Since Rodney Harrison was allowed to hit the free agent market in 2003, the San Diego Chargers have yet to find a fixture at the strong safety position. Harrison's departure to the New England Patriots, with whom he won two Super Bowl titles, has haunted Chargers fans, as the Lightning Bolts' ensuing strong safeties have been abused by opposing tight ends on deep passes and the elite running backs in the open field far too often. The hope is the Chargers will finally acquire their future strong safety this offseason.
After the Oakland Raiders' Tyvon Branch was slapped with the franchise tag a few weeks ago, the market for a veteran strong safety in free agency wasn't promising. As a result, the Chargers signed Atari Bigby, formerly of the Green Bay Packers and Seattle Seahawks, Friday night. Bigby had a couple productive seasons in Green Bay, but he was a backup in Seattle last season. Clearly, he is not the long-term solution to the current most glaring weakness in the Chargers' secondary.
There are two strong safety prospects expected to be selected with premium draft picks this April. One of them, Alabama's Mark Barron, is projected to be chosen in the first round. With the Chargers expected to snatch a pass-rusher or offensive tackle in Round 1, general manager A.J. Smith probably won't take Barron with the 18th overall pick. But the second-best strong safety prospect in the draft, Notre Dame's Harrison Smith, is rumored to be liked very much by San Diego's front office.
At 6-2, 213 pounds, Smith was a tackling machine in the Fighting Irish's defense. He had 90 tackles, three of them for losses, last season. The year before he had 93 tackles and showed his aptitude in coverage with seven interceptions and 14 passes defended. He was also a team captain last year.
Smith was one of the most versatile athletes on Notre Dame's team. With the safety position stacked with veterans during his freshman and sophomore seasons, he was put at outside linebacker, a decision the coaching staff felt it had to make.
“He’s just one of those guys that he has every tool,” former Notre Dame linebacker Maurice Crum said about Smith during the 2008 season. “A guy like that is a guy that you’ve just got to get him on the field because he can just make things happen just because he’s so fast, he’s strong and he has good size, and he has hands and he’s smart and he knows the game. He’s one of those guys having him on the field, anything can happen. He can make a play, or he can help make a play.”
Smith has shown his immense athleticism during pre-draft workouts this offseason, leading some to believe he's worked his way into the first round. He a ran 4.57 40-yard dash and excelled in position drills at the NFL Scouting Combine last month, leaving Hall of Famer Deion Sanders, an NFL Network analyst, highly impressed.
"Harrison Smith out of Notre Dame did a lot to help his draft stock today," Sanders wrote in a draft blog on NFL.com. "He was just on point in every drill and had himself a fundamentally sound day."
My take: The Chargers could use a young strong safety to develop into a long-term starter, but I feel they'll be better off using their first two picks on a pass-rusher and an offensive lineman. Smith appears as though he's going to be selected before San Diego is up in the second round, and my hope is A.J. Smith won't move up to grab the Notre Dame safety.
A.J. has made some very foolish decisions when moving up in the draft--trading a 2009 second-round pick to move up for fullback Jacob Hester in the third round of 2008 draft being the most horrendous. If A.J. feels as though he has to move up in the second round, I hope it's for someone such as Ole Miss offensive tackle Bobby Massie or Clemson defensive end Andre Branch.
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