08-09-2007, 09:07 AM
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#1 (permalink)
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Both of them
Join Date: Sep 2006
Posts: 10,225
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Seahawks newcomer Deon Grant eager to play prominent role
Seahawks | Seahawks newcomer Deon Grant eager to play prominent role | Seattle Times Newspaper
Quote:
Deon Grant put the whole incident behind him.
Wait. That's not quite right, because Grant is a safety who doesn't want anything getting behind him. That ability to keep receivers in front of him is a point of pride in his eight-year career. It's also why Grant's game with Jacksonville in Washington last October stands out, because he ended up watching Santana Moss run right past him en route to a 68-yard touchdown. Grant had a chance to make a big hit, held up instead to try for the interception and saw Moss run between him and a cornerback on his way to the end zone.
"Missing the tackle, that's what it really was," Grant said. "I don't think I've ever been just beat deep."
That more than anything else explains why Grant is in Seattle after signing one of the largest contracts ever given to a safety in the NFL, with guarantees of more than $10 million. For the past few years the Seahawks defense was like a baseball stadium built with a short porch in right field. It was vulnerable to the long ball. The Seahawks gave up 11 pass plays of 40 or more yards last season, seven of them for touchdowns. More telling was the timing. Seattle lost a lead three times in the final three minutes of the fourth quarter on touchdown passes of more than 35 yards.
How did all that happen?
"At times, not being on the same page," cornerback Marcus Trufant said. "Being that we were a younger secondary, sometimes just not seeing certain things."
So the Seahawks spent free agency putting a veteran presence at the back of the defense. They spent big, adding Grant from Jacksonville and Brian Russell from Cleveland in a single 24-hour span.
"We felt that obviously that was a problem that we had last year that we wanted to address," president Tim Ruskell said.
So the Seahawks added two safeties, starter Ken Hamlin left as a free agent and Michael Boulware is working with the second-unit defense.
It's too soon to see a difference, but you can hear it. Grant stands 6 feet 2 and is 215 pounds, with feet fast enough to play cornerback and a voice loud enough to compete with any quarterback when it comes to calling signals.
"Almost like you've got a coach on the field," Trufant said.
Grant plays a position that has become increasingly important. Grant and Adam Archuleta in 2006 commanded top dollar on the free-agent market and Dallas' Roy Williams signed a big-money extension. Four safeties were chosen in the first round of this year's draft, one more than in 2006.
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Only two safeties total were chosen in the first round of the drafts from 2003 to 2005.
"Just a couple of years ago, it was more of what we call a pawn position," assistant head coach Jim Mora said of the safety spot. "You could kind of just plug guys in. Now it's become a little bit more of a prominent position."
And a spot the Seahawks believe they've plugged with someone who will help put the problems with the deep ball in the past by not letting anyone get behind him.
Well, no one except Moss last October, and Grant has moved on from the play. Just don't say he's put it behind him because Grant prides himself on keeping everything in front of him.
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Seahawks newcomer Deon Grant eager to play prominent role
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