Bob Magaw
Footballguy
this has the look of being the best safety class in a few years...
vaccaro and reid mid-firsts, elam late first, cyprien 2.1 (might be best IDP safety with coveted contemporary interchangeable SS/FS skill set), second rounder swearinger heir apprarent to ed reed, third rounders TJ mcdonald will start and shawn williams could be soon if he can beat out iloka...
vaccaro and reid are elite, blue chip athletes... elam and cyprien not far behind (if elam was 6'0"+, he might have been mid-first as well... cyprien may have been first if higher level of competition?)... for that matter, mcdonald has some impressive measurables (around 40" VJ?)...
it will be interesting to follow their respective careers...
vaccaro goes to a historically bad defense last year, gave up record (or close to) number of total and passing yards, with the latter contributing to former and being chief culprit for their epic ineptness... how his snaps shake out with harper and jenkins still a bit murky (sounds like they will play a lot of what is big nickel if they have three safeties on field at same time - even if vaccaro is deployed as slot CB... not sure if that will be base formation, but with league trending to increased passing, for a few years on many teams the slot CB plays more than 50% of snaps and is effectively a "starter" - mirroring the trend on offense with starting WR3, which it was designed to counteract)... he has been compared to polamalu, and someone i know mentioned blast from the past comp kenny easley (one of best safeties i ever saw with approx. contemporary ronnie lott)...
elam is commonly assumed to be ed reed replacement, at least in media, and like reed he could become the QB of secondary in year or two... but functionally, michael huff will slide into reed FS role... the more productive and consistent pollard SS role will be inherited by elam... his coverage skills are pretty good if not stellar (arguably better than many young safeties), but he is a great open field tackler, and very aggressive and physical, coupled with good instincts...
a lot has been said about cyprien already...
swearinger i haven't scouted as much, but he has an interesting skill set, with coverage skills and also a very physical, violent hitter...
mcdonald has been called stiff and tight hipped, but i think he will be a lot better than taylor mays (as far as fisher and snead are concerned, he better be, or that was wasted third round pick) - fisher praised him early in camp, though there have been too many missed tackles (not just him) in first two games... some have their doubts how well he will produce even if he keeps job... but if he gets to play in box in primarily run support capacity (he will have to cover some of time, only so much he can be protected by scheme, savvy offensive coordinators will find ways to isolate him, he will have to do better than an aging, washed up roy williams), mikell was very (like top 10) productive in recent years... there could be a lot of opportunity, as the DEs long and quinn, for whatever reason (scheme, inclination?), are not very involved in run support... if he approximates some of mikell's production, he could be very underrated and even a steal... one difference, i do expect rams offense to be better in future, if they have more long drives than in the past (lot of three and outs few years ago, in pre-fisher dark ages), could see reduced IDP opportunity for tackling positions like LB and SS - though maybe increased sack opportunity for long, quinn and brockers if they are able to "play downhill" more often, forcing opponents out of their game plan and to become unbalanced, having to pass more often...
a player i want to focus on is reid... almost everybody projects him to follow in feet of predecessor goldson (and fellow SF starting safety whitner), and be left with meager scraps playing behind almost certainly the greatest ILB tandem in league history, relegated to strictly IDP depth or worse forecast... it may turn out that logic is unassailable... though reid, like vacarro, has tantalizing athleticism and multi-talented skill set... he did play better two years ago, and some scouts interpreted that differently... some thought earlier he was "protected" by likes of top 10 pedigree CB claiborne (ie, when he had to cover more, his flaws were exposed and his overall game unravelled)... others thought he may have been trying to do too much after claiborne left, and can really shine with better surrounding talent and supporting cast?
respected independent scout frank coyle comped him with fellow LSU alum laron landry and william moore (very athletic, talented and productive, when healthy, big safeties that can run, hit, and in moore's case, cover with outstanding ball skills)... he does miss sometimes (again, like most young safeties), but when he is on can be a blow up tackler in run game, and has some range... he will be FS, with whitner entrenched as SS... if whitner leaves in few years, reid is versatile enough he could play SS, but not sure if he developes in coverage they would elect to make that switch...
one point i wanted to make is, projecting based on historical precedents with goldson may be off the mark in one important respect... reid won't be playing NFC West divisional foes from years past... it is an ascendant division that many are calling best in NFL, not just SF and SEA, but rams are on the up, and even the cards should be lot better in 2013... specifically, passing offenses could be lot better compared to few years ago... russell wilson was top 3 second half of rookie season after training wheels removed... bradford set career highs in yardage and TDs and is primed to do so again in 2013, and palmer may (i'd say does) have best aggregate receiving weapons of career...
so there could be situation where, not only more competent overall offenses make for more opportunity, but specifically vastly improved passing games could make more downfield plays, OVER THE TOP OF LBs, creating even further opportunity for reid (if whitner is deployed closer to LOS, and reid with more deep coverage responsibilities)...
