Reed is the best safety in football right now. And honestly, I think Rhodes is 2nd...maybe a distant 2nd, but 2nd. Polamalu is the most overrated safety in football. He makes some ridiculous plays and ridiculous hits, but he's oftentimes a liability. He'll take too many gambles looking for that big hit.
My apologies...I misspoke and accidentally took away a title of most overrated safety away from Roy Williams. I apologize, Mr. Williams.
Polamalu may take gambles, but honestly, how often do they hurt the Steelers? How often is Polamalu in the top part of the league in defensive stats? Every single season. How could he even POSSIBLY be considered overrated?
That's why he's overrated. His stats don't tell the true picture in my opinion. Put a worse D around him (a la Rhodes) and his gambles would prove to be a lot more costly. That's just my opinion. He's not a top 2 safety, but everyone talks about him and Reed in the same breath. Therefore, in my opinion, he's overrated.
You take risk to make the big plays that win the big games. I really don't understand your evaluation of Polamalu, but to each their own.
No, you play sound defense to win big games. Gambling to make the big plays more often than not costs those types of games. Trying to be bigger than the team is a terrible game plan for an individual. Playing like a team and taking control of your assignment while trusting the rest of your teammates to make the plays they need to make is much more of a winning formula. My assessment is that his teammates actually HIDE his weaknesses. The guy has an incredible amount of talent, but I think he uses it more to get on SportsCenter than he does to help his team win. His fellow DBs hide his weaknesses in coverage. That's my opinion of him. Too often, I think he's just freelancing out there.
A couple of years ago, Rhodes had numbers like 4 sacks, 4 Ints, and 3 forced fumbles or something, which were way better than Polamalu (1 Int maybe?) and Reed's (4 Ints, 1 forced fumble?) numbers. Since then though, Polamalu and Reed have gotten back to their elite ways while Rhodes has played well but not at the elite level. The fact that the Steelers and Ravens have dominating defenses helps their safeties. The Jets pass rush has been poor most of the time and the rest of the secondary (except Revis) has been a big problem. Hopefully with a new coach and an improved secondary, Rhodes can get to the elite level.
