Safeties In The First Round

So I was bored just checking my twitter feed and I noticed this tweet from Sports Illustrated's Peter King.

@SI_PeterKing RT @twilson22: You're way off on safeties in 1st round. They have lowest bust factor of any position on D ... Way too dangerous in top 10

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For the uninitiated, whomever twilson22 is said to King "You're way off on safeties in first round. They have lowest bust factor o any position on D"

To which King replied "Way too dangerous in top 10"

This kind of dovetailed with another tweet I saw earlier in the day from former NFL personnel guy Daniel Jeremiah:

Currently, there are 10 starting safeties that went undrafted while there are 9 starters that went in the 1st Rd

So I figured since I had some time to burn I would go through and do a little research on safeties taken in the first round. Here we go year by year.

2009

0

2008

Kenny Phillips

2007

Michael Griffin

Reggie Nelson

2006

Michael Huff

Donte Whitner

2005

Antrell Rolle

2004

Sean Taylor

2003

Troy Palomalu

2002

Roy Williams

Ed Reed

2001

Adam Archuleta

Derek Gibson

2000

Rashard Anderson

1999

0

Now I fully admit that 2000 and 2001 were not exactly banner years for safeties taken in the first round. But setting aside those to years do you see any busts anywhere else in the list?

It turns out that those 9 first rounders that Mr Jeremiah referred to as starting just so happen to be all 9 first round safeties in the last 7 years. 9 for 9 ain't bad if you ask me. Especially when you look at the wealth of guys drafted at other positions in the first round that didn't last very long in the NFL.

So maybe, just MAYBE, folks should be looking more at drafting safeties in the first round.

Just sayin

Devastating!

The Bucs losing Tanard Jackson for the first four games of the season because of a violation of the NFL substance abuse policy is going to hurt big time. Its not that I don't think Will Allen can play, he certainly can. But the fact is he is not near the playmaker that Jackson is and with Jackson out there won't be much depth at safety at all. With Allens hit first mentality its highly likely that his physical play may cause him to miss some time during those games. Who do the Bucs turn to then? Just the fact that they have Jermaine Phillips practicing some back at safety shows you just how messy this could get for them.

I won't just Tanard but I do hope he gets the help he needs and comes back and finishes up the season strong. The kid has too much potential to let something like this derail his career.