Fs Vs Ss

[CR91]

whats the difference? what are the responsibilities of a free safety to a strong safety and vise versa

[MTC]

Strong Safety vs. Free Safety

There are two "safety" positions on the defense in the game of football. Sometimes their jobs overlap, but many times they are assigned very distinct roles in the defense.

Strong Safety

The strong safety is more tuned in to the running game on the whole. He's a linebacker with the speed of a safety. He has to cover receivers, but has to be a strong force on a running play.

Free Safety

The free safety is the last line of defense on the football field. He's definitely more of a pass-minded defender. His job is to sit back, survey, and attack where needed. Although with the sophistication of some offenses, he will inevitably be required to "fill" on running plays, as he's often the only one unblocked.

http://football.abou...Free_Safety.htm

[CR91]

http://football.abou...Free_Safety.htm

thanks alot

[CR91]

so from that definition we really used bethea as more of a ss then a fs this season

[21isSuperman]

so from that definition we really used bethea as more of a ss then a fs this season

Or you could argue that our defense was so bad that offensive players made it to our last line of defense easily, causing Bethea to make plays. Polamalu is a great SS, but would be a terrible FS because he isn't very good in coverage. When healthy, I haven't seen a better safety tandem than Bethea and Bob.

[CR91]

Or you could argue that our defense was so bad that offensive players made it to our last line of defense easily, causing Bethea to make plays. Polamalu is a great SS, but would be a terrible FS because he isn't very good in coverage. When healthy, I haven't seen a better safety tandem than Bethea and Bob.

no doubt bob and antoine were the best which is why i want landry. landry would attack and bethea would survey the field and play center field. imo no one plays center field better then bethea other then ed reed.

[21isSuperman]

no doubt bob and antoine were the best which is why i want landry. landry would attack and bethea would survey the field and play center field. imo no one plays center field better then bethea other then ed reed.

Exactly. Bethea is really underrated, but he is the 2nd best FS (and arguably the 2nd best safety) in the league

[RGIII]

ManningToCollie's pull from About sums up the stereotypical distinction rather nicely. In practice, though, it's entirely dependent on scheme and available personnel first and foremost. If you're going to play a lot of Cover 2, for example, you want both safeties to be good in deep coverage. In a primarily Cover 1 or Cover 3 based defense you might expect a greater disparity along the lines of what's already been said in this thread. In certain schemes there might be no distinguishable difference in role between the two outside of which half of the field they line up over.

no doubt bob and antoine were the best which is why i want landry. landry would attack and bethea would survey the field and play center field. imo no one plays center field better then bethea other then ed reed.

Be very careful what you wish for.

Imagine Bob Sanders. Now imagine him being 4 inches and 20 pounds bigger. Now imagine if, instead of being a surefire wrap-up tackler, he went for a lot of big hits and failed to actually bring the ballcarrier down with stunning frequency. Now imagine that, rather inexplicably considering his speed and extra size, he is particularly bad in coverage against TEs and has been known to lose in footraces with the likes of Jason Witten. Now imagine that his football instincts are somewhat diminished. Now recall just how often he missed games due to lower body injury and realize how that hasn't changed. That's basically Landry in a nutshell, a massive disappointment who just hasn't been able to pull his game together despite having gobs of physical talent. He's great if you love vanity shots, though.

Or you could argue that our defense was so bad that offensive players made it to our last line of defense easily, causing Bethea to make plays. Polamalu is a great SS, but would be a terrible FS because he isn't very good in coverage. When healthy, I haven't seen a better safety tandem than Bethea and Bob.

They were a great pairing, for sure. I'd still probably take a less balanced tandem if given the choice, though. In that 2005-2010 timeframe I'd take Ed Reed and Dawan Landry, Troy Polamalu (who I think is slightly overrated) and Ryan Clark (who I think is very underrated), Michael Griffin and Chris Hope, and perhaps even Brian Dawkins and Michael Lewis slightly over them. For the money, though, I'd go with Sean Taylor and Clark above ALL of them.

It's an admittedly biased perspective but Taylor simply had a skillset that was unparralleled by any player in NFL history. Anyone who would dare to say otherwise never really watched the man play.

[Blackhawk4]

whats the difference? what are the responsibilities of a free safety to a strong safety and vise versa

To be honest the differences are so small now it is hard to tell at times. You can honestly just call them safeties and be done with it. Both today have to be able to cover as well as play in the box at times. While Bethea might be a "FS" he still has to come up in the box at times to support the run. Bethea is still very good at coverage and will be mainly coverage, but a safety now has to be able to do it all it seems like.

[Andy]

Exactly. Bethea is really underrated, but he is the 2nd best FS (and arguably the 2nd best safety) in the league

I love Bethea, he's my favorite player on the team now. He's not arguably the 2nd bes safety in the league with Reed and Polamalu. Cmon Man! He is very underrated though, the most underrated safety and one of the most underrated players in the league along with Jon Beason, Stanford Routt, and yes Demarcus Ware. No one even talks about him or gives him as much credit as he deserves. Not many people realize how talented this guy is (Im talking aboit Ware).

[The Peytonator]

I think it comes down to how you play them a lot of the times. I personally like both my safeties to be able to cover deep halves of the field equally. If you ask me, the front 7 should be responsible for stopping the run, so you don't have to take a safety out of coverage and put him in the box to help out. If the safety stops the RB it's normally 7+ yards down the field and that means the front 7 didn't do its job.

Strong Safety and Free Safety are just determined based on what side they line up. Both guys have pretty much the same responsibilities.

[HOFClipboardHolder]

so from that definition we really used bethea as more of a ss then a fs this season

It doesn't work it that way. Bethea will always play FS on this team. The safeties' job is to cover up the mistakes of the rest of the defense. We saw Bethea help out more in the run game last season because whoever lined up at SS across from him wasnt nearly as effective at the line of scrimmage.

Polamalu plays the position the way its meant to be played. You never know where he is going to be. At times hes covering ground and intercepting passes, others hes at the line of scrimage making tackles behind the line of scrimmage.

[21isSuperman]

I love Bethea, he's my favorite player on the team now. He's not arguably the 2nd bes safety in the league with Reed and Polamalu. Cmon Man! He is very underrated though, the most underrated safety and one of the most underrated players in the league along with Jon Beason, Stanford Routt, and yes Demarcus Ware. No one even talks about him or gives him as much credit as he deserves. Not many people realize how talented this guy is (Im talking aboit Ware).

You could make an argument that he is better at Polamalu at times. Polamalu isn't that great in coverage, but is excellent at run support. Bethea is a solid tackler in run support and still does a great job playing centre field. And Demarcus Ware underrated? He is always one of the most talked about pass rushers in the league (and with good reason too, the dude is an absolute beast)