Tackling Safeties of 2010

[danish-pride]

Link

It might be easier to go to the link and see the charts as it might seem a bit confusing here.

You know the drill, the clue is in the position name – a safety has to be a safety net for the defense, a barrier that saves disaster when the rest of the defense hasn’t. They’re the last line of defense and often the only players between a run of the mill snap from the offense, and a game-breaking touchdown.

But how many of the league’s safeties would you trust to make that game-saving tackle in the open field? Let’s take a look what 2010’s numbers say.

The first thing to note is that this list is heavily populated by players that were far from full-time starters all season. Between some teams’ penchant for rotating safeties, the punitive benching of some when they’ve allowed the play get behind them once too often, and injuries over the year, there are a lot of players that owe a good spot in the table to a small sample size. We’re not saying they wouldn’t have maintained that level over the season (though realistically many wouldn’t have), but it’s something to bear in mind as you look it over.

The Perfect Three

Of all the safeties that had at least fifteen tackle attempts, three were able to avoid missing a single tackle. None of the three, predictably enough, were full time starters, and Kurt Coleman’s 24 tackles and one assist led the trio. We’re not dealing with massive numbers here, but noteworthy nonetheless. The other two members of that elite group were the Rams’ James Butler and Chicago’s rookie, Major Wright.

Sticking with the elite figures, there was a further gaggle of players to miss just a single tackle on the year. Only one of those players was a full-time starter, putting him way out in front of the pack in terms of ratio of missed tackles to attempts; Denver’s Renaldo Hill. Hill missed just a single tackle in 68 attempts on the year.

While Buffalo’s Donte Whitner has never been amongst the elite safeties we’ve graded (in fact he’s at the other end of the scale with far more regularity), the five missed tackles he notched this season was good enough for a ratio of just one miss in 27.20 attempts, 7th best in the league, and bettered by just Hill in terms of full-time starters. In fact, Whitner was comfortably the most prolific safety in the study in terms of tackle attempts, and his ratio becomes all the more impressive when you consider that he stuck his head in there more times than any other safety, and more than four times as often as all but one of the players ahead of him on the list.

Whitner is closely followed by his Buffalo teammate Jairus Byrd, who heads a trio of starting safeties that also includes Chicago’s Danieal Manning and the Broncos’ Brian Dawkins, all of whom finished with over 22 attempts per miss.

The Not-so-perfect end

But that’s enough of those with impressive performances, we know everyone is far more interested in those with the heavy miss ratios.

The Lions might be making the foundation of an extremely impressive roster, and defense in particular, but there’s no getting around the fact that they are in some desperate need of upgrades across the secondary. C.C. Brown ‘earned’ himself the nickname of “Can’t Cover Brown” for his play in coverage over the years, but his play last season would have seen “Can’t Tackle Brown” equally fitting but for the initials. Brown missed an eye-opening ten tackles, and given his relatively low number of attempts, that left him with the worst ratio of all qualifying safeties – one in 4.5 attempts on the season. About the only consolation for Brown is that there were other players that missed more tackles in total, albeit with more bites at the cherry.

No other safety got close to the 17 tackles missed by Pro-Bowler Michael Griffin. The Titans’ safety did rack up his share of tackles, but even so, he missed one in every seven attempts and thoroughly tested the team’s faith in the “safety” aspect of his play. This was not a vintage year for Griffin despite somehow – inexplicably – being voted to the Pro-Bowl. He is clearly capable of big performances and quality play, but you can’t survive long in this league missing tackles at that rate or with the sheer number of misses he had last season – those cause too may big plays.

A New Year

2009’s undisputed tackling king, Yeremiah Bell from the Dolphins, didn’t get close to retaining his crown in 2010, missing 11 tackles on the season. With the way the Fins play him, he still made more than his share of stops, and it was only that which saved his ratio from the nasty end, finishing with one miss in 10 attempts over the season.

On the other hand, some players saw a marked improvement in form from ’09 to 2010. Michael Huff’s grade shot up with the Raiders finally playing to his strengths, not forcing him into a role that didn’t suit him. Playing much more as the deep safety last season, Huff was able to use his range to far greater effect and looked like a different player. What’s interesting is that playing in space like that improved his missed tackle rate too. Missing one in 8.6 attempts in 2009, Huff was able to stretch that to one in 16.2 this season, despite a larger number of tackling attempts.

Top 20 Safeties, Tackle Attempts per Missed TacklePlayer Team QB Sk Tks *** MT Att/MT

Kurt Coleman PHI 0 24 1 0 N/A

James Butler SL 0 18 2 0 N/A

Major Wright CHI 0 18 0 0 N/A

Renaldo Hill DEN 0 58 9 1 68.00

Taylor Mays SF 0 24 3 1 28.00

Nathan Jones DEN 0 26 1 1 28.00

Donte Whitner BUF 1 107 23 5 27.20

Jairus Byrd BUF 1 59 17 3 26.67

Danieal Manning CHI 0 64 8 3 25.00

Brian Dawkins DEN 2 56 6 3 22.33

Mike Adams CLV 0 19 2 1 22.00

Antoine Bethea IND 1 83 16 5 21.00

Dawan Landry BLT 1 83 10 6 16.67

O.J. Atogwe SL 3 64 9 5 16.20

Michael Huff OAK 4 65 7 5 16.20

Ryan Mundy PIT 0 15 0 1 16.00

Tom Zbikowski BLT 0 15 0 1 16.00

Tyvon Branch OAK 4 78 7 6 15.83

Reggie Nelson CIN 0 35 9 3 15.67

Kenny Phillips NYG 0 61 11 5 15.40

Bottom 20 Safeties, Tackle Attempts per Missed TacklePlayer Team QB Sk Tks *** MT Att/MT

