The upcoming Sunday night contest featuring the Baltimore Ravens hosting the Pittsburgh Steelers is primed to be another AFC North classic. This will also be another chance to compare two great safeties in action - Ed Reed and Troy Polamalu. Which brings me to my query: Who would you choose between the two? Listed below are their stats for comparison: INT's Reed - 50 Polamalu - 24 INT TD's Reed - 6 Polamalu - 1 INT Yards Reed - 1,338 Polamalu - 271 Forced Fumbles Reed - 10 Polamalu - 7 Fumble Recoveries Reed - 10 Polamalu - 4 Tackles Reed - 398 Polamalu - 389 I believe the obvious choice is Ed Reed, however many of my friends and acquaintances beg to differ.
To those men and women who voted for number 43: Would you still vote for Polamalu if his name was Ron Jackson and had a man's hairstyle?
This argument has come up between my friends and I plenty of times. Honestly for me, it comes down to pure skill. Take each player away from their successful teams and throw them in, say, the Texans secondary. Which player purely by the skill he posses would still but up the numbers and have near the same effect on the game. Ed Reed, IMO, would be the winner every single time. He is a playmaker with hard hitting ability and pass catching ability as well. Polumalu can take calculated risks because his front seven is constantly pressuring the opposing teams quarterback. Ed Reed would still be all over the field covering receivers and intercepting passes, he's more of a cerebral player. At least more than Troy, imo.
Reed. Polamalu is a terrific safaty but is strength his physical tackling and run stopping. Most of his contribution come near the line of scrimmage. When put in coverage for too long, he isn't very effective. For evidence of that look at the Patriots game a few weeks ago. Polamalu was clearly frustrated with New England calling so many short and intermediate routes that he become ineffective. Later, he tried to gamble on several plays by jumping the snap count out of frustration with a free blitz but was fooled by Brady going the other way with the ball. Then you have the 3 TDs scored by Gronkowski straight up the middle with the no help from Polamalu who was too busy jumping the gun. Reed is so much better in coverage. He reads the plays and reacts to the quarterback in space. The man has the most interceptions of any active safety and has been clutch in postseason games with timely pick-six. I would give anything right now to have him on the Texans.
Without Reed, Baltimore was still a very good defense and was still a playoff caliber team. Without Polamalu in 2009, Pittsburgh's defense suffered and their record did, too. When it comes to importance to their team, I believe it's Polamalu. On pure skill, give me Ed Reed.
Reed gets more spectacular plays and all his great almost psychic reads result in huge returns also. He had that pick 6 against Cincy last year that blew my mind; he was sprinting from the other side of the field and the ball wasn't even thrown yet. But Polamalu is there in every play. He's a bigger piece of his team and if you can call Reed more cerebral, then Troy's more instinctual, and that is just as impressive. That psychic flying tackle against the Titans this year was amazing. He makes big plays in the backfield and when the play ends is almost always part of the gang tackle.
They are both game-changers in their own ways. Troy is just a cannon out there, shooting the gaps, always knowing where to be... making plays. Ed Reed to me is probably the best play-making safety of all time.
To stop the run Polamalu is better. To stop the pass plays, Reed is much better, he can read the QB eyes with a lot of precision, and I love the lateral passes he makes, when he gets an interception and its going to be tackled. So give me Reed over Troy.
I'd take Reed, but both are bad ass. Polamalu leads that Pittsburgh D... Reed doesn't necessarily lead the Ravens D.. but I think Reed is so talented individually.
