I posted a comment in Eric's DB thread and I think I also posted something about it in another thread a week or so ago, but nobody seems to be responding to my questions, which concern the plan to start Brown at strong safety.
I get that everyone wants to see Rolle play his so-called natural position of free safety and Brown playing his so-called natural position of strong safety (given his size and speed), but didn't Brown have all his success playing free safety? Didn't he get passed from team to team as a strong safety?
As a strong safety, he was a journeyman who was looked upon as a special teams contributor and career backup, but when he was forced into the role of free safety because of the injury to Phillips, he was suddenly Mr. Playmaker out there. So is it smart to return him to the position where he had previously underwhelmed in stints with the Raiders, Panthers, and Colts?
When Merritt praised him for...
| “His film study and understanding that the post safety plays at a certain depth and the post safety has to be able play between a certain parts of the field. I am very impressed with Stevie and I truly believe that he can continue making those types of plays for us.” |
...was he not talking about the free safety position?
I always thought it was odd that the Giants had Rolle at strong safety and Phillips at free, but I think it comes down to intelligence/instincts. The strong safety has to think and react faster than the free safety because he is closer to the line of scrimmage and needs to diagnose run or pass almost immediately upon the snap of the ball. The free safety is further from the LOS and has more time to read what direction the play is going. He doesn't have to "guess" as much as the strong safety does.
I believe this is why the Giants preferred Phillips at free and Rolle at strong even though everything about their body type and athletic ability suggested the opposite. So my question is: why wouldn't the same dynamic put Rolle once again at strong and Brown at free, especially given Brown's success playing centerfield?
By contrast, Stevie Brown was a constant target. Because he saw so much action, he made a lot of plays, and gave up a lot of plays.
None of this is meant to denigrate Brown's 2012 season. He was far better than anyone could have reasonably expected. But was he better than a healthy Kenny Phillips? No.
I guess it's reasonable to ask whether he's better, up high, than Antrel Rolle. My guess is that Rolle, if he had the job full-time, would be the better free safety. But the Giants play so much two-deep and three-deep zone that it might not matter much.
BBB-- I disagree with you about Phillips, but this thread is not about him, so I don't want to open up that particular can of worms which have already been trampled to death.
IF Brown has the talent to play free Safety, then he has the talent to play strong Safety, too.
Some people have posted that Brown played poorly last year, but was just lucky. If that is true, then I would expect him to play poorly regardless of where he plays this season. However, the Giants seem to have penciled Brown in as the starter, so they must feel that he is going to do a good job at strong Safety.
I think that it is a bit premature to second-guess the Giants coaches this early in the year.
IDK Milton why the Giants would want Brown at SS unless they think he can play that fine but needs more at FS.
Ten Ton Hammer : 7/22/2013 5:18 pm
defense does not adhere to the traditional textbook roles of Strong and Free safety.
Instead, they adhere to the concept of, "Let's allow the opposing WR's to continuously beat us deep."
But seriously, we need significantly better play out of our defense this season and our safeties/secondary need to do a better job than they have the past few seasons.
KP wasn't the same playermaker or athlete post-knee, but he was solid and graded pretty well from what I gathered.
NYG doesn't typically stick with traditional free and strong safety roles, so there's a mix and match element where they deploy based on player strengths, and Fewell definitely prefers Rolle close to the LOS where his physicality and ability to find passing lanes is more disruptive on a play by play basis.