Who are your starting Safeties
 

I think everyone agrees that our weakest link last year was our safeties. Between Meriweather's injuries, and Jackson's suspension, we were most definitely outplayed in that part of the field. Now with P Thomas's injury and IR status, we are left wondering if it will be much better this year. For the sake of this poll, please [U]select the 2 safeties[/U] you think should be on the field opening night against the Eagles.

(If the mod's think this is redundant to the 53 roster thread, feel free to lock it)

Re: Who are your starting Safeties
 

Meriweather and Rambo.

Doughty as a fine next man up.

Re: Who are your starting Safeties
 

Merriweather and Rambo.

If Merriweather is healthy no question he should be starting SS, with Reed backing up and getting play in some packages.

Rambo been playing and starting and has earned it so far at FS. I'd bring back Tarnard Jackson and play him behind Rambo. If Rambo struggles, then transition Tarnard back to FS as he rounds into football shape. This is contingent if T Jax is reinstated.

Re: Who are your starting Safeties
 

Whoops! I messed up on the poll due to my reading deficiency. I said TJ in week one but I don't think he'll start until after the bye week. I'd guess that Rambo may start until TJ is ready to go.

Re: Who are your starting Safeties
 

If Tanard Jackson can play he should start. If not it should be Rambo and Meriweather. Still kind of a bad situation because Rambo would get the starting job because there really is no one else on the team that can play Free. Might be a long year again.

Re: Who are your starting Safeties
 

My only fear with Meriweather is his health. I would rather Reed be out there and that way everyone on D knows what to expect from the Safety position. He's a solid tackler, but won't make the side to side plays as quickly so both Hazlett(via scheme) and the corners know their responsibilities on the outside. Meriweather ought to sit and come in on obvious passing downs to give the added range, until we know he can stay healthy.

Obviously, Rambo is a lock in our fan's collective mind.

Re: Who are your starting Safeties
 

Reed and Rambo. I don't trust Meriweather's health yet.

Actually, I probably trust him more for week 1 than week 2

Re: Who are your starting Safeties
 

Meriweather and Rambo...no question.

However, the most crucial decision may be who Meriweather's backup is. I was counting on Thomas taking over later in the season at SS...now...Doughty? We may seem him starting games again this year despite our attempted upgrades. Hopefully, Rambo stays healthy.

The wild card is Tanard Jackson's reinstatement. He could start immediately if/when Meriweather goes down.

We might see Rambo shift to SS if Meriweather goes down and Jackson is either not eligible or not performing there.

Just when we thought the safety questions were answered...

Re: Who are your starting Safeties
 

At this point we need to be really trying to find out if T Jax is in shape and wants to play as well as doing our due dillegence with the league trying to find out the soonest possible date for the decision and what that decision will be.

Re: Who are your starting Safeties
 

[quote=SmootSmack;1018801]Reed and Rambo. I don't trust Meriweather's health yet.

Actually, I probably trust him more for week 1 than week 2[/quote]

Exactly what I picked. Ideally I'd like Meriwrather over Doughty but until he can prove he's fully healed up from his pretty significant injury last year, have to go with the guy that can go full speed.

Re: Who are your starting Safeties
 

If Jackson is reinstated it will likely take him a few weeks to get back into football shape and up to speed with the D. Now we can see why they didn't just cut him loose this offseason. He could still play an important role this year.

As for week 1 starters I'll go with Doughty and Rambo.

Re: Who are your starting Safeties
 

A back up, rookie safety gets hurt, and people are already acting as if we lost a starter for the year.

Chill people. And I think our starters are meriweather and Rambo.

Re: Who are your starting Safeties
 

Thomas was key depth and a possible starter-in-waiting for one of the worst secondaries in the NFL last year. He was an important player going into 2013. All of the secondary upgrades are. Our starters and immediate backups were finally starting to look promising. Now, our depth is looking less and less stable with no Thomas and we know Meriweather won't play 16 games.

If we lose Rambo, our safety positions are EXACTLY where they were last year with Doughty, Gomes, Pugh...is Bernstein healthy? Move Hall to FS with Amerson starting at CB?

I'm not panicking yet but don't kid yourself, this is a big loss.

Re: Who are your starting Safeties
 

[quote=CultBrennan59;1018854]A back up, rookie safety gets hurt, and people are already acting as if we lost a starter for the year.

