Big Blitz Posted March 8 Share Posted March 8 NFL making clear safeties no longer worth the money: Why league's view on position has changed in recent years Just like the running back market has cratered in recent years, the safety position has done something similar. There are some safeties worth paying, like a Derwin James or Antoine Winfield Jr. or Kyle Hamilton in a few years. But more than $103 million across the league has been saved in 2024 cash salary at the safety position, according to Over The Cap. That's the most by far of any position group, outpacing the cornerback salary shed by early $40 million. "There's so much opportunity to overcome physical talent with high level intellect and intangibles. So you don't have to overspend to get production," one NFL personnel executive told CBS Sports. "You can draft these guys Day 3 or put low free-agency resources into them and get production back if they are smart." Said another personnel executive: "It's essentially a similar but not equivalent argument to running backs. So many teams are playing with third-to-fifth-round picks at the position and doing just fine. There are other areas of your team to spend on that impact the game way more." https://www.cbssports.com/nfl/news/nfl-making-clear-safeties-no-longer-worth-the-money-why-leagues-view-on-position-has-changed-in-recent-years/ 7 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dablitzkrieg Posted March 8 Share Posted March 8 Given the newer shift to 2 high, it's a lot easier to cover imo. Plus for the Bills, they have one of the best to squeeze as much out of safeties in McD 4 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
0017 Posted March 8 Share Posted March 8 (edited) Good safeties, Bad safeties, we still can’t stop Mahomes, spend the money on offense and out-score everyone. Edited March 8 by 0017 4 2 6 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SoonerBillsFan Posted March 8 Share Posted March 8 20 minutes ago, Big Blitz said: NFL making clear safeties no longer worth the money: Why league's view on position has changed in recent years Just like the running back market has cratered in recent years, the safety position has done something similar. There are some safeties worth paying, like a Derwin James or Antoine Winfield Jr. or Kyle Hamilton in a few years. But more than $103 million across the league has been saved in 2024 cash salary at the safety position, according to Over The Cap. That's the most by far of any position group, outpacing the cornerback salary shed by early $40 million. "There's so much opportunity to overcome physical talent with high level intellect and intangibles. So you don't have to overspend to get production," one NFL personnel executive told CBS Sports. "You can draft these guys Day 3 or put low free-agency resources into them and get production back if they are smart." Said another personnel executive: "It's essentially a similar but not equivalent argument to running backs. So many teams are playing with third-to-fifth-round picks at the position and doing just fine. There are other areas of your team to spend on that impact the game way more." https://www.cbssports.com/nfl/news/nfl-making-clear-safeties-no-longer-worth-the-money-why-leagues-view-on-position-has-changed-in-recent-years/ Yep Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
QCity Posted March 8 Share Posted March 8 45 minutes ago, Big Blitz said: "There's so much opportunity to overcome physical talent with high level intellect and intangibles. So you don't have to overspend to get production," one NFL personnel executive told CBS Sports. "You can draft these guys Day 3 or put low free-agency resources into them and get production back if they are smart." Said another personnel executive: "It's essentially a similar but not equivalent argument to running backs. So many teams are playing with third-to-fifth-round picks at the position and doing just fine. There are other areas of your team to spend on that impact the game way more." My feelings exactly. 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BuffaloBillyG Posted March 8 Share Posted March 8 Quandre Diggs sees the writing on the wall😂😂 1 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Punching Bag Posted March 8 Share Posted March 8 Poyer and Hyde were unusual, extraordinary pair of safeties who together were able to bring to Bills value other safeties could not. If you are not going to get that value best to spend more of the money elsewhere and spend less on safeties. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BuffaloBill Posted March 8 Share Posted March 8 The high salaries commanded by top QB’s are creating these dynamics. I would guess that the WR market is also due for a downstep given more good ones seem to be emerging from college. 2 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MJS Posted March 8 Share Posted March 8 Not really. Safeties traditionally have been one of the lesser paid positions. There were a couple years recently where a few of them got way overpaid. The difference between safeties and running backs is that running backs have a very short shelf life. