Are Safties The New Running Backs?
March 8th, 2024
Contract chess.
It was a little curious that the Bucs franchised All-Pro safety Antoine Winfield.
Just a little.
Joe thought maybe the Bucs would lock him up with a long-term deal. They still may. Often, using a franchise tag on a player is nothing more than buying extra time to get a multiyear deal worked out.
But Jonathan Jones of CBS had an interesting suggestion yesterday. With all the safeties getting thrown to the curb in recent days under the guise of a salary causalities, Jones makes the case that safety is the new running back.
Running backs are some of the lowest-paid positions on an NFL roster, in part because of their short shelf lives.
Jones found out talking to NFL personnel people that teams can get away with low-cost safeties so long as you have a smart player.
Just like the running back market has cratered in recent years, the safety position has done something similar. There are some safeties worth paying, like a Derwin James or Antoine Winfield Jr. or Kyle Hamilton in a few years.
But more than $103 million across the league has been saved in 2024 cash salary at the safety position, according to Over The Cap. That’s the most by far of any position group, outpacing the cornerback salary shed by early $40 million.
“There’s so much opportunity to overcome physical talent with high level intellect and intangibles. So you don’t have to overspend to get production,” one NFL personnel executive told CBS Sports. “You can draft these guys Day 3 or put low free-agency resources into them and get production back if they are smart.”
The Bucs tried to go the cheap route last year with Ryan Neal and that didn’t work out at all. Maybe this is why Bucs AC/DC-loving general manager Jason Licht said in Indianapolis he’s inclined to give two in-house candidates a spin at safety to try to win Neal’s old job: Christian Izien or Kaevon Merriweather.
As for Winfield, July 15 is the deadline to work out a deal with a franchised player. By then, Bucs fans should know whether the Bucs want Winfield long-term, and at what price.
March 8th, 2024 at 9:05 am
even if they are the new running backs, our guy is the derrick henry of safeties. Id like to have him on the team for a loooooong time.
March 8th, 2024 at 9:05 am
Why did Neal perform so poorly last season? Would he do better next year? Or is he just not good?
March 8th, 2024 at 9:07 am
ken,
Neal just kinda Stinks man. The NFL aint for everyone…
March 8th, 2024 at 9:20 am
Don’t think any of the teams felt real good about releasing their players. Getting under the Cap is either release players or kick the can.
More money that gets thrown at the ‘most important position’ the less there is to pay others.
Bucs played with a lot of rookies and UFA last season because they had a legitimate shot at a Super Bowl and brought in a legitimate Super Bowl QB.
When Bucs are back in that situation I am pretty sure they will do it again but not in 2024. It’s back to smart spending.
March 8th, 2024 at 9:27 am
Neal’s lack of ability to cover affected the entire defense, leading to 2 decent man corners flailing away at zone with a 10 yard cushion
March 8th, 2024 at 9:30 am
Yo I bet we can get Jordan Poyer cheap cheap, or give Tre White like 5 million. This extra play money from CAP boost is pretty nice NGL
March 8th, 2024 at 9:33 am
Winfield is the “physical talent with high level intellect and intangibles” which has made him amazing and one of the few safeties worth a massive contract. He has literally won us games that a lesser safety would have failed because of lack of physical talent, intellect and intangibles.
March 8th, 2024 at 9:34 am
I completely agree with elite bucs’ comments above. I’m not going to sit here and pretend I know the nuances of how teams can get away with paying less for a “smarter” player. All I know is that Antoine Winfield Jr. is a game changing safety and a super star. You can’t let that guy walk out of the building when he’s in the prime of his career.
March 8th, 2024 at 9:46 am
Absolutely!
March 8th, 2024 at 9:47 am
When one or two players make more than 45% of a team’s available salary cap number. It surely does make for having to cut good players at prime positions, like Safety.
We should be looking at bringing in our former Safeties who bolted for more money and greener pastures only to be cast aside as that team’s cap amount is used up on their new teams’ other needed players. Whitehead, and Edwards, should be talked with about bringing them both back to the Buccaneers’ defense.
We could also use this same philosophy in our FA pursuit of a C, G, MLB, CB, OLB, DE, DT. Fill in those we missed or feel we need to upgrade with our draft choices. Of course, this all wraps its hands around the signing of Mayfield, and his % of our salary cap numbers. I am very wary of passing the 25-30% cap total in 1 player, Not named Brady.
GO!!!!!BUCS!!!!!
