Is the 2-high safety ruining football?

Fans of football, gather close. Fans of football analysis, gather even closer. I’m about to get into the depths of truly analytical football talk.

Recently, Mel Kiper, Jr. of NFL draft day fame, was on ESPN’s program Get Up. While discussing football, he dropped one of the worst takes, in my opinion: the two-high safety is ruining the game of football and should be banned. First of all, stick to your mock drafts, Mel. Secondly, you’re wrong here.

A small excerpt of his tangent, thanks to Sports Illustrated, says: “Well, I grew up with the best of the National Football League, 60s, 70s, into the 80s,” Kiper argued. “You’re talking about deep shots. The go route, the nine route, the post. You’re talking about Terry Bradshaw in the Super Bowl hitting John Stallworth. You see LeRoy Irving diving, right? Just off his fingers. There’s the receiver. They laid it out there, right? Hit the receiver in stride. 65-yard touchdown. It’s a beautiful thing to watch. That’s what I want to see brought back to the National Football League. OK? Checkdown kings. Bubble screen sensations. Boring football. Uh-uh. Game manager, I get it. I want to see those deep shots. That’s what the NFL was built on. I grew up with Johnny Unitas, Fran Tarkenton, Ken Stabler, Daryle Lamonica. You talk about quarterbacks — Joe Namath, Brett Favre when he was doing what he did. Herb Jones with the Baltimore Colts. You think about those quarterbacks who would thrown the ball down the field. I said what Bradshaw did with Stallworth and Swan. Roger Staubach. That’s what I want to see brought back.”

Kiper name-dropped players of years past either in an attempt to appeal to people my dad’s age, or to ‘rage-bait’ the internet into talking about him. And both of those strategies worked.

Don’t get me wrong — I love the Bradshaw, Stallworth and Swan references. I’m a Steelers fan, so any time they’re brought up, I’m happy. I also enjoy prior eras of football, because they paved the way for the sport. What I don’t like, though, is attacking defensive strategy because offensive production is down this year.

My fantasy football team has been a disappointment again this year, so I get where he’s coming from. But why can’t we give defensive coordinators and players their flowers, too? Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs have reigned so long now that everyone is trying to emulate them. The game has sped up. The dual-threat quarterback is nearly a must in today’s day and age, no longer an oddity.

For those of you asking what a ‘two-high safety’ defense is, let me explain. The defense lines up, opposite of the offense, and attempts to thwart any traction down the field. Traditionally, in years past, this involved ‘stacking the box’, or putting a lot of players near the line-of-scrimmage to stop the run.

Now, though, offenses are very pass-heavy, and putting all the players that close to the line allows even a mediocre quarterback to throw over the top. To combat this, defenses run different pass coverages. These include man-to-man, which has the defensive player follow their assigned offensive counterpart, or zone coverage, which means the defensive player is responsible for a section of the field instead of a specific player. Teams can mix-and-match these coverages, and they often do.

One way that they can mix these two is by running the two-high safety look. Generally, in a pass defense, they will run out of the ‘nickel’, meaning five defensive backs. An offense can have up to six players that could theoretically catch a pass, but one of them is the quarterback. That means it’s an even five-on-five. Three of those players are defensive backs, with one of them being the ‘nickel’ backer. That is, until you add in the linebackers, if you’re really trying to defend the pass. That means it will be anywhere from five to seven defenders, looking to make a play on the ball.

The three, four, or five defenders that aren’t the safeties will generally be in a mix of coverage, with the slower linebackers being covering the zones in the middle of the field or the ‘flats’, trying to nix the idea of short passes, while covering up their lack of speed. The cornerbacks and ‘nickel’ backer will be responsible for either bigger zones or man-to-man coverage. And the safeties are sunk back for the long ball — which is Kiper’s biggest gripe.

Each safety is responsible for his half of the field, hawking down anything deep coming his way. This presents a problem for the offense.

An offense with weapons like Tyreek Hill or Justin Jefferson will look to burn down the sidelines, hopefully in single coverage, and get the ball in their hands. If that’s not open, an under route, like a slot receiver on a shallow cross, is the next option. The two-high eliminates both of these avenues, if it’s executed correctly.

Another gripe I have with Kiper is that this isn’t even the most popular defense, and it still has its fair share of exploitation. One- and three-high safeties are still the most popular defenses. The two-high can easily be beaten with a post-corner route and running back draws.

This isn’t a tactical issue. This is poor offensive line play, and as a Steelers fan, I know this too well. So, Mel Kiper, Jr., before you go on ESPN to complain about defensive coordinators doing their job and matching their players’ skill sets to the best of their abilities, do your research on how players like T.J. Watt or Myles Garrett are disrupting offensive lines.