Yesterday morning we took a detailed look at the stats for the top 25 free agent safeties. So much has happened in the last 24 hours that yesterday's story is not even on the front page anymore.
But that frenetic pace isn't limited to the BTB front page, it also applies to the free agent safeties who are being picked off one by one from the top down.
So today we use the last safety post as a jumping-off point to review who's gone, who's still available, and what the contract situation looks like for those safeties that have signed new contracts.
I'll use the Pro Football Focus grades again to rank the free agents, because they seem match pretty well with the contract numbers so far. Those contract numbers are now included in the table below. A brief reminder on the numbers:
PFF Grades: PFF look at game tape, assign a grade for every play and then ‘normalize’ the data so that the average player for a given position is graded at zero. The higher the positive grading the better the performance and vice versa.
Expected Points Added: EPA measures the impact a given player has on a given play by comparing the result of the play to the league average results on plays from that down and distance (details here).
| Rank | Name | Team | Age | Contract | Snaps | Overall Grade | Pass Rush | Coverage | vs. Run | Penalties | EPA | |
| 1 | Quintin Mikell | STL | 30 | $28mm, 4 years |
996 | 17.0 | -3.3 | 10.8 | 11.0 | -1.5 | 60.2 | |
| 2 | Michael Huff | OAK | 28 | $32mm, 4 years | 1009 | 13.9 | 3.8 | 8.4 | 1.1 | 0.6 | 41.2 | |
| 3 | Eric Weddle | SD | 26 | $40mm, 5 years | 977 | 12.6 | 1.5 | 1.5 | 8.0 | 1.6 | 26.7 | |
| 4 | Dawan Landry | JAX | 28 | $27.5mm, 5 years |
1043 | 10.5 | -3.2 | 2.5 | 9.5 | 1.7 | 48.6 | |
| 7 | Danieal Manning | HOU | 28 | $20mm, 4 years | 925 | 9.5 | -0.5 | 6.4 | 4.0 | -0.4 | 17.8 | |
| 10 | Gerald Sensabaugh | DAL | 28 | $2.5mm, 1 year | 929 | 7.4 | 1.1 | 3.3 | 1.5 | 1.5 | 30.7 | |
| 11 | Roman Harper | NO | 28 | $28.5mm, 4 years |
883 | 7.1 | 1.9 | 1.9 | 6.8 | -3.5 | 49.2 | |
| 17 | Jordan Babineaux | SEA | 28 | 380 | 4.4 | 1.6 | 2 | 0.3 | 0.5 | 29.4 | ||
| 22 | Nedu Ndukwe | CIN | 26 | 538 | 3.4 | 4.3 | -2.9 | 1.1 | 0.9 | 22.3 | ||
| 25 | Tom Zbikowski | BAL | 26 | ???, 1 year | 341 | 2.5 | -0.3 | 1.1 | 2.1 | -0.4 | n/a | |
| 25 | Brodney Pool | NYJ | 27 | ???, ??? | 765 | 2.5 | -2.8 | 6.5 | 0.5 | -1.7 | 31.5 | |
| 37 | Roy Williams | CIN | 30 | 477 | 0.2 | 1.1 | -1.7 | 0.9 | -0.1 | 24.5 | ||
| 49 | Deon Grant | NYG | 32 | 675 | -2.1 | -0.1 | 1.6 | -4.9 | 1.3 | 46.2 | ||
| 53 | Donte Whitner | BUF | 26 | 1121 | -3.4 | 0.8 | -6.1 | 2.2 | -0.3 | 38.8 | ||
| 55 | Reed Doughty | WAS | 28 | 633 | -3.7 | -0.4 | -5.0 | 0.7 | 1.0 | 15.4 | ||
| 57 | Dashon Goldson | SF | 27 | 1038 | -3.8 | 1.1 | -5.4 | 1.9 | -1.4 | 25.9 | ||
| 61 | Abram Elam | DAL | 29 | $2.5mm, 1 year | 1071 | -4.1 | -3.0 | 0.6 | -3.4 | 1.7 | 33.5 | |
| 66 | C.C. Brown | DET | 28 | 607 | -5.1 | 1.8 | -1.7 | -6.1 | 0.9 | 21.0 | ||
| 68 | Lawyer Milloy | SEA | 37 | 1066 | -5.5 | -3 | -3.5 | 0.4 | 0.6 | 29.3 | ||
| 70 | Bernard Pollard | BAL | 26 | ???, 2 years |
1025 | -6.1 | 3.3 | -6.3 | -1.1 | -2.0 | 32.8 | |
| 71 | Jon McGraw | KC | 32 | $810K, 1 year | 437 | -6.5 | -1.8 | -1.2 | -3.1 | -0.4 | 15.9 | |
| 74 | Sean Considine | CAR | 29 | ???, 1 year |
419 | -7.8 | 0.1 | -4.4 | -3.1 | -0.4 | 18.5 | |
| 75 | Aaron Francisco | IND | 28 | 785 | -8.0 | -0.3 | -2.0 | -5.9 | 0.2 | 12.6 | ||
| 77 | Eric Smith | NYJ | 28 | $7.5mm, 3 years | 502 | -9.5 | -2.7 | -3.4 | -0.5 | -2.9 | 12.1 | |
| 84 | Madieu Williams | SF | 29 | ca. $810K; 1 year | 825 | -13.4 | -0.3 | -9.3 | -4.1 | 0.3 | 11.3 |
Weddle went for $8 million per year, Harper and Mikell for $7 million each and Manning lowered the safety price to $5 million per year. It's likely that the next round of signings will be around $3-4 million, which would be when the Cowboys are likely to get involved. If Abram Elam and Gerald Sensabaugh are still around by then, they could end up on the Cowboys roster.
Michael Huff remains a little of a wild card [not anymore, re-signed with Oakland]. He had a fairly good year last season, but his previous performance may led teams to believe that 2010 was an aberration, not the norm.
Also there are persistent reports questioning his work ethic and want-to, the latest from Pete Prisco who tweeted yesterday: "A second coach today told me he thought Michael Huff was soft. Not a good thing." Rob Ryan is in a pretty good position to know, so if he's ok with Huff, the Cowboys will be, too. One thing all these rumors do, of course, is drive his price down. Which may not be a bad thing for the Cowboys.
I think if the Cowboys can get two quality safeties for $7 million or less, they would be in a good spot. If the Midnight Cowboys stay true to form, we'll know more about the next free agent acquisition sometime very late tonight.
And perhaps, just perhaps, one of the 2011 starting safeties is already on the roster.