March 8th, 2024 at 9:59 am
Great safeties have the intellect to diagnose and put themselves in position to win more than lose. AWII fits squarely in that box.
Bring Whitehead back to play SS, we should have never let him go -love his physical play and he compliments AWII perfectly.
March 8th, 2024 at 10:02 am
Edwards left us for a one-year 3 million contract, we saved 1.5 million by replacing him with Neal, which probably cost us a couple games
March 8th, 2024 at 10:02 am
Baker was the player that seemed to make the most sense to franchise. The Bucs could see if he had an upward trajectory in year two. If the answer is yes that means the Bucs are competing for a Super Bowl and would have to pay him a gigantic salary going forward, but if the answer is no then they could easily go in a different direction without being in the Broncos position.
March 8th, 2024 at 10:08 am
I can see us getting Whitehead back now too to pair with Winfield and that would be huge and not bank breaking
March 8th, 2024 at 10:22 am
Bringing back Whitehead would be a huge boost for this defense and would allow Bowles to use Winfield even better.
March 8th, 2024 at 10:41 am
apparently not, as they did not sign him long term
March 8th, 2024 at 10:51 am
@Ocala
That’s what I said. They probably should’ve franchise tagged Baker & then signed Antoine to a deal. But what do the fans know.🙄
March 8th, 2024 at 10:59 am
If you’re a generational talent (like Wirfs & Winfield), you’ll get paid regardless of what position you play. Primarily because they’re IMPACT PLAYERS who the other team has to account for on every play. Amazing that we drafted BOTH of them in the same year (pick #13 & pick #45).
March 8th, 2024 at 11:02 am
A little over a year ago, one publication was rating safeties.
They had Winfield as 4th best. Interestingly enough they had Ryan Neal as 8th best. That publication was PFF.
Maybe, the GM’s really do know more than the PFF raters. There was a reason why Ryan Neal was available for next to nothing last year.
March 8th, 2024 at 11:06 am
POSITION VS PRODUCTION
Winfield wins games. His play literally won 2-3 games last year. If you swap out Winfield with any other player, the Bucs don’t make the playoffs.
You pay your playmakers. You pay the guys who win the games.
March 8th, 2024 at 11:09 am
BigPoppaBuc … ‘Bringing back Whitehead would be a huge boost for this defense and would allow Bowles to use Winfield even better.’
Great observation Big Poppa. Winfield & Whitehead complemented each other well back in 2020 & 2021 when they played together. Bucs defense obviously did very well during those years, helping us win a SB in 2020 & come reasonably close in 2021. That despite the fact that together they missed 7 games due to injury in 2021 (they both like to hit hard it seems).
March 8th, 2024 at 11:18 am
ocala Says:
Baker was the player that seemed to make the most sense to franchise.
—————————————————————————————
Had they franchised Baker his entire salary would have counted against the cap this season unless they later signed him to a long term deal prior to July 15th.
That would give him even more leverage in negotiations as they don’t want that much counting against the cap.
March 8th, 2024 at 11:23 am
yes
^^mtn^^
since ’76
March 8th, 2024 at 11:28 am
“Defense Rules Says:
If you’re a generational talent (like Wirfs & Winfield), you’ll get paid regardless of what position you play. Primarily because they’re IMPACT PLAYERS who the other team has to account for on every play. Amazing that we drafted BOTH of them in the same year (pick #13 & pick #45).”
BINGO!
Winfield will reset the market which means over 19m per yr
^^mtn^^
since ’76
March 8th, 2024 at 11:38 am
“There’s so much opportunity to overcome physical talent with high level intellect and intangibles.”
This is especially true with quarterbacks. All the hyping of runaround quarterbacks is for naught
March 8th, 2024 at 11:41 am
“There’s so much opportunity to overcome physical talent with high level intellect and intangibles.”
This is particularly true of quarterbacks. All the hyping of runaround quarterbacks for their athleticism is for naught – how many have won a Super Bowl since 2000? – as most lack the intellect to run NFL offenses.
March 8th, 2024 at 11:55 am
As far as the tag. You take a bottle of Well Liquor and put a shot price of $12 next to a bottle of Crown Royal with a shot price of $8 and you will sell some Crown Royal even if it is a little over priced. Winfield is Crown Royal in this case. Licht seems like a guy that knows his Liquor and didn’t mind. Can’t say he knows Beer based on some photos I’ve seen but he does like a bargain at times.
