bowl I feel like has won it because their defense is really good, and I think it’s because their secondary is able to minimize big play potential.
But I’m obviously biased