One more after this one!
Our final defensive stop on the defensive half of our trip around the Tennessee Titans position by position as we head deeper into the offseason, after defensive line, outside linebacker, inside linebacker, and cornerback, is a look at the safety position.
With the new defensive mastermind in Dick LeBeau, the first question is what will the safeties in a Dick LeBeau defense look like? Greg Cosell in, I believe, his pre-draft podcast with Doug Farrar (strong recommendation for the entire series) noted safeties, free, strong, interchangeable, or what have you, were the most team-dependent position in the NFL and specifically noted that, say, Landon Collins would not be a fit at #20 for a Philadelphia Eagles team that was interested in interchangeable safeties.
What makes this a particularly important and hard question is the question should not be “What will the safeties in a Dick LeBeau defense look like,” but “What will the safeties in a Dick LeBeau defense without Troy Polamalu look like?” For his past eleven seasons as coordinator, the safety position by the Steelers has included Troy Polamalu and The Guy Who’s Not Troy Polamalu And Does What Polamalu Isn’t Doing That Play. Troy Polamalu is not on the Titans roster and, having retired, seems extremely unlikely to be on the Titans roster this season. Thus, for the first time since he was the head coach of the 2002 Bengals, the definition of the role of safeties on a Dick LeBeau defense will not revolve around Troy Polamalu and his special gifts.
So, how will the safety position for the 2015 Titans be defined? Had I written this back in February, I would have written about how the Titans have a prototype free safety and a prototype strong safety, and LeBeau should coach and deploy them accordingly. Writing this in late April, I can write the same thing and the only difference is the prototype strong safety is a different player.
Michael Griffin is that prototype free safety. Heading into his ninth season with the team after originally being drafted in the first round out of Texas in 2007, there’s not much need to elaborate too much on who he is. I remarked on Twitter late last season another team would have a fascinating decision to make on him, since he’s being paid like an elite safety ($6.3 million base salary, $7 million APY basically tied for seventh among all safeties even after free agency) and hasn’t looked like one since 2008. (Writing things like that are probably part of why he blocked me on Twitter, which I found kind of amusing and flattering, to be honest.) On the other hand, he’s not a bad starter and given the general level of safety play in the league it wouldn’t be easy to get a big upgrade on him.
2014 wasn’t his best season, but while some people seemed to think it was down with 2009 as one of his worst, I thought it was maybe his most impressive one. He seems like a player whose level of performance has seemed to vary with his comfort and the quality of the players around him, and when his running buddy went down for the season in Week 5, I thought his level of performance would significantly decline. When he injured his shoulder in Week 12 against the Eagles, I thought he was done for that game and the season. Instead, he returned after halftime and played not only the rest of that game after missing just the final 9 snaps of the first half but the rest of the year (for the season, 1131 of 1141 snaps, 99.1%) while maintaining what I thought was a fairly consistent level of play (second on the team in tackles, per the coaches). Just keep him at free safety and away from strong, which we saw in early 2012 was not his best position.
Summing up the Bernard Pollard Experience is always complicated. An Achilles injury late in Week 5 knocked him out for the rest of the season (344 snaps, 30.1% of total, 95.0% when active), and the Titans released him in early March upon his request. He remains unsigned, and I cannot see him coming back to the home locker room at LP Field.
I speculated in the offseason positional analysis he might see some work in a Big Nickel-like package, but while George Wilson played even before Week 5 it was almost exclusively in dime situations. After that, he stepped into the starting lineup and played almost every snap he could until Week 17 (809 total snaps, 70.9% of total, 43.6% Weeks 1-5, 88.1% Weeks 6-16). He was generally reliable not but what I saw as a high-impact player, which is about what I expected if he had to play. A free agent this offseason, I do not expect him to return to Tennessee and after turning 34 in March his NFL career could quite possibly be at an end (and by now I’m very used to writing that about NFL players who are younger than me).
After Pollard’s injury, Daimion Stafford became the dime safety and Wilson’s backup, getting to play in Week 12 against the Eagles and seeing his most action (47 snaps) in the season finale against the Colts (274 total snaps, 24.0% of total). He’ll be the backup strong safety again and a key special teams player after leading the team in special team tackles last season per the coaches.
Yes, I’ve somehow discussed four players without mentioning the player the Titans signed to be the starter next to Griffin, Da’Norris Searcy. I still have to watch him in-depth to get a better idea of exactly what he does well and not so well and thus do not have anything to add to what I wrote after the Titans signed him.
I discussed Marqueston Huff with the cornerbacks. In his defensive position by position analysis, Jim Wyatt included him with the safeties. He’ll probably at least start as the backup free safety and may again play slot cornerback; he was listed on the depth chart Week 17 at both free safety and corner, while the official roster has him as a DB.
The other safety on the roster is Khalid Wooten. The former sixth-round pick spent most of the season on the practice squad after failing to make the team in training camp. He was elevated to the active roster after Week 14 when Blidi Wreh-Wilson went to injured reserve. Another safety-corner hybrid, he was listed on the depth chart at free safety (0 snaps on defense, 0.0%). Put him in the marginal category.
Conclusion-Type Things
I suppose there’s an argument that safety, not inside linebacker, is the position where the Titans have the least need. The large uncertainty associated with Searcy’s level of performance prevents me from making that argument. Given the lack of depth in the draft and the presence of two players you could claim with a straight face are reasonable backups in Huff and Stafford, I doubt the Titans make any further opinions outside of undrafted free agency roster-filling.
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