March 8th, 2024 at 12:30 pm
Bucs couldn’t afford to sign whitehead at the time long term plus they had Edwards to fill in and we have been struggling there since . The cap has increased a lot since. He already knows the defense , gets INTs and the way he hits is something either you have or you don’t. We wouldn’t of made it to the super bowl if it wasn’t for a couple of those hits
March 8th, 2024 at 12:42 pm
Winfield is SMART and an athlete, that’s the difference and that’s why he should get paid.
March 8th, 2024 at 1:10 pm
Lock him up long term. He’s not a bone crushing safety and I mean this in a good way at because it will prolong his career. Barber moved to safety which helped him keep playing longer. RB don’t have long careers even with all the safety rules in place. Bone crushing safety’s careers are more like RB. AW31 is not just smart but he’s a great tackler. He checks all the boxes and will most likely have a long career compared to other safety’s. James is a really good safety but the dude is hurt most of the time. When AW31 plays his natural position at safety and not nik corner he’s not as injury prone and the defense plays better too. Bring back whitehead. They pair really well together and that defense won a SB together. Add a legit pass rusher to pair with yaya n kancey maybe 2 pass rusher. Can never have to many
March 8th, 2024 at 1:32 pm
More than likely he hasn’t been signed because of this with Mayfield and his contract status. Winfield is very important to this team, and he has played well his entire career with the Bucs so far so this isn’t a one hit wonder player. I would have like to see him signed as soon as they finish with Evans.
March 8th, 2024 at 1:58 pm
Safeties are running back sized, more or less, and most plays they run into folks full speed, again like running backs. Most don’t seem to hold up at a very high level. At the same time, they’re not physical freaks like edge rushers so there’s more of them.
March 8th, 2024 at 3:49 pm
Runningbacks are a dime and dozen, and you can literally pick someone up off the street and start them that week if you had too.
Safety is a position that generally takes a year or two to learn, and changing schemes can be a big deal – you can’t just throw anyone back there.
Also if a RB isn’t any good, unless he’s fumbling, he’s not killing your team – he’s just not helping your team. Where as a bad system — please, go back and look up the names Chris Conte, M.J. Stewart, Ryan Smith. Those guys single handedly lost you games.
But I get the point, it’s like with the HOF, for some reasons safeties are not considered all that important, when that’s an incredibly stupid take based on how few are good, and how long they take to develop.
March 8th, 2024 at 4:03 pm
Loss of good, and ne or two exceptional safeties on the market. But for teams like the Packers that need Safeties and a Running back, it seems like a good time to have those as positions those needs.
March 8th, 2024 at 4:07 pm
Keep Izien at the nickel position, IMO.
Delaney looked okay at safety though (certainly better than at outside CB)
March 8th, 2024 at 4:44 pm
“Rod Munch Says:Safety is a position that generally takes a year or two to learn”
White wasn’t all that his 1st season and didn’t RJ II take more than 2 years to get anything out of him?
^^mtn^^
Since ’76
March 8th, 2024 at 5:18 pm
^^mtn^^ – White had a very good 1st year, considering the limitations for Leftwich and the offensive line when it comes to run blocking.
As for Rojo, well, he was a bit special. But it’s also worth remember, seemingly every single time he had a good play as a rookie, it got called back on a penalty.
But, again, both of them didn’t kill your team. Look at Neal last year, he personally cost the team at least two games with blown coverage or taking bad angles.
As for RBs, teams almost always throw them out there early – with only pass blocking being something where they might take them off the field and giving them some time to learn the system.
March 8th, 2024 at 5:25 pm
Yeah, for shore, Neal was a mistake
Fantastic market for S this go round tho, think the Bucs will score a S big time
^^mtn^^
March 9th, 2024 at 8:06 am
Neal was a Pro Bowler but in his 5th season or something like that. Worth a flyer I guess, but familiarity with HIS team probably helped the most. A new scheme was too much for him. That equals not smart IMO.
I love the Whitehead idea because of familiarity. On the flip side I don’t think we go after Jamal Adams or Justin Simmons. Spend money on Bryce Huff if you are gonna splurge. I wouldn’t mess with moving Izien. He can become an Avontae Maddox of sorts for us for a long time at nickel. If we can trade Davis and draft Desean or McKinstry then we can spend on OLB and ILB. This is even if we resign Mayfield.
March 9th, 2024 at 11:10 am
@BillyBucco
agree
^^mtn^^
since ’76