C.C. Brown DET 0 32 3 10 4.50

Reggie Smith SF 0 29 4 9 4.67

Kendrick Lewis KC 0 26 4 8 4.75

Bryan Scott BUF 3 19 5 7 4.86

Kareem Moore WAS 0 42 11 13 5.08

Sean Considine JAX 1 34 6 10 5.10

Jon McGraw KC 0 30 5 8 5.38

Aaron Francisco IND 0 40 12 10 6.20

Steve Gregory SD 0 35 8 8 6.38

Sean Jones TB 1 54 16 13 6.46

Paul Oliver SD 0 42 13 10 6.50

Deon Grant NYG 1 48 6 10 6.50

Chris D. Clemons MIA 2 47 8 10 6.70

Earl Thomas SEA 0 61 8 12 6.75

Sherrod Martin CAR 0 56 19 13 6.77

Craig Dahl SL 1 76 4 14 6.79

Malcolm Jenkins NO 1 42 4 8 6.88

James Sanders NE 0 37 16 9 6.89

Michael Griffin TEN 0 87 15 17 7.00

Thomas DeCoud ATL 0 62 12 12 7.17

[delaigle]

the bottom of the BEST list Kenny Phillips NYG 0 61 11 5 15.40

the bottom of the worst list Thomas DeCoud ATL 0 62 12 12 7.17

not a lot of difference there.

Edited May 24, 2011 by delaigle

[blizzard_falcon]

the bottom of the BEST list Kenny Phillips NYG 0 61 11 5 15.40

the bottom of the worst list Thomas DeCoud ATL 0 62 12 12 7.17

not a lot of difference there.

That's... that's actually a huge difference. He missed tackles more than twice as often as Phillips did.

Edited May 24, 2011 by virginiafalcon

[blizzard_falcon]

Sorry; double post.

Edited May 24, 2011 by virginiafalcon

[danish-pride]

Yeah i dont know if you read the charts wrong or what. but Phillips missed a tackle every 15 attempts while Decoud missed every 7? its quite alot actually.

But Decoud has always been a hitter not a tackler, he rarely wraps up he just pops guys and hope they fall? im just wondering why the staff has not been telling him this?

Yes a big hit is great, but i would rather have 5 safe tackles than 1 big hit and a long run for TD?

But last year in general it looked like there was something wrong with Decoud, he was not as explosive as 09 when he was a playmaker. He just didnt have "it" this year? hope he gets it back next year as we really need everyone in our secondary to step it up with Freeman emerging and Brees being Brees.

Edited May 24, 2011 by danish-pride

[delaigle]

Yeah i dont know if you read the charts wrong or what. but Phillips missed a tackle every 15 attempts while Decoud missed every 7? its quite alot actually.

But Decoud has always been a hitter not a tackler, he rarely wraps up he just pops guys and hope they fall? im just wondering why the staff has not been telling him this?

Yes a big hit is great, but i would rather have 5 safe tackles than 1 big hit and a long run for TD?

But last year in general it looked like there was something wrong with Decoud, he was not as explosive as 09 when he was a playmaker. He just didnt have "it" this year? hope he gets it back next year as we really need everyone in our secondary to step it up with Freeman emerging and Brees being Brees.

Yea, I misread the last I thought it was average yards per missed tackle, so I thought the trade off between the number of missed tackles (5vs12) was offset by the yards (7vs15).

Added it would be interesting to know what actually happened on those 5vs12 tackles ie how many yards were actually gained, how many 1st downs made, how many TDs scored?

I am not a DeCoud Hugger but I was willing to give hims some slack last year.

In 09 he was the "Rookie" running wild while the VET "Coleman" held the fort

in 10 Moore was the "Rookie" running wild while DeCoud was the VET holding the fort.

Believe me that will affect your play.

Edited May 24, 2011 by delaigle

[danish-pride]

Yea, I misread the last I thought it was average yards per missed tackle, so I thought the trade off between the number of missed tackles (5vs12) was offset by the yards (7vs15).

Added it would be interesting to know what actually happened on those 5vs12 tackles ie how many yards were actually gained, how many 1st downs made, how many TDs scored?

I am not a DeCoud Hugger but I was willing to give hims some slack last year.

In 09 he was the "Rookie" running wild while the VET "Coleman" held the fort

in 10 Moore was the "Rookie" running wild while DeCoud was the VET holding the fort.

Believe me that will affect your play.

I would love for Decoud to be a playmaker again, but my concern is if either Moore or Decoud goes down? then who do we have? nobody?

[delaigle]

I would love for Decoud to be a playmaker again, but my concern is if either Moore or Decoud goes down? then who do we have? nobody?

That's the exact statement that I've made in numerous post over the last month,

Schillinger, Bush, and Priest are RAW.

I'd like to see a FA vet acquired as the #1 backup to DeCoud and Moore

[danish-pride]

That's the exact statement that I've made in numerous post over the last month,

Schillinger, Bush, and Priest are RAW.

I'd like to see a FA vet acquired as the #1 backup to DeCoud and Moore

Who is there in free agency that could fill this hole?

[Rai]

Who is there in free agency that could fill this hole?

There are some good safeties in FA this year like Mikell, Huff, Weddle and Manning but I doubt any of them will come to be a backup.

[BlazerHarvard]

Who is there in free agency that could fill this hole?

Deon Grant.

Former Jaguar while Smitty was there. An older guy with quality leadership under his belt that is now moving into the twilight of his career.