Player Spotlight: LaRon Landry

Is he a Free Safety or a Strong Safety? Most people don’t care. They think that just because he’s an athlete that he should just be able to line up and play anywhere. I beg to differ. I would like to point out that there are 11 positions on both Offense and Defense. And since he plays on Defense, we’ll stay on that side of the ball. Because he’s an athlete do we line LaRon Landry up at Defensive End? No!! Why? There are certain requirements of that position and one of them is size. He’s too small to be a Defensive End. Do we line him up at Defensive Tackle? No!! Why? There are certain requirements of that position as well, and again, one of those are size. He’s too small to be a Defensive Tackle. Do you see where I am going with this people? I don’t care how athletic you are, how strong you are, or how fast you are. There are only a handful of people who can play multiple positions. And sorry folks, Landry is a fit, a perfect fit, at only one position.

Football evolves from season to season. New schemes and trends emerge almost daily. No position reflects this better than safety. Remember back in the day when most teams used to draft the big physical safeties that were the 3^rd level enforcers? They were used like additional Linebackers. They were used to intimidate Wide Receivers and provide additional help to the running game. But with the increasing use of multiple-receiver sets along with teams using bigger bodies at Wide Receiver and Tight End, these bigger Safeties were starting to become a liability in passing situations. So how has the Safety position been changed because of this? Well now more teams are looking for more athletic and rangy players. Sometimes these guys are Cornerbacks who were converted to Safeties because a lot of Safeties were not good at judging the deep ball. Other situations had guys who used to be Wide Receivers change to Safety, again, because of the ability to judge the deep ball. But that was really the only change.

The responsibilities of the Safety/Safeties are pretty much the same. They still must be able to hit and come up against the run, but their ability to break down and tackle in the open field is very important. Many guys can create a collision that looks good, but if they can't break down and make a key tackle in the open field, they will hurt a defense. No one player has taken more heat for this than LaRon Landry. But, if most people remember, when Landry was drafted, there was a Free Safety on the Washington Redskins who possessed all of these qualities, had ridiculous range, was great at judging the deep ball and allowed Landry to play closer to the line. I’ll give you one guess who that guy was.

See the strong safety must be a run stopper with the ability to at least cover the tight end while the free safety is more of a range-, centerfield-type guy with good instincts. They also make the secondary calls and put everybody in position. Again, when Landry was drafted there was already a guy who played Free Safety who was stellar at handling the secondary calls and was good at putting everyone in position. But even he had his share of ups and down.

Sean Taylor was the prototype at Free Safety. Now everyone is looking for that kind of player. Big (6’3”), rangy, athletic, ball hawking intimidators with good instincts and intelligence are very rare. But the Redskins made the mistake of thinking that since Sean was so big and rangy lets move him to the Strong Safety position. And if you will remember he had one of the worse years of his short career. An unofficial stat had Sean Taylor leading the league in missed tackles from players who were actually in position to make a tackle. Did this make Taylor a bad player, or did this make the decision to move him closer to the line a bad one? See when Taylor was moved back to his natural position, all of a sudden people took notice. Some people even said that he had the best year of his career. I pointed out that he was back at his original position, so it wasn’t a surprise to me. It was at the Free Safety position where Taylor won the Big East Defensive Player of the Year in college. It was also at the Free Safety position that Taylor was a Jim Thorpe Award Finalist in college. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. It’s easy to grow in a position that you have playing all of your career as opposed to adjusting to a new position. It’s not impossible; it’s just a bit more difficult. This brings me to LaRon Landry.

LaRon Landry is a Strong Safety. He doesn’t look for interceptions, he looks for collisions. He has the range to be a Free Safety. Hell, he’s probably the fastest person on the Redskins Defense, but he uses his speed to try to put himself into position to make the knockout hit. It’s not a knock, it is part of his personality. It’s part of his game. It’s what got him to the NFL. I can’t tell you the last time I saw him making adjustments in the passing game pre-snap. Again, it’s not a knock, it is what it is. Most people complain about the angles that Landry takes to make tackles. Answer this one question. What’s easier to do, make a tackle from 15 yards away, or make a tackle from 25-30 yards away? Don’t worry, it’s not a trick question. What people don’t see is that LaRon is playing Free Safety and is coming from a longer distance to try to make plays. It looks like he’s out of control. But in reality, the fact that he is even able to put himself in position to make a play, considering how far he has to run, is amazing in itself.

What bothers me the most is when I hear people say that he’s worthless. To whom is he worthless? Would it be fair to say that you are worthless if you find yourself in a position trying to fill a void left by your family member who may have passed away? Is it fair to say that you are worthless if your co-worker is either out sick, fired, or quit their job and you were asked to take over their position, responsibilities and all, and you may not know all of what their position requires. It would take some time to adjust right? At this point it doesn’t matter if you are making $40,000/yr. or $4M/yr. You need to check your ego at the door. Take your ass out on the football field for an off-season, regular season, or my personal favorite, the post-season. Walk in their shoes for a second. It may shed light on something that you may not otherwise have known. Let’s ask Peyton Manning, Carson Palmer or Tom Brady to play Wide Receiver. They all know the passing game, are all tall, and they are all smart so they should make the adjustment fairly easy right? They know the playbook. I mean they are millionaires they should be able to make the adjustment right? Well the next time you are watching LaRon Landry play remember that he is not playing his natural position. Just ask Adam Archuletta how hard it is to go from Strong Safety to Free Safety.

And one last note, please don’t give me any crap about Landry celebrating after making a play. I could care less. He’s allowed to express himself well within the guidelines of the NFL rules. He hasn’t broken any rules so it’s a moot point. I’d just like to see what would happen if the Redskins went after a Free Safety in the off-season who was good enough to move LaRon back to Strong Safety. It’s too bad Sean Taylor passed away, they were the perfect tandem. I mean people there is a reason why LaRon, with all of his athletic ability, was moved to Strong Safety in college and was drafted by the Redskins to play Strong Safety along side Sean Taylor. That position, to me, seems to be the perfect fit for him.