talanoa-polamalu

talanoa hufanga. i think he can be a very good safety at the next level. he went to USC and reminds me a little of a young troy. talanoa is not getting hardly any attention i dont know why. but i wish the steelers can get him in the middle rounds and replace edmunds.

 

Two major reasons he is not getting much attention is due to the lack of top end overall speed paired with his injury history; a common theme for this year's crop of defenders. Everything else with him his great; his versatility and play recognition among the best in the class as far as not just safeties but defenders as a whole. That said, that lack of top end speed seriously let's him down though.




I get it that speed should not be everything but here in lies the issue.. Speed not only thrills but kills in today's NFL; doubly so for safeties. Part of what made Troy so legendary was his ridiculous overall speed. For that matter, a major reason why the prominence of the Safety Position has been skyrocketing over the past decade is due to a time period in NFL History which I consider the Golden Age of Safeties; the 2000s Era.



Bob Sanders, Adrian Wilson, Rodney Harrison and lest any of us forget Sean Taylor (may his soul forever Rest In Peace) to name a few. However, as with all great ages of dominance, three stood out more than anyone of their peers; the Holy Trinity. They are as follows;




Ed Reed


Brian Dawkins


Troy Polamalu






Every "Defensive Personnel Weapon" players like Derwin James or even our own Minkah Fitzpatrick can pay homage to these three. All three revolutionized the NFL forever. Since then, the whole "positionless" aspect of Defensive Players has grown exponentially.




To summarize?! Talanoa Hufanga can be a very good to possibly even great NFL Safety. He has very good tools but with tremendous Football IQ and Instincts to boot. That said, him avoiding the injury bug and speed up his mental processor faster is going to be critical.

 

I talked about him in the draft forum before, he could be a good option in the 4th round or later.

 

I thought he ran a 4.6, that's fast enough.

 

would you like to see him get drafted by the steelers or not? i get a food feeling about him when i see his film of course dont see any bad highlights. but i can see him overcome his speed since we have fitz on the other side. thanks for the article too.

 

I personally would like it. However, as much as the team needs another Safety, I do not think Talanoa is the correct fit here. Remember, Keith Butler enjoys moving his safeties around a lot; the Single High Position the same. While Talanoa has the Football IQ to play such a position, he sadly does not have the required speed. If anything, running a mid 4.4. is the current benchmark for this defense; NFL average I believe is around 4.5 to 4.55.




Sadly and again, the speed factor is added into this. Ever since those aforementioned three legends arrived and left, that has been the direction the league has been going. Players like Minkah, Derwin and to a lesser extent in Terrell are doing nothing but accelerating the process of having multi role Safeties who have great to elite levels of athletic abilities.

 

Seems like he makes plays, worth a look later in the draft since they need some depth at safety and the slot

I was just watching NFL network Top 50 Troy plays.

https://www.nfl.com/videos/nfl-throwback-troy-polamalu-s-top-50-plays

 

He is training with Troy so hopefully Troy can give Colbert some insights that’s not so obvious in game films