Top 10 Safety Groups in the NFL

[Sons Of Shula]

By Oliver Connolly

8. Miami Dolphins
Reshad Jones, Nate Allen, T.J. McDonald

OK, so I’m not convinced the Dolphins have a top-10 safety unit. In fact, if push came to shove I’d likely plunge for Harrison Smith and Andrew Sendejo from the Vikings over the Miami mob. But I wanted to write about Jones. So here we are.

Jones is one of the league’s most under discussed players. He has everything you look for in a safety: Overwhelming athleticism, smarts, versatility and a penchant for making the right play at the right time.

The Dolphins defense struggled mightily when Jones went down with an injury in Week 6 with a torn labrum.

Jones covers up for so much. Football nerds will appreciate his pursuit angles and the near telepathic way he arrives at the collision point early, rather than on time

Full article: Top 10 Safety Groups

Great article in breaking down the different ways the safety groups are used with gifs and still shots. There's also more Dolphin content to read.

 

[Travis34]

Top 10 is hard to claim without seeing how our FS plays... McDonald makes it top 10 probably, id say iaq too even probably. Jones is just so damn good that he props everyone else up

 

[insomnia411]

Nice to see Reshad get some love. This dude is right, he's both one of the league's best safeties and one of the most underrated players.
I feel like he really doesn't even get the credit he deserves amongst Fin fans. He's a better coverage/ center feilding safety than he gets credit for.

 

[royalshank]

Two years ago, that Jones was snubbed from 1st team all pro ballot was idiotic when he had like 1,000 tackles, 5 or 6 picks and 2 pick 6s etc.

 

[Phinatic8u]

1,000 tackles huh?

LOL

 

[SF Dolphin Fan]

It will be fun to watch Jones and McDonald around the mid-season point. A ranking of eight seems high considering McDonald will miss eight games, but then again the unit could be at its best for the stretch run.

I'd still like to see the team draft a young safety. Missing on one in this draft was, honestly, one of the biggest disappointments in what otherwise looked like a good draft. Draft was loaded at the position.

 

['Deep]

I'd still like to see the team draft a young safety. Missing on one in this draft was, honestly, one of the biggest disappointments in what otherwise looked like a good draft. Draft was loaded at the position.

I think McDonald will surprise when he's re-instated. The guy can hit and he played really well at USC. He missed some games as a Ram, but he can bring it when healthy.

 

[Digital]

The author makes a great point, Reshad Jones is very under the radar. I'm with him too in that I'm not sure our safety group deserves top 10 consideration just yet, although TJ McDonald is a good player, Nate Allen has shown moderate ability, but it's really the Reshad Jones show.

 

[ONole1]

Has there been any talk of McDonald appealing the 8 games trying to get it reduced?

 

['Deep]

Has there been any talk of McDonald appealing the 8 games trying to get it reduced?

Not going to happen. He and his lawyer have already said they won't fight it after pleading guilty to a lesser charge when he violated the leagues substance abuse policy. This after his DUI charge in May of '16.

 

[j-off-her-doll]

The lack of quality Safeties stands out to me. I think this is a fair ranking for Miami, and they could be ranked higher. And, FS is still a huge question mark. Those seem like mutually exclusive concepts, but almost every other Safety group has similar questions.

Minnesota should be on the list, though.

 

[EvilDylan]

As long as it wasn't written by Cian Fahey I'm ok.

 

[MIAMIeverything]

Jones is elite all by himself but I've been dying for us to get a ball hawk for him to play next too for years now jones I remember the year he came out I was telling my dad he needed to start he was my favorite draft pick that year

 

[JakeemThe Dream]

Jones being such a beast is the reason we're #8 lol

Mcdonald and Allen should be pretty good compliments.

Jones should move to FS if he's capable and wants to since Mcdonald (clearly) isn't a FS.

I think Jones is capable and has the best acceleration to the ball and could easily play CF while TJ plays in the box like an undersized backer that's extremely athletic and fast.

IMO Mcdonald is on the cusp of being a Pro Bowler. (Sucks Alcohol got the best of him. Maybe it will change his outlook or can get worse in Miami)

 

[Fin Thirteen]

IMO Mcdonald is on the cusp of being a Pro Bowler. (Sucks Alcohol got the best of him. Maybe it will change his outlook or can get worse in Miami)

Well he did have to play for Jeff Fisher, so there are mitigating circumstances.