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SoCal Deek Posted March 8 Share Posted March 8 I’m not the least bit surprised. As offenses focus more and more on the passing game it only stands to reason that safeties, who’ve become more one dimensional focusing less and less on run stuffing, would be de-valued. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FireChans Posted March 8 Share Posted March 8 15 minutes ago, MJS said: Not really. Safeties traditionally have been one of the lesser paid positions. There were a couple years recently where a few of them got way overpaid. The difference between safeties and running backs is that running backs have a very short shelf life. Correct. Jamal Adams was way over drafted in 2017 because his position wasn’t that valuable and many folks said so at the time. There’s nothing new about it. lol Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nedboy7 Posted March 8 Share Posted March 8 13 hours ago, 0017 said: Good safeties, Bad safeties, we still can’t stop Mahomes, spend the money on offense and out-score everyone. Got to win some of those 17 games before you get to KC though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bills!Win! Posted March 8 Share Posted March 8 I can easily think back to all of the great safeties of the past 20 years. John Lynch, Rodney Harrison, Bob Sanders, Brian Dawkins, Darren Sharper, Rod Woodson, Ed Reed, Kam Chancellor, Earl Thomas, Troy Polamalu There has been a severe drop off in elite safety play the last 5-10 years 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Buffalo_Stampede Posted March 8 Share Posted March 8 3 minutes ago, Bills!Win! said: I can easily think back to all of the great safeties of the past 20 years. John Lynch, Rodney Harrison, Bob Sanders, Brian Dawkins, Darren Sharper, Rod Woodson, Ed Reed, Kam Chancellor, Earl Thomas, Troy Polamalu There has been a severe drop off in elite safety play the last 5-10 years A lot of those guys probably play LB today. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Man with No Name Posted March 8 Share Posted March 8 26 minutes ago, Bills!Win! said: I can easily think back to all of the great safeties of the past 20 years. John Lynch, Rodney Harrison, Bob Sanders, Brian Dawkins, Darren Sharper, Rod Woodson, Ed Reed, Kam Chancellor, Earl Thomas, Troy Polamalu There has been a severe drop off in elite safety play the last 5-10 years I probably watched Bob Sanders more than the others, so I am biased. When that guy was on, he was as big of a difference maker as any defensive player I have ever watched. He was probably only ON like that for a grand total of around 20 games. Won them a super bowl though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bleeding Bills Blue Posted March 8 Share Posted March 8 1 hour ago, BuffaloBill said: The high salaries commanded by top QB’s are creating these dynamics. I would guess that the WR market is also due for a downstep given more good ones seem to be emerging from college. Well the challenge with WR, is much like QB - the best ones never touch free agency. Tons of good players come from the draft - but there are often misses there too. And once they hit 4 years they want that payday. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bleeding Bills Blue Posted March 8 Share Posted March 8 36 minutes ago, Bills!Win! said: I can easily think back to all of the great safeties of the past 20 years. John Lynch, Rodney Harrison, Bob Sanders, Brian Dawkins, Darren Sharper, Rod Woodson, Ed Reed, Kam Chancellor, Earl Thomas, Troy Polamalu There has been a severe drop off in elite safety play the last 5-10 years Eh there's a fair number of good ones. Plus the older players can hang around at the position a bit longer. In the younger group you have bates, hamilton, winfield, holland, hufunga. In the older group its guys like simmons, mathieu, minkah, budda, derwin, etc. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paup 1995MVP Posted March 8 Share Posted March 8 8 hours ago, Bleeding Bills Blue said: Eh there's a fair number of good ones. Plus the older players can hang around at the position a bit longer. In the younger group you have bates, hamilton, winfield, holland, hufunga. In the older group its guys like simmons, mathieu, minkah, budda, derwin, etc. Those guys are good players, but not overly special. Except for probably Hamilton. The guys in the post you responded to were all HOF or border line HOF players. The game has changed where big hits are not what safety's do anymore. They basically are zone corners covering the deep part of the field. Defense has basically become a D Line and 7 guys between 190-225 pounds running around trying to be disruptive. They all seem pretty interchangeable except for a few special guys who can play boundary corner and cover the games best WR's one on one. The perfect example of that was the Cowboys defense. That did not work out so well against the Bills, or the Packers in the playoffs. Think about this. The Bills play little Taron Johnson as a hybrid LB at times. That would never have happened years ago. Very interesting. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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