An appreciation of Glover Quin
By Ty Finch
In a recent NFL podcast from The Ringer, Robert Mays and Kevin Clark broke down their top 10 lists of best safeties in the NFL. While their respective indexes were largely agreeable, one omission stood out like a Jim Caldwell emotional bombardment: Glover Quin. While dissecting a top 10 list in great detail and arguing the order is a futile exercise, not including Glover Quin seemed like a glaring mistake, until I searched more. It seems that Glover Quin is an underrated player by most publications in general. Bleacher Report ranked Quin 23 among free safeties alone. Pro Football Focus graded him tied for 39th in their 2015 rankings. Fox Sports did not include him in their top 10, nor honorable mentions, as Sports Illustrated at least did. I thought, before this exercise at least, that most NFL minds would appreciate Quin’s play more. It appears that I miscalculated.
While it is becoming increasingly difficult to evaluate safety play in the NFL, as Glover Quin himself alludes to, his overall play over the last couple of years warrants a bit of praise.
What Glover Quin does better than most players in the league is limiting mistakes
In the linked article, Quin details how safeties in the NFL achieve notoriety when it is so challenging to grade their play: interceptions. Considering that he lead the league in interceptions in 2014 and was in the top 15 again in 2015, Quin is curiously left out of most discussions regarding best safeties. However, playing safety is much more than just picking off errant passes. A top safety has to recognize if the opposition is going to pass or run faster than anyone else on defense, contribute game-saving tackles, and rarely give up the big play. A mistake by the safety in most defenses is easily noticeable and can swing an entire game. In contrast, many plays that a safety makes can be attributed to another player.
What Glover Quin does better than most players in the league is limiting mistakes. A game that exemplifies that skill more than others is week 15 in the 2015 season against the New Orleans Saints. Glover Quin played most of the first half, suffering a concussion with just over a minute to play in the 2nd quarter. The Saints drive chart was abysmal with Quin in the lineup.
- 3 plays, 5 yards, PUNT
- 3 plays, 2 yards, PUNT
- 12 plays, 56 yards, FG
- 6 plays, 9 yards, PUNT
- 11 plays, 72 yards, End of Half
Of course, while giving Quin all the credit for holding Drew Brees and company to zero touchdowns in the first half is irresponsible, it is quite clear he played a large part, especially considering the party of a 2nd half the Saints’ offense had with James Ihedigbo in place of Quin.
- 3 plays, -1 yards, PUNT
- 5 plays, 69 yards, TD
- 8 plays, 69 yards, FG
- 5 plays, 38 yards, TD
- 15 plays, 80 yards, TD
All drive stats from Pro Football Reference.
It is possible that Brees, coach Sean Payton, and the offense completely figured the Lions’ defense out at halftime, and unleashed their pent-up frustrations in the second half. What is more likely, however, is the absence of Glover Quin played a major role in their resurgence. Quin has routinely shown his superior pass coverage skills in relation to Ihedigbo’s for two seasons now. Inserting Ihedigbo into a safety tandem with Isa Abdul-Quddus is asking teams to throw constantly. That is just what the Saints did in the 2nd half.
To further illustrate the magnitude of difference between the two safeties in the Saints game, I will break down similar plays they ran with Quin in the lineup and with Ihedigbo in.
13:33 left in the 2nd, Saints on own 26 yard line (With Quin)
The Saints are lined up with an 11 personnel grouping (1 RB, 1 TE, 3 WR), with the lone running back, CJ Spiller, lined up up off the hip of the right tackle. The Lions counter with nickel-man coverage with a lone safety (Quin) over the top. The Saints essentially run an “All-go” with four of the receivers, three being lined up to the left of the formation, leaving Spiller with an option route underneath. The goal of this play for the Saints is to either A) connect with the lone wide-out on the right or B) have Brees look off the safety and hit a streaking receiver on the left. Quin does not bite on either option. He waits until the last moment to show his hand, essentially not biting on Brees’ attempt to shift him to one side, and the play ends with Brees dumping a pass off to Spiller that falls incomplete.
Had Quin opened his hips just a bit to either side during the play, or backed off his coverage by a few yards, Brees had a few options to try a deep ball. However, by not leaning