..."The evolution of NFL offenses has made the [safety] position so important," said Jaworski's MNF boothmate, Jon Gruden. "Look at the tight end. Now the tight ends are lined up as receivers. They're essentially oversized wide receivers. Tony Gonzalez, Antonio Gates. Just look around the league. Everyone's got one now. So that safety oftentimes has to be able to cover the big, physical tight end.
"And all of those halfbacks are becoming specialty route-runners and receivers. I can't tell you how many balls the tailback position accumulated last year. So, not only does the safety have to potentially cover your third wideout, he's got to be able to cover tight ends and backs, blitz, play zone, and make all the audibles and checks on defense. It's become harder and harder to find the well-rounded safety. But there are a couple in this year's draft that certainly fit my bill."
Gruden is referring to Eric Berry and Earl Thomas, who are the two top-rated safeties in this week's draft. Both are certain first-round picks and could be only the second pair of safeties since 1991 to be top-15 picks in the same draft.
While they aren't quite the jaw-dropping physical specimens as the draft's other potential first-round safety, Taylor Mays, both are playmakers with better cover skills than the 6-3, 231-pound Mays.
"Your safeties now are those hybrid guys, those 'tweener guys," Eagles coach Andy Reid said. "You don't have many of those big monsters, those 220-pounders. There's not a lot of them around, and the few that are have a tough time doing what you need your safeties to do in today's game."
If this were 10 years ago, Mays probably would be rated above both the 5-11 1/2, 211-pound Berry and the 5-10 1/4, 208-pound Thomas on most draft boards. But it's not 10 years ago.