Thread by @TomKislingbury

Safety is the most interesting position in the NFL.
It's right at the front of schematic innovation.
But it's poorly understood - because a lot of safety play happens off camera [and far away from the ball].
Here's some info from the game this week.
#ChiefsKingdom
#WeAreTexans

Firstly the guys you all love: Honey Badger.
Here's where he lined up.
Over a third in the slot.
Some in the box.
Deep quite a bit.
Now often you'll hear people call him a strong safety.
That's just an inadequate term.

Here's Daniel Sorenson.
You'll notice he plays more in the box than Mathieu does.
It's obvious on film too.

Here's Juan Thornhill.
I really like him as a player - but he's a deep safety for the Chiefs.
24 snaps deep.
7 snaps in the slot.
A handful in the box.

And Ex-Seahawk Tedric Thompson also played a bit [remember we're going to see multiple safeties more on the field as we go forward].
He was deep most of the time too.

Here's the 4 of them together.
Different roles.
Different skillsets.
Strong safety / free safety is not good enough

On to the Texans.
Here's Eric Murray.
40% deep.
20% in the slot.

Justin Reid [who I do not understand the hype for. Never have].
45% deep.
10% slot.

And AJ Moore.
He played just 26 snaps but 50% in the box.
PFF even call him a LB.

Here's the 3 of them together.

This actually seems like progress from Houston. Under a new DefCo [nominally at least] they're moving a little away from their classic cover-2 left/right safety scheme.
A little bit at least

But even so you can see a clear difference between the 2 teams.
The Chiefs are much more flexible with their safeties and use them on the field more.
The Texans much more traditional with mostly 2 on the field.

Fascinating stuff eh?