[SouperMeister]

Originally Posted by Schneed10

Rewind back to November 2007 and convince Sean Taylor not to stay in his Miami home that night? I know that's not your question but man do I miss his ability to play single-high and still cover sideline to sideline in the deep middle. You didn't even need a second safety, he became an eighth box player.

Sigh. What could have been. Still makes me emotional.

So if I have Cravens as one of my safeties I think it affects me on a game-by-game basis as I develop my gameplans. For example, if I'm facing the Eagles with their dreadful WRs this year, I think I don't bother flexing the responsibilities of the safeties. I'd tell Cravens, you look at the formation, and you line up on the strong side of the formation. If a guy goes in motion and switches the strong side of the formation to the other side of the field, then you motion with him to the other hash mark.

I tell my free safety, whoever it is, to do the opposite. On the snap, he retreats to single high while Cravens takes up a zone coverage responsibility around the seam at the 10-12 yard mark. If it's a run then he's positioned to come up and hit, if it's a pass then he's not asked to run too deep.

Since their WRs aren't that threatening, you put the onus on the corners to win, and you let the single high free safety just be responsible for saving the day and keeping the guy out of the end zone.

Right now, Barry seems to love having everyone be responsible for a side of the field. I hate it, because offenses put players in motion to move them into position for mismatches. I'd instead teach the secondary how to move as the formation shifts. Cravens goes to the strong side, Norman follows the best WR, the FS goes opposite Cravens. These players aren't dumb, it should be entirely possible to teach them this.

Now, against a team with very good WRs like the Giants with Beckham and Shepherd, I'm feeling pretty vulnerable with Cravens back there no matter what I do. So I'm probably blitzing the hell out of the Giants and hoping for the best, including sending Cravens on occasion. If my FS was Sean Taylor, I'd feel pretty good about it.

Sigh.

Watching Sean Taylor on TV didn't do justice to how good he was. I had end zone seats for 3-4 games a year while he was with us, and he typically lined up 20 yards off the line of scrimmage in the middle of the field, yet was athletic and instinctive enough to cover sideline to sideline on deep corner routes. Everything clicked that fourth season, and I had no doubt that at 24 years old, he was the best (and most feared) safety in the league. I still go back to his highlights on YouTube a couple times a year. What could have been...