IDP Spotlight: S Bob Sanders, Indianapolis Colts

  Posted 8/8 by Aaron Rudnicki, Exclusive to Footballguys.com

Sanders entered the league as a 2nd round pick of the Colts in the 2004 draft. He was known as a ferocious hitter in college at Iowa who could improve the overall toughness of a defensive unit by himself and he's carried that reputation with him to the NFL. The Colts played most of the 2006 season without Sanders and had one of the weakest run defenses in the league, allowing over 100 yards per game. When the playoffs came around, however, Sanders was healthy and helped limit opponents to just 73 rushing yards per game on their way to a championship. That was his coming out party and really showed the entire league how important he was as a player. He followed that up with an amazing 2007 season, recording 71 solo tackles, 3.5 sacks, and 2 INTs and being named the NFL Defensive Player of the Year. The Colts rewarded him near the end of the season with a 5-year, $37.5 million contract extension that included $20 million in guaranteed money.

Sanders has averaged almost 5 solo tackles per game during his career, which would project out to about 80 over an entire season. With 26 missed games over the past 4 seasons, however, he has had a lot of difficulty staying healthy and has yet to play a full 16-game season. Despite being somewhat undersized for the SS position at 5'8", Sanders is one of the best pound for pound hitters in the league and his aggressive style makes him more susceptible to injury. Although Sanders has the range to chase down plays from sideline to sideline and is generally reliable in coverage, he has just 4 INTs in 38 games. With the pass rush that is generated by Dwight Freeney and Robert Mathis up front along with all the pass attempts the Colts defense should face due to their potent offense, the low INT total is a bit surprising. Based on the 3.5 sacks he put up last year, it looks like the Colts will start using him more as a blitzer and that could help offset any deficiencies in ball skills.

Positives

• Reigning NFL Defensive Player of the Year is one of the most aggressive and physical safeties in the league
• Consistency: Recorded 3 or more solo tackles in 13 of 15 games played last season
• Career averages thus far would project to 79 solos, 24 assists, 1.5 sacks, 2 INT, 1 FF, 2 FR, and 5 PDs in a 16-game season, DB1 type numbers

Negatives

• Lack of durability: Has missed 10 or more games twice in the past four seasons and 26 games overall
• Despite playing in a very favorable situation (pass rush, potent offense), has only picked off 4 passes in his career so far. Similarly, it's strange that such a ferocious hitter has only forced 2 fumbles
• Signed a big contract extension with $20 million in guaranteed money, so lack of motivation is a concern
  

Final Thoughts

Sanders is one of the most exciting defensive players in the league to watch because he flies around the field with reckless abandon and frequently explodes into ball carriers. He is a bit more valuable to the Colts than he is to fantasy owners, but a top-5 season would not be a huge surprise if he managed to stay healthy and make a few more big plays. The Cover-2 defense the Colts use isn't the most conducive to big fantasy totals for the safeties, but Sanders seems to make up for it with his instincts and aggressiveness. He's clearly a big injury risk, but has enough upside to warrant a ranking among the top-10 safeties in both redrafts and dynasty leagues.

Quotes from the IDP Spotlight Message Thread

To view the entire thread, click here.

Rozelle:
"His aggressive, pedal to the metal, smash mouth style makes him easily my favorite defensive player to watch. His closing speed is absolutely unbelievable! Sanders finally played a full year and was rewarded by winning the 2007 NFL Defensive POY award.

Back in late January, Sanders had his shoulder scoped, "had things cleaned out" he said. He will start training camp on the PUP list, but not to worry, he'll be ready when it counts. Hopefully he will stay healthy in 2008, not an easy task with his style of play.

Coming out of Iowa, PFW said "if he were 3" taller, he'd be a first round pick and regarded as a better prospect than Sean Taylor".

Sanders is a top notch safety in his prime and has a chance to go down as one of the great ones. You'll probably always have in injury risk with him, but the rewards are high."

Jayrod:
"Sanders is a great safety from both NFL and fantasy perspectives. However his inability to stay healthy limits his value. He's only played in 38 out of 60 regular season games in his career, an average of 10 games per season. For this reason and this reason only, I would be very hesitant to draft him as my DB1. However, he is a great risk/reward type DB2 that when he plays would give you a top DB combo, but when hurt you still had a solid starter in someone else."

Benny Beaver:
"He's a risky player, especially where you'll have to draft him. He started 4, 14, 5 and 15 games during his first four seasons. To add on to the risk, he's the perfect example of a GTDP (game time decision player). He may play each week, but you won't know if he'll start until right before the game. So there may be times in which he'll get 10 tackles and 2 INTs, but owners across the country will have him on the bench because they weren't sure if he would play.

He will be on pace to pick up 96 total tackles, like he did last year, but I don't see him playing all 16 games. I'm not in the business of predicting injuries, but I have my money on him playing in 10 games in '08."

Projections

IDP Scoring System

• 1.5 pts per Solo Tackle
• 0.75 pts per Assisted Tackle
• 4 pts per Sack
• 4 pts per Forced Fumble
• 4 pts per Fumble Recovery
• 5 pts per Interception
• 1.5 pts per Pass Defensed
• 6 pts per Touchdown
• 2 pts per Safety