Ron Parker and the Safties

[onejayhawk]

Here is an article noting that Ron Parker play every snap--again. http://www.chiefs.com/news/article-2/Alex-Smith’s-MVP-Candidacy-Gains-Steam-After-Sunday-Night’s-Victory/80a50803-7635-4a93-b819-c5c5a3e56590

Parker has been the guy since Eric Berry's season ended in game one. Daniel Sorensen missed only one snap and played on special teams. Much maligned Phillip Gaines played over 80% of the defensive snaps and also played ST. Eric Murray had 70% of the snaps and almost all the ST plays. If you are missing the point, this group does not get much rest.

If you think that's bad, the two CB got none.

J

[Chiefer]

What can we do about it?

[onejayhawk]

Nelson coming back for IR will help. It's one more body at least. Also, we played almost 70% of the snaps with five or six DB. That will not happen every week. Also, Sorensen has been playing what amounts to LB a fair amount. Actual LB play would be nice. Ragland may be able to provide some of that and help the run defense as well. Half the game in dime coverage will hurt the run D.

J

[Jakuvious]

That isn't really unusual, honestly. Players in the secondary rarely rotate the way front 7 guys do. They're less physical positions so the fatigue isn't as much of a concern. A DB needs to take snaps off no more than a WR does on the other side. Last year our 4 primary DBs all played over 90% of the snaps. You'll find similar things for most teams with healthy sets of DBs. Primarily running 5 DBs has steadily become more common over the years as well. We spent more snaps in nickel or dime than we did in base last year, IIRC. This is all pretty standard stuff for the NFL nowadays.

The only thing that would change if our secondary was healthy would be the names at each spot in the list. Instead of Parker, Sorensen, Mitchell, and Peters seeing virtually every snap, it would be Parker, Berry, Nelson, and Peters seeing virtually every snap. With Mitchell seeing the 80% that Gaines gets, and Sorensen getting the 70% that Murray gets. A healthy secondary wouldn't mean that we rotate Peters or Parker out of the game. It's just not logical to do.

[Jakuvious]

Just to get more specific on this, here are last year's snap counts:

Parker: 1103
Berry: 1084
Peters: 1007
Nelson: 1013

Here are what the equivalent players are on pace for this year:

Parker: 1088
Sorensen: 972
Peters: 1078
Mitchell: 1059

There's not a good equivalent to Gaines's role this year, because last year our #3 CB snaps were swapped a lot between Gaines, Mitchell, Acker, and White due to health, and we don't really have an appropriate sample size to stretch out Murray's snaps so far as the third safety this year. But you can see, for the core 4 guys in the secondary, it's a very minimal difference.

[mayanfootball]

We need new blood in the secondary. I'd love to see us draft a Safety. We missed out on last spring's fine CB class, but we need one. There's no guarantee Berry comes back the same and Gaines has no business on this team. Parker is another year older and with the injuries coming fast, we'll be in a fine mess Ollie, if this doesn't stop.

[kingseanjohn]

4 hours ago, mayanfootball said:

We need new blood in the secondary. I'd love to see us draft a Safety. We missed out on last spring's fine CB class, but we need one. There's no guarantee Berry comes back the same and Gaines has no business on this team. Parker is another year older and with the injuries coming fast, we'll be in a fine mess Ollie, if this doesn't stop.

Honestly, I'm not really worried about Berry. I do agree that Gaines needs to go (FA after this year) and that we need to draft an early CB in the next year or two. Parker is getting older. But, he's only 30 now. I think he has a few more years left of good play. I also like how Murray is developing so far.

Safety becomes a concern for me in two years from now when Parker is 32 and Berry is 31.

[Chiefer]

25 minutes ago, kingseanjohn said:

Honestly, I'm not really worried about Berry. I do agree that Gaines needs to go (FA after this year) and that we need to draft an early CB in the next year or two. Parker is getting older. But, he's only 30 now. I think he has a few more years left of good play. I also like how Murray is developing so far.

Safety becomes a concern for me in two years from now when Parker is 32 and Berry is 31.

What I'm worried about Berry, and I'm sure Dorsey was too hence the long contract negotiations, is those Achilles.

Once one tears the other follows because you put so much strain on one side trying to heal a ruptured Achilles. Happened to DJ.

 

[mayanfootball]

3 hours ago, kingseanjohn said:

Honestly, I'm not really worried about Berry. I do agree that Gaines needs to go (FA after this year) and that we need to draft an early CB in the next year or two. Parker is getting older. But, he's only 30 now. I think he has a few more years left of good play. I also like how Murray is developing so far.

Safety becomes a concern for me in two years from now when Parker is 32 and Berry is 31.

We can't wait until the last second to draft. I'd love to work the guy in after he's had some time to digest what the NFL is like (maybe at least a year?). Then there's that dang injury bug that's hitting us hard.

I like Murray, but honestly he's a bit smallish for safety. I'm partial to the "Eddie Jackson" type that I saw on MNF last night. That Alabama boy came ready to play. And again, Ron Parker has already beat the norm for NFL longevity.

[TedLavie]

Don't forget Sorensen who's fairly young and signed a 4yr deal this offseason. He's bound to replace Parker at some point I think. We may draft a guy to develop him, as we did with Murray, but I don't see us spending a high pick on a safety in the next year or two.

[mayanfootball]

1 hour ago, TedLavie said:

Don't forget Sorensen who's fairly young and signed a 4yr deal this offseason. He's bound to replace Parker at some point I think. We may draft a guy to develop him, as we did with Murray, but I don't see us spending a high pick on a safety in the next year or two.

Sorensen is best used where he is. He's quick, but has no closing speed needed on deep balls. Terrell is still learning our system and i've yet to see him back there on gameday. And i've already mentioned Parker, Murray and Berry. Good safeties go fairly high in the draft, so i've cited this as a Chiefs need.

[Chiefer]

nvm

[onejayhawk]

Elite safeties go high. Good safeties go in the middle rounds. Functional safeties can be found in street clothes, eg Sorensen.

J

[Jakuvious]

I see no reason whatsoever to be spending a high pick on a safety anytime soon. We rolled into the season with 4 safeties on roster. You draft a safety, he's not going to even make our standard 53 man group. Berry, Parker, Sorensen, and Murray are all quality. Most teams struggle to have 1 good safety, let alone 2 proper starters, let alone two players of quality depth behind them. We're maybe the most safety rich team in the league. Probably are after Denver cut Ward. I don't get any reason to try to grab one of those.

CB, definitely. Let's get Gaines off roster. But not S.

[mayanfootball]

7 hours ago, Jakuvious said:

You draft a safety, he's not going to even make our standard 53 man group. Berry, Parker, Sorensen, and Murray are all quality.

Glad you polished your crystal ball.

Advertisers use "quality" as a 'noun' to trick listeners into hearing "good quality", but fail to disclose reality means "poor quality". Berry is top shelf good quality, Parker less so, with Murray, Sorensen far behind. They're NOT all "good quality".

KC's deep coverage was pitiful against Houston. Our poor safety play led to two TD's and made a blowout appear closer than it really was. Losing Berry only made it more clear to me that KC needs to draft help (or sign FA) at safety.

Oh yes, I agree about Gaines. We need to draft a CB. It's a shame we didn't last draft. It was a supreme CB draft and we had many picks. After Hunt, there were still good CB's left that we passed on.