Chill people. And I think our starters are meriweather and Rambo.[/quote]

Well given that our safeties were horrid last year, and a solid healthy camp by PThomas certainly would have had him challenging for a starter's role, his loss is certainly the biggest non-griff story line in camp so far.

Re: Who are your starting Safeties
 

Rambo and then who knows. We know with a rookie back there we're going to have growing pains at free safety. Strong safety is a mess. We don't have anyone there that can cover anyone.

Re: Who are your starting Safeties
 

[quote=CultBrennan59;1018854]A back up, rookie safety gets hurt, and people are already acting as if we lost a starter for the year.

Chill people. And I think our starters are meriweather and Rambo.[/quote]

I agree. Thomas might not have started all year long. But let's also remember Meriweather basically didn't play last year, before that he was cut by both NE and Chicago.

Re: Who are your starting Safeties
 

Who's bugging out over the loss of Thomas exactly? I took it as we're just talking about the safety group.

Re: Who are your starting Safeties
 

[quote=Mattyk;1018876]Who's bugging out over the loss of Thomas exactly? I took it as we're just talking about the safety group.[/quote]

I think everyone is just generally nervous about the safety situation.

Re: Who are your starting Safeties
 

[quote=donofriose;1018877]I think everyone is just generally nervous about the safety situation.[/quote]

With or without Thomas I get that.

But I don't think anyone is "freaking out" over Thomas as some have said.

Re: Who are your starting Safeties
 

[quote=Monkeydad;1018864]Thomas was key depth and a possible starter-in-waiting for one of the worst secondaries in the NFL last year. He was an important player going into 2013. All of the secondary upgrades are. Our starters and immediate backups were finally starting to look promising. Now, our depth is looking less and less stable with no Thomas and we know Meriweather won't play 16 games.

[B]If we lose Rambo, our safety positions are EXACTLY where they were last year with Doughty, Gomes, Pugh...is Bernstein healthy? [/B] Move Hall to FS with Amerson starting at CB?

I'm not panicking yet but don't kid yourself, this is a big loss.[/quote]

Actually if we lose Rambo we also will not have our starter from last year M.Williams. Also Bernstine was waived by the Skins around the start of camp.

Re: Who are your starting Safeties
 

[quote=Mattyk;1018883]With or without Thomas I get that.

But I don't think anyone is "freaking out" over Thomas as some have said.[/quote]

It's more so that a thread asking about our safeties happened to be made the next day after Thomas got injured. Slight panic reaction in my eyes. I'm not saying this in a distaste for the thread (it's a good thread) but there are people out there on the Internet radio etc who were panicking big time yesterday when Phillip got hurt. That and this thread along with other posts, tweets, voices etc made me post that.

Re: Who are your starting Safeties
 

is rambo really starter ready? I havent followed camp hard but ... idk about a rookie starting the season. i would defer to haslett.

i would like to see a healthy merriweather and ______________. if it has to be reed, im okay with it. if its rambo, that means he earned it and im okay with it. if they dont think rambo will take over the starting job by the mid-point of the season, i wouldnt mind kicking the tires on a player not currently on the team ... but we dont have cap space i assume . . .

i liked what little i saw of pugh. not sure about being a starter though.

Re: Who are your starting Safeties
 

[quote=CultBrennan59;1018896]It's more so that a thread asking about our safeties happened to be made the next day after Thomas got injured. Slight panic reaction in my eyes. I'm not saying this in a distaste for the thread (it's a good thread) but there are people out there on the Internet radio etc who were panicking big time yesterday when Phillip got hurt. That and this thread along with other posts, tweets, voices etc made me post that.[/quote]

Speaking for myself I'm just bummed he's done for the year. Starter or not it would have been nice to see him get some valuable experience this year.

Re: Who are your starting Safeties
 

[quote=SmootSmack;1018801]Reed and Rambo. I don't trust Meriweather's health yet.

Actually, I probably trust him more for week 1 than week 2[/quote]

I get it and probably agree with this. Reed at SS wasn't/isn't our problem, and you could argue he earned the position at last season's end.

Re: Who are your starting Safeties
 

[quote=Mattyk;1018900]Speaking for myself I'm just bummed he's done for the year. Starter or not it would have been nice to see him get some valuable experience this year.[/quote]

definitely, I was bummed but I wasn't pissed like when Orakpo got hurt last year or Griffin.

