Best Safety in the AFC North?

[Bryan]

With Polamalu retired and Ed Reed long gone, the best safety picture is a little muddled. So, who ya got as the best safety? Free, Strong, doesn't matter.

[Stormborn]

(05-19-2015, 11:22 PM)Bryan Wrote: With Polamalu retired and Ed Reed long gone, the best safety picture is a little muddled. So, who ya got as the best safety? Free, Strong, doesn't matter.

Cleveland's duo was impressive last year, as was ours.

Gipson and Iloka would be a good combo, or Hitner if you need a true SS

But I'm a homer, Iloka.

[milksheikh]

I thought Gipson was pretty good and Whitner isn't too bad either..

But I will go with Iloka, he is young and is as good as them IMO.

[djs7685]

Iloka led the league last year in cover snaps per reception. Will Hill was actually #2 in this category, and he had a solid year after his suspension.

Nelson and Iloka were 2nd and 3rd respectively in PD last year. Iloka had a great year in coverage all together, Nelson continues to be underrated. Shawn Williams hasn't shown much. The Bengals are definitely thin at this position, they obviously rely heavily on their starters remaining as healthy as they've been recently.

Jeromy Miles (of all people) played extremely well in Baltimore for the most part. What's going on with him? Is he still a free agent? I'd have thought he'd have some interest from Baltimore and other teams after last season. Kendrick Lewis isn't bad but isn't great either. Elam is just awful. Not sure about the other young guys on their roster.

Gipson just had an overall great year last season. I'd say he's probably the best in the division until further notice. Iloka could be a contender for that title and we'll have to see if Hill can keep up his high level of play while staying out of trouble. Whitner is good, he's probably the only household name at S left in the division with Ward, Polamalu, and Reed all being gone. Again, not sure of their young guys.

The Steelers better hope Shamarko Thomas is capable of doing something other than playing on special teams. They also better hope that Mike Mitchell decides to play better in the future. Mitchell gave up an obscene 128.8 passer rating last year with 0 PD and 0 INT. He wasn't good against the run either having only 3 total stops in 350+ run snaps. He's going to start accounting for $6.7+ million of their cap hit for 2016 and beyond and he also carries a hefty dead cap number until 2017-2018. Will Allen is about to be 33 and he isn't very good to begin with, but that's probably why he's a backup. Pittsburgh looks rough at S.

There are some VERY good safeties in this division right now, but not many of them are media darlings that get a lot of love outside of their respective city.

It's kind of crazy talking about good safeties in the division and every team but the Steelers comes to mind.

[Blitzburgh06]

(05-20-2015, 09:17 AM)djs7685 Wrote: Iloka led the league last year in cover snaps per reception. Will Hill was actually #2 in this category, and he had a solid year after his suspension.

Nelson and Iloka were 2nd and 3rd respectively in PD last year. Iloka had a great year in coverage all together, Nelson continues to be underrated. Shawn Williams hasn't shown much. The Bengals are definitely thin at this position, they obviously rely heavily on their starters remaining as healthy as they've been recently.

Jeromy Miles (of all people) played extremely well in Baltimore for the most part. What's going on with him? Is he still a free agent? I'd have thought he'd have some interest from Baltimore and other teams after last season. Kendrick Lewis isn't bad but isn't great either. Elam is just awful. Not sure about the other young guys on their roster.

Gipson just had an overall great year last season. I'd say he's probably the best in the division until further notice. Iloka could be a contender for that title and we'll have to see if Hill can keep up his high level of play while staying out of trouble. Whitner is good, he's probably the only household name at S left in the division with Ward, Polamalu, and Reed all being gone. Again, not sure of their young guys.

The Steelers better hope Shamarko Thomas is capable of doing something other than playing on special teams. They also better hope that Mike Mitchell decides to play better in the future. Mitchell gave up an obscene 128.8 passer rating last year with 0 PD and 0 INT. He wasn't good against the run either having only 3 total stops in 350+ run snaps. He's going to start accounting for $6.7+ million of their cap hit for 2016 and beyond and he also carries a hefty dead cap number until 2017-2018.  Will Allen is about to be 33 and he isn't very good to begin with, but that's probably why he's a backup. Pittsburgh looks rough at S.

There are some VERY good safeties in this division right now, but not many of them are media darlings that get a lot of love outside of their respective city.

It's kind of crazy talking about good safeties in the division and every team but the Steelers comes to mind.

They're rebuilding. They will be back in the conversation soon. Just going to take a few years. Offense is fine, the defense needs rebuilding. This years draft addressed a ton of the issues that we had. We will see if it actually fixes them.

[Bmoreblitz]

My vote is for Gipson. Nelson had a very good year. Watch out for Hill this year if he plays a full season.

[djs7685]

(05-20-2015, 09:42 AM)Blitzburgh06 Wrote: They're rebuilding. They will be back in the conversation soon. Just going to take a few years. Offense is fine, the defense needs rebuilding. This years draft addressed a ton of the issues that we had. We will see if it actually fixes them.

The Steelers offense is pretty sick, no doubt. As a fan of the Bengals, I hope that rebuilding process takes a while I could be wrong, but I don't see anyone on the Steelers roster even coming close to competing for playing time at S. Allen is older and not very good, and who else is back there? It really looks like they're set with Mitchell and Thomas, hopefully (for your sake) it works out for you guys. Also, it will be interesting and even somewhat disappointing to not see Dick LeBeau around anymore.

(05-20-2015, 10:05 AM)Bmoreblitz Wrote: My vote is for Gipson. Nelson had a very good year. Watch out for Hill this year if he plays a full season.

If he starts paying child support

Seriously though, Hill came out of nowhere. Gipson, Hill, and Iloka are all very under the radar safeties that could all be among the best in the entire league next year.

[*rfaulk34*]

(05-20-2015, 10:05 AM)Bmoreblitz Wrote: My vote is for Gipson. Nelson had a very good year. Watch out for Hill this year if he plays a full season.

Gipson, Hill and Miles all played much less snaps than the others, last year. Remains to be seen if their production can hold up under a higher snap count.

Iloka really took a step up last year and i think Nelson is on the downhill side of his best productivity. I wonder how much he still has left in the tank. Whitner is getting up there in age too.

[Blitzburgh06]

(05-20-2015, 10:37 AM)djs7685 Wrote: The Steelers offense is pretty sick, no doubt. As a fan of the Bengals, I hope that rebuilding process takes a while I could be wrong, but I don't see anyone on the Steelers roster even coming close to competing for playing time at S. Allen is older and not very good, and who else is back there? It really looks like they're set with Mitchell and Thomas, hopefully (for your sake) it works out for you guys. Also, it will be interesting and even somewhat disappointing to not see Dick LeBeau around anymore

I'm actually excited to see a new defense. I appreciate everything Dick LeBeau has done for the Steelers. He is one of the GOATs when it comes to defensive cord and player. But his defense just didnt work anymore. The Steelers don't have those type of players to make it work.

Steelers offense I think will be the number 1 offense in the league this year. I expect the defense to be 15-25.

[*jason*]

George Iloka

[Johnny Cupcakes]

Iloka is a really good safety who has flown under the radar up to this point in his career. I don't think calling him the best in the division is a great compliment though....the division was weak on safety play last year.

[Stormborn]

(05-20-2015, 11:10 PM)Johnny Cupcakes Wrote: Iloka is a really good safety who has flown under the radar up to this point in his career.  I don't think calling him the best in the division is a great compliment though....the division was weak on safety play last year.

Shitting on the Browns is almost always acceptable.

But they had a great safety duo last year.

[magikod]

Gipson gets my vote.