As I've posted before. No safety is going to reach their potintial until we fix the front seven. Smith isn't the fix all at NT and we need to replace at least Mays.
I'm not saying we shouldn't draft Berry, but don't exspect him to be the stud most think he will be until all the pieces are in place.
I think Berry is such a once in a lifetime chance that if we don't trade out of the fifth, he would be the best and most influential player available,I do however agree that the front seven need upgraded a lot to give us the most out of our money.
I see Berry taking control of the secondary and making every QB second quess the deep passes as he will make other teams pay. He is a game changer!
He also gives many other blizting opportunities.
Guys get billed as the greatest thing since sliced bread every year and rarely live upto their potential. Fixing the guys I'm front of the safeties is going to make mediocre safeties look great. The long term fix at safety is going to be in the middle rounds where there are several talented guys, they just don't have the same hype.
The only reason a beer sweats around Canada is because he's decided it will be the next beer he drinks.
If you're trying to minimize your losses in regards to an early pick being a bust, teams will typically look to take an offensive or defensive lineman. There are many reasons for this. For one, these positions tend to be a little more safe in terms of guys living up to their potential. Also, OL and DL makes on average 40-60% more than your average safety. This makes a huge difference in the trade market. If the guy does have the makings of a bust, you have a much better chance of unloading an OL or DL that was hyped coming out of college to a team that is willing to give him a 2nd chance in the hopes that he will live up to his billing. It will be impossible to trade the highest paid safety in the league that has not performed. Nobody will want to have anything to do with that contract and safety is a much easier position to fulfill.
Again, combine all this with my opinion that a great front 7 will make a mediocre safety look great, I don't see a lot of upside to taking Berry. The defense had the second fewest sacks in the league last year. It's tough for anyone to cover a WR when the QB has all day to throw. That's just my thinking though.
We may not have the sexiest pick in the draft this year at number 5, but I could care less about sexy. I truly do trust in this great coaching staff and winning GM to make the best decision as to what the team's needs are. I would rather see them pick a guy that isn't "sexy", but will be an overachiever in the years to come.
I believe that anything that is built to last is started with a strong foundation. You can build a mansion on a sand trap, but soon enough the mansion will crumble. Once we get our lines solidified then we can go get our Playmakers i.e Berry. Till then we will just be throughing away money. Sorry for the terrible analogy, but you get my point.
Find a great Saftey and that is your example.
The Steelers were already a great defense, when Polamalu arrived.
The Ravens had one of the best defensive seasons of all time even winning The Super Bowl while scoring scarcely a point on offense, all before Ed Reed.
Even the great Ronnie Lott was part of a powerhouse 49er defense when he made his name, but then became quit marginal with The Jets and Raiders.
Safties are like the RBs of the defense. Other guys do the work, and they get the glory.
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