Faith in the New Orleans Saints replacement safety seems to low, around the league. ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler has been sharing a series of positional rankings decided on by votes from NFL executives, coaches, scouts, and players. There are a couple of rankings from the safeties ranking that Saints fans should take a look at.
First, Marcus Williams left the team in free agency earlier this year on a 5-year contract with the Baltimore Ravens. Polling results ended up ranking him eighth-best in the league. Here is what was said about him:
“Once he gets going, he has the best range in the league,” an AFC defensive coach said. “Closing on the ball, he’s ridiculously good.”
“One of the better eye manipulators,” an NFL coordinator said. “He’s in a battle with the quarterback, and if you slip, he’s coming for the ball.”
An NFC exec added: “I see him at a good level, not elite. He played on a very good defense that put him in a position to succeed. He took advantage of the opportunities. But I don’t see the same instincts that you see in the top players.”
Williams is one of the best young safeties in the league, so it is no surprise to seem him listed higher than newcomers Tyrann Mathieu and Marcus Maye, but what is surprising is that Mathieu was not rated in the top ten. He is a veteran who is extremely versatile, and is still one of the leagues best defensive playmakers. He did earn an honorable mention, where they said this:
“Sure, some voters saw some decline from Mathieu after nine postseasons in the league. But one member of a team’s personnel wonders if that’s overblown. “Who has better instincts than him?” the voter said. The Saints signed Mathieu to a three-year, $28.3 million contract this offseason.”
While I do believe that Maye was a good signing, I do not believe that him not being in either the top ten nor the honorable mentions is all that surprising or offensive. Still, that goes to show that things are changing at safety for New Orleans — and they may be taking a step back from the duo of Marcus Williams and Malcolm Jenkins, at least as far as the perception among their peers is concerned. Mathieu and Maye are a couple of accomplished veterans in their own right. Now they’ve got to go out and prove they’re just as capable as the players they’re replacing.
