Draft Season

Cornerback has always been a position of pretty high value in the NFL, but it's gaining even more value. Safety is doing the same thing. Most likely 3 Safeties are going to be picked in the 1st Round and that's not the norm. Given all 3 are rated very high, but I think your going to see more Safeties going earlier and earlier year after year from now on. The reason is that with QB's like Manning, Brees, and Brady you have to have good to great Defensive Back's to even have a shot at slowing them down. A good pass rush can help, but with Manning and Brees they can get rid of ball so quick I don't care how good your rush is, it's not going to shut those guys down. The way Manning is playing right now it's impossible to completely stop him anyway, but it is possible to hold him under 30.
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The more the game evolves, the more teams are going to go to a spread it out and throw the ball all over the field philosophy. It used to be run the ball and stop the run and you have a chance to win it all. While those things are still important, look what happened when Indy played Miami this year. The Colts had the ball for less than 15 minutes and still won the game. Now if you can run it and stop the run you're still going to be successful in this league, look what the Bengals did this year. But you have to have balance and be able to throw it on offense. If you can't throw it your not gonna win a championship and teams know this. That's why we're going to see more teams going to a throw first philosophy.
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Since more and more teams are throwing the ball at a higher rate, more defenses are putting Nickel packages out there. Since there are 3 and 4 Receivers out on the field, your going to have to have 4 guys that can cover those Receivers man to man. Safeties that are big hitters but can't cover aren't really very valuable anymore. The Safeties that can play the run and cover are becoming hot commodities, and you're going to see them start going higher in the draft. Eric Berry is going to be a top 10 pick which is rare because teams don't like to pay that big money to Safeties. I think you're going to see that change also, soon Safety pay is going to be up there close with what Corners get. How many teams that passed on Ed Reed the year he was drafted would like to have that pick back? Or how about Troy Polumalu? Reed went 24th, Polumalu went 16th and both had very high grades going into the draft.
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The Super Bowl is a couple days away and I think the team that's going to win is the team that gets better play from it's Safeties. Which team is going to have that "Centerfielder" that can pick one of these elite QB's off. Which team's Safeties aren't going to get beat over the top multiple times giving up big chunks of yards or TD's. Both teams have good players back there, and for the Saints they are a big reason why they have made it to this point. They helped shut down two very good QB's in Warner and Favre. So when watching the Big Game Sunday, watch the team's Safeties and whatever team gets better play back there will win. Then seeing this hope your favorite team either is already set back there or drafts this April to get set back there. In this day of football they're going to need it to win a championship!