Its just a young rookie, we have yet to truly see and develop, now for another year. At least we can still see the other rookie DBs (knock on wood)

Re: Who are your starting Safeties
 

I like DeJon Gomes but he is a backup and spot starter

Re: Who are your starting Safeties
 

[quote=CultBrennan59;1018920]definitely, I was bummed but I wasn't pissed like when Orakpo got hurt last year or Griffin.

Its just a young rookie, we have yet to truly see and develop, now for another year. At least we can still see the other rookie DBs (knock on wood)[/quote]

Losing Rak was a punch to the gut. Thomas is a pinch on the arm.

Re: Who are your starting Safeties
 

Bottom line, safety is still going to be messy. Hopefully a better pass rush can help.

Re: Who are your starting Safeties
 

[quote=Mattyk;1018929]Losing Rak was a punch to the gut. Thomas is a pinch on the arm.[/quote]

This. If we are in terrible shape because we lost out 4th round pick then we have bigger problems....

Re: Who are your starting Safeties
 

It's probably best to play the waiver wire. That's not going to net you a week one starter, but still, this is a pretty brutal position. The positive side of that is that it's going to be fairly easy to upgrade.

I'm going to do a roster analysis to see if any team in the NFL is carrying five or six versatile safeties, because if you know one is going to get moved, you can jump in and make a trade or try to get him on waivers.

At least our corners are looking much better. That's a pretty huge improvement from 2012.

Re: Who are your starting Safeties
 

Losing a rookie in his first camp sets him way behind in his development, thats my biggest concern at this point.

Thomas would certainly been in the rotation for play in sub packages. After thinking about it, its a bigger loss maybe than I initially thought.

I do think we will work the waiver wire on this one, even with the guys we got in camp.

Wild card is def Tanard Jackson, hope he realizes this is probably his last shot and needs to bring it.

Re: Who are your starting Safeties
 

I picked Doughty and Rambo. As Goat mentioned Doughty played very well towards the end of the season and I want Merriweather fully healthy before starting him so he doesn't get reinjured so easily. Rambo's been playing with the starters so lets stay with him. A longshot would be Amerson who some projected as a safety but I personally would rather see him start at corner this year.

Re: Who are your starting Safeties
 

Meriweather is practicing fully as of now, so I don't know why you'd operate under any other assumption than he will be fully healthy by week one.

Obviously if he's not healthy when week one rolls around you reconsider your depth chart.

I mean that's what we're doing with RG3. He's practicing fully and everyone knows he's starting week 1. Not sure why we'd treat Meriweather differently. If he's healthy enough to practice fully then he's healthy enough to play a regular season game if it was held today.

Re: Who are your starting Safeties
 

Wilson and Reed unfortunately

Re: Who are your starting Safeties
 

I wasn't aware Merriweather was fully participating in practice. If he is and not experiencing any drawbacks...start him.

Re: Who are your starting Safeties
 

[quote=WaldSkins;1019009]Wilson and Reed unfortunately[/quote]

Josh Wilson? He's a CB...

Unless there's a Wilson I'm forgetting.

Re: Who are your starting Safeties
 

Week 1? I see Merriweather and Doughty.

I think Rambo is starting sometime this season over Doughty, but I don't know that he will be the first week. Obviously we'll see how the rest of the preseason goes.. I have week 2 circled to really see how this secondary is going to be.

Re: Who are your starting Safeties
 

[quote=Gmanc711;1019018]Week 1? I see Merriweather and Doughty.

I think Rambo is starting sometime this season over Doughty, but I don't know that he will be the first week. Obviously we'll see how the rest of the preseason goes.. I have week 2 circled to really see how this secondary is going to be.[/quote]

Rambo and Meriweather

Re: Who are your starting Safeties
 

Meriweather hasn't been practicing fully. He's had several limited practices. And I think maybe even some days of no practice

Re: Who are your starting Safeties
 

[quote=Lotus;1018885]Actually if we lose Rambo we also will not have our starter from last year M.Williams. Also Bernstine was waived by the Skins around the start of camp.[/quote]

True but losing Madieu is addition by subtraction...he was horrible. I'd take Doughty over him every day of the week; he can't cover but he is one of the surest-tacklers in the game.



[quote=WaldSkins;1019009]Wilson and Reed unfortunately[/quote]


[quote=DynamiteRave;1019013]Josh Wilson? He's a CB...

Unless there's a Wilson I'm forgetting.[/quote]



Wilson is DeJon Gomes' nickname. His high school coach couldn't figure out how to pronounce DeJon, so he started calling him Wilson Gomes.