vaccaro and reid mid-firsts, elam late first, cyprien 2.1 (might be best IDP safety with coveted contemporary interchangeable SS/FS skill set), second rounder swearinger heir apprarent to ed reed, third rounders TJ mcdonald will start and shawn williams could be soon if he can beat out iloka...
vaccaro and reid are elite, blue chip athletes... elam and cyprien not far behind (if elam was 6'0"+, he might have been mid-first as well... cyprien may have been first if higher level of competition?)... for that matter, mcdonald has some impressive measurables (around 40" VJ?)...
it will be interesting to follow their respective careers...
vaccaro goes to a historically bad defense last year, gave up record (or close to) number of total and passing yards, with the latter contributing to former and being chief culprit for their epic ineptness... how his snaps shake out with harper and jenkins still a bit murky (sounds like they will play a lot of what is big nickel if they have three safeties on field at same time - even if vaccaro is deployed as slot CB... not sure if that will be base formation, but with league trending to increased passing, for a few years on many teams the slot CB plays more than 50% of snaps and is effectively a "starter" - mirroring the trend on offense with starting WR3, which it was designed to counteract)... he has been compared to polamalu, and someone i know mentioned blast from the past comp kenny easley (one of best safeties i ever saw with approx. contemporary ronnie lott)...
elam is commonly assumed to be ed reed replacement, at least in media, and like reed he could become the QB of secondary in year or two... but functionally, michael huff will slide into reed FS role... the more productive and consistent pollard SS role will be inherited by elam... his coverage skills are pretty good if not stellar (arguably better than many young safeties), but he is a great open field tackler, and very aggressive and physical, coupled with good instincts...
a lot has been said about cyprien already...
swearinger i haven't scouted as much, but he has an interesting skill set, with coverage skills and also a very physical, violent hitter...
mcdonald has been called stiff and tight hipped, but i think he will be a lot better than taylor mays (as far as fisher and snead are concerned, he better be, or that was wasted third round pick) - fisher praised him early in camp, though there have been too many missed tackles (not just him) in first two games... some have their doubts how well he will produce even if he keeps job... but if he gets to play in box in primarily run support capacity (he will have to cover some of time, only so much he can be protected by scheme, savvy offensive coordinators will find ways to isolate him, he will have to do better than an aging, washed up roy williams), mikell was very (like top 10) productive in recent years... there could be a lot of opportunity, as the DEs long and quinn, for whatever reason (scheme, inclination?), are not very involved in run support... if he approximates some of mikell's production, he could be very underrated and even a steal... one difference, i do expect rams offense to be better in future, if they have more long drives than in the past (lot of three and outs few years ago, in pre-fisher dark ages), could see reduced IDP opportunity for tackling positions like LB and SS - though maybe increased sack opportunity for long, quinn and brockers if they are able to "play downhill" more often, forcing opponents out of their game plan and to become unbalanced, having to pass more often...
a player i want to focus on is reid... almost everybody projects him to follow in feet of predecessor goldson (and fellow SF starting safety whitner), and be left with meager scraps playing behind almost certainly the greatest ILB tandem in league history, relegated to strictly IDP depth or worse forecast... it may turn out that logic is unassailable... though reid, like vacarro, has tantalizing athleticism and multi-talented skill set... he did play better two years ago, and some scouts interpreted that differently... some thought earlier he was "protected" by likes of top 10 pedigree CB claiborne (ie, when he had to cover more, his flaws were exposed and his overall game unravelled)... others thought he may have been trying to do too much after claiborne left, and can really shine with better surrounding talent and supporting cast?
respected independent scout frank coyle comped him with fellow LSU alum laron landry and william moore (very athletic, talented and productive, when healthy, big safeties that can run, hit, and in moore's case, cover with outstanding ball skills)... he does miss sometimes (again, like most young safeties), but when he is on can be a blow up tackler in run game, and has some range... he will be FS, with whitner entrenched as SS... if whitner leaves in few years, reid is versatile enough he could play SS, but not sure if he developes in coverage they would elect to make that switch...
one point i wanted to make is, projecting based on historical precedents with goldson may be off the mark in one important respect... reid won't be playing NFC West divisional foes from years past... it is an ascendant division that many are calling best in NFL, not just SF and SEA, but rams are on the up, and even the cards should be lot better in 2013... specifically, passing offenses could be lot better compared to few years ago... russell wilson was top 3 second half of rookie season after training wheels removed... bradford set career highs in yardage and TDs and is primed to do so again in 2013, and palmer may (i'd say does) have best aggregate receiving weapons of career...
so there could be situation where, not only more competent overall offenses make for more opportunity, but specifically vastly improved passing games could make more downfield plays, OVER THE TOP OF LBs, creating even further opportunity for reid (if whitner is deployed closer to LOS, and reid with more deep coverage responsibilities)...
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