NFL Top 10 Series: Safety Honorable Mentions

With the 2012 NFL season steadfast approaching, it’s time to continue an original Garden State Sports Guy production: The NFL Top 10 Series. As the Top 10 countdown approaches for each position, we’ll be looking at honorable mentions for each position as those steadfastly approach. Today we’ll be looking at the free safety position. Obviously there is a lot of room for specifics here but I settled down to what I thought was the least amount of people worthy of a mention and, going forward, probably will be the least amount. I’m not looking forward to the running backs portion to be honest, but that’s another story for another day. Anyways, being that the position can be skewed I went with the people that I found via Pro Football Reference that were listed at the position. Hopefully I didn’t mess anything up, but even if I did, I’m a 20-year-old college student that has a blog literally viewed by a close network of people. Who cares, right? Let’s get to it.


UPDATE: Rankings/honorable mentions were changed to the safety position in general due to some difficulties w/ depth and finding players. 

Honorable Mentions for the Safety Position

Nate Allen: Nate Allen was involved in the Donovan McNabb swap back in 2010 when he was chosen with the Philadelphia Eagles’ second pick that they received from the NFC East rival Washington Redskins. And for the last two seasons he’s done pretty well for himself. He’s dealt with some injuries and while he is no Brian Dawkins he has done enough in my opinion to be in the discussion amongst the top half of the league at the free safety position. His rookie year in 13 games he had three interceptions and 43 tackles, along with two sacks and those are solid numbers for a safety. Last season his role increased a bit playing in two more games (15) than he had previously, starting in 12 of them, and racked up similar numbers from his rookie year. Allen has flashed a lot of talent in his two seasons in the league and has been serviceable for a secondary that just lost one of its better pieces in Asante Samuel. For the Eagles’ sake they can only hope that Allen continues to improve.

Roman Harper: While Roman Harper has lost almost all of his ability to cover a tight end (or in the words of Antonio Cromartie he has not had any ability to do such since high school) Harper had a vital role in the New Orleans Saints’ defense last season. Whether or not he collected bounties is up for debate but what we do know is that Harper compiled the most sacks out of anybody on the Saints’ defense in 2011. As embarrassing as it sounds for a defense that was depicted as dirty and violent, the stats do not lie here. Harper had 7.5 sacks to go along with 80 tackles, 24 assists, and 17 pressures. He was not the most productive pass rusher but generally coming from the back it is difficult to not get picked up by blockers. Due to Harper’s inability to cover, perhaps Steve Spagnuolo should convert Harper into a situational pass rusher? Seems unconventional, but given Harper’s apparent ability to rush the passer and get to him and bring him down, maybe it isn’t as farfetched as It might appear at the surface.

DaShon Goldson: This hard-hitting ballhawk was one of the reasons that the 49ers defense was as good as it was last year. Goldson stepped into the starting role in 2009 and since then has been a fairly unknown player on San Francisco’s defense but he really had his breakout season last year. Goldson was one of the better tacklers on the unit, bringing down opposing foes 56 times, assisting for 13, and had an incredible six interceptions, which led the team and got him elected to his first Pro Bowol. Now while the Pro Bowl’s not exactly the most distinguished honor, it does show that Goldson was recognized by his peers and the fans as a solid contributor to the 49ers defense and being that he got hit with the franchise tag this offseason he will stay in San Francisco and one can only imagine that will continue on for the future. Look for Goldson to make his case known to be in the Top 10 in the next few seasons. 

Eric Berry: If Eric Berry had played during the 2011 season I would not hesitate to put him in the Top 10 for the safety position. However, while it was not his fault, Berry sustained a torn ACL in the first game of the season that put him on the sidelines for the entirety of what was a lost season for the Kansas City Chiefs. You can't take away the 2010 season that Eric Berry had as a rookie because it was phenomenal. Berry was a stud coming out of the University of Tennessee and made GM Scott Pioli look like a genius for taking him with the 7th overall selection of the 2010 NFL Draft (which yours truly attended). Berry played on almost every single defensive snap that Kansas City had during the season and made the most of it, recording 72 tackles, assisting on 15, snatching four interceptions and levying two sacks as well, making the less-than-distinguished Pro Bowl but you can't take that honor away from a rookie who was recognized by his peers and was not just a no-name fraudulent selection. If Berry can rebound off the torn ACL in 2012 and play at an elite level he will no doubt catapult up my list. 

Kam Chancellor: When the Seattle Seahawks selected Earl Thomas in the 2010 NFL Draft (which I also saw) a lot of people centered in their attention on him and he performed at a ver high level in 2010. But what people may not have known nor paid attention to was the late-round selection of Kam Chancellor who in one year has developed into one hell of a football player. Chancellor had a 2011 much like Eric Berry in 2010, snatching four interceptions, breaking up eight passes, along with 73 tackles and 22 assists to go along with it and picking up one sack. He according to ProFootballFocus.com had the third-highest run stop percentage among all safeties with a stop 6.3% of the time he was on the field. Can you say, "difference maker?" Even though he had a bad habit of drawing attention to himself for the wrong reasons (hello, seven penalties) he also did a lot of great work all around the field and Seattle might have the best safety combination in the National Football League.