Colts all-pro safety Bob Sanders will be out for the remainder of the season. At the start of next season, he will have played in only 47 out of 96 possible games since being drafted out of Iowa. For those who thought he was too small for the NFL, you were right. His body(5' 8'' 206 lbs.) simply can't handle his physical style. When he's healthy, he's arguably the best safety in the NFL along with Troy Polomalu and Ed Reed. The problem is that he isn't healthy enough. Indianapolis needs to draft a safety next April in one of the early rounds to be the viable long term option that Bob Sanders simply isn't. Bill Polian, the Colts GM, will have 3 options as to what to do with Sanders himself:
1. Trade him before the draft next year-This would be a smart decision if he wanted to have any chance at the two top safeties in the draft this year, Tennessee's Eric Berry(the Ed Reed clone) and USC's Taylor Mays(the Steve Atwater clone), because the Colts' record will be too good for either of them to be available anywhere near where they're drafting. This is the choice I would make and I would attempt to package Sanders with the Colts' first round pick to get into the top ten to snag Berry or Mays.
2. Keep him for the next year or two and use him to mentor the safety they draft-This option would be the most desirable in my opinion but also the most difficult to pull off. While they would have to form some other sort of package to get into the top ten to pluck Berry or Mays, this would be the most beneficial for both the long term and short term. This would give Berry/Mays time to develop(and while still probably giving them the ability to get their feet wet due to Bob Sanders' lack of ability to stay healthy) while still keeping Sanders available during the Colt's window of opportunity to win another Super Bowl with Peyton Manning in his prime.
3. Keep him and hope that he can stay healthy-This would be the most high risk/high reward option. However, it would also be the dumbest option because Bob Sanders has shown nothing that would make anyone believe that he can stay healthy enough to be a legitimate long term option. However, if the move did work out, it would allow the Colts to use their high draft picks on players that can bring immediate impact for their quest to claim another Super Bowl title during their fictitious "window of opportunity".
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment