Dashon Goldson Stats - Tampa Bay Buccaneers - ESPN
Roman Harper Stats - New Orleans Saints - ESPN
If our safeties were so bad at tackling then how did they manage to have so many tackles this season? How did Roman Harper the horrible tackler manage to get 115 tackles with such horrendous tackling skills? You say our safeties are horrible, and not even NFL level players, but have you compared their stats to those of those "Great" safeties you look upto? Have you ever noticed Dashon Goldson only had 69 tackles in total last season? Obviously he did not miss that many tackles, but that is enough evidence to show that his D line does most of the work for him to make him look better then he really is. Dashon Goldson has been blessed with solid defenses most of his career that allowed him to concentrate more on his duties then Harper has. The few years Harper had a decent d line Harper did an awesome job.
Goldson only has one more interception then Harper, and Harper has the same amount of pass deflections that Goldson has. When Harper is utilized right the sack count would have been piled up, and the same goes for the FF's. YOu might say oh of course he would get 11 deflections he is targeted so much. Then whos fault is it that the Qb is not being pressured better? Of course they will go after the safety. Any other safety that would be in this team Goldson, polumalu, etc they would have been targeted the same. Don't believe me? Look at the last time The saints played the Steelers, and see how much Brees targeted Polumalu. Does it mean he sucks? Heck NO!
Either way you will disagree with me because your mind is set that our safeties are horrible, and we need better ones when only one safety had a positive grade by the pff you guys love to go by. EVen if we had Goldson here he would probably have looked worse. Honestly picture Goldson in the situation we were in last year, and tell me he would have done better. If you say yes, then you must be delusional, because we saw how well he turned up in the super bowl when his d line was doing a crap job. He was exposed for the average safety he really is. I'm not saying Roman Harper is the best safety in this league, so don't say the usual thing you say when we defend Harper, but he sure as heck ain't horrible.
The day the Saints have a decent D line, and Harper does a bad job then I will join the cut Harper bandwagon, but in till I see that I will continue to look at this hate for our safeties bandwagon, as a pure escape route. If there is any body to blame for the poor play last season it is the d line. Either way you, and I are not coaches. we are mere couch potatoes that scream at the television when things don't go the way we like. Sean Payton won a super bowl with Harper as our starting safety, and I am 100% he will do it again.