Glossary: Safety

‘Safety’ is probably the least descriptive term for any position in the NFL, at least at first glance. Once you’ve got a handle on what they actually do though, the name makes a lot of sense. Here’s a glossary entry for safety, and I don’t mind telling you, safeties are just the best. They’re my favourite.

Simple: Play cornerback and linebacker AT THE SAME TIME.

Detailed: Safeties are the guys hanging around furthest back on the defense, essentially acting as a safety blanket (this is how they should have got their name). They’re there to provide extra security in both elements of the game, ‘helping’ the cornerbacks out in coverage, and ‘helping’ linebackers out against the run. They come in two varieties: free safety (more cornerback-y) and strong safety (more linebacker-y).

Safeties don’t get a great deal of love compared to the blue-chip defensive positions (cornerback and pass rusher), but they’ve always seemed to me like the stars of any team they’re on, because to be a great safety to have to be incredibly versatile and intelligent. You have to at least be able to do a good impression of both a cornerback and an inside linebacker, as you’re going to at various points be doing the same thing they do. But you’ve also going to be able to pick up exactly which one you’re doing, and where on the field as the play develops you’ll have to be to do that. Because they’re there to cover off whatever’s happening, they’re going to have to adapt whatever the defensive playcall is depending on what’s going on more often than any other player will.

Let’s look at the coverage duties first. A safety might be put directly on a receiver, in much the same way a cornerback would be, the difference being it’ll probably be one of the ‘slot’ receiver, a tight end (especially if they’re good at receiving), or watching out for a running back running routes. This is the most cornerback-y that a safety will probably get.

More often though, the safety’s going to be standing ten to fifteen yards away from the line of scrimmage, ready to pick up any player that might roam into his area. If, for example, the offense has a star receiver who’s going to be too good for your best cornerback, get the safety to cover him too. So, along with the cornerback running with him, the safety can join in halfway, double-teaming the coverage and making it even less likely that the quarterback will even try to throw the ball that way. Safeties have a use in zone coverage too, where they’ll be picking up receivers as they move between zones of the field. Having safeties ready and waiting further back is fairly vital for making sure there’s someone there when a cornerback stops tracking a receiver in zone coverage (because they left his ‘zone’).

How do you know which safety is which, though? Well, the free safety will be lingering further back than the strong safety. So, the free safety will be the speedier player, able to help out with the speedier receivers who get away from cornerbacks. Strong safeties are pretty damn quick too, but they’re often more ferocious tacklers, so can be there ready and waiting when a player’s about to catch a ball much closer to where the play started, then they can fly in and BAM, another article appears on Deadspin about CTE (and rightly so).

As for run game duties, they’ll be hanging around in roughly the same spot, doing a similar sort of thing as when there’s a pass coming – waiting to pounce. Your hard-tackling strong safety is the one you want ready and waiting with his thirsty maw, should the runner get through the tangled bodies at the line of scrimmage. This is another reason safeties are fast – running backs are fast and don’t want to get tackled by maniacs, so said maniacs need to be fast enough to get to them. The free safety, yeah, he’ll do the same as a strong safety, but he’s a definite last line of defense, hanging around more deeply, waiting a moment to see if the running back breaks free before going to try and get him. While the strong safety can commit to going after the runner earlier, the free safety has to be there just in case the strong safety over-commits, or gets blocked.

There is one other thing you can do with a safety is the most fun thing you can do with a mobile terror in American football – get them blitzing! Blitzing is, as mentioned in earlier entries, when you get your player who’s expected to be lurking around covering receivers to charge the quarterback, hoping to get to him before he’s able to throw the ball. Safeties are good for this sort of thing for a few reasons. Firstly, while taking them out of pass coverage is a risk, it’s not as high-stakes as if you send your cornerbacks charging, because the cornerbacks are still there to cover. Secondly, they’re coming from far enough away that they’ve got several ways to get past blockers and to the quarterback. Thirdly, safeties are fast and terrifying. If they get to the quarterback, the sheer kinetic energy they’re coming in with is going to be a jolt, at the very least!

You see all the things you can do with safeties? Safeties are the best.

Anyway, to be a safety, you need to:

• Be patient! You need to wait for your moment to strike, whether it’s giving yourself time to get to a receiver, or being on hand with perfect timing to hit a scrambling running back.
• Have great coverage skills, be able to get your hands in the way to stop catches, or even pluck flying balls out the sky.
• Be a tough tackler. Hit a wide receiver just as they catch the ball and try to send it loose, or hit a running back and stop him getting any big ideas about “yards after contact”.
• Blitz like a demon. You see that quarterback there? He just cast aspersions on your parentage. Go get him!
• Be fast, agile, and an all-round athletic wonder. You have to do pretty much everything anyone in the open field has to do. You have to be fast, agile, strong…yeah, everything.
• Stay composed. Look, you’re the last line of defense. Don’t go throwing yourself at a player and missing a tackle, because he’s going to get a touchdown, and coach will be mad.
• Be underappreciated. Show safeties some love, people.