Troy, Ed and Bob, Playing Bass

So I'm having this OM chat with Mookie -- you all know Mookie, right? Seems like everyone does -- and we're talking about our FFL teams, and both of us are trying very hard to say something about the other guy's team, because otherwise you won't hear anyone else's opinion about what you did.

And suddenly it strikes me, as I wonder what exactly led me to take the Pittsburgh defense a year after this caused widespread pain and suffering... just why, exactly, are three units from perpetual AFC playoff contenders (Pittsburgh, Baltimore and Indy) so dependent on the health of one particular star safety (Troy Polamalu, Ed Reed and Bob Sanders) to achieve competence?

Playing safety, honestly, is kind of the football equivalent of playing bass. You usually wind up doing it because someone told you that you weren't big enough to play linebacker, fast enough to play corner, or had the hands to play offense. It's the position that's most likely to be covered by someone doing double-duty on special teams, and while you can have a long and storied career there, it's much more likely that you are an aging physical corner that's on his way out of the league, or a cannon fodder body that's good at run support until the concussions come calling.

And yet they are also, at least historically, some of the most loved players on a defense. Ask any Eagle Fan about Wes Hopkins or Andre Waters, and they'll get misty with the warmness of the memories. Then, they'll talk about Brian Dawkins, and how he compares, and that the team has had no balls since his departure, and how they were there at some game when B-Dawk did his Wolverine In Flight routine, or when he de-pantsed any of the hundreds of guys that he terrified in his decade here.

That's because safeties are rarely the only person to blame on a defensive breakdown; there is usually some corner -- some namby-pamby, no hitting cover big school coastal elitist, and I am looking at you, Bobby Taylor / Lito Sheppard / Rod Hood / One Thousand Other Names I'm Trying Very Hard To Forget, who never comes up big when you need him. Poor plugger safety X, who never got the breaks from God or Coach or his parent's genetics? He got totally left out to dry on that. Just like the bassist.

Anyway, back to the case of the three contenders who have their seasons hang by the last thread. The reason why is that all of these guys give their teams a huge advantage by playing three roles at once. All of them can impact the running game like the rent-a-stuntman guys, but can also impact the passing game, either as an elite level blitzer or a premium cover guy against top flight tight ends. And it's impossible to do all three of those jobs at a high level and remain healthy. The run game and the tight end will wear you out physically, and the blitzing and the drop back into coverage means that you can never mask a game with a bad hamstring or wonky knee. Show me a safety that's gutting it out at 65%, and I'll show you a fatal liability.

If any of these guys were lesser players, they'd play more. And their teams wouldn't contend, their jerseys wouldn't sell, and their teams would be dreaming of an upgrade... the kind you usually only get once a generation. And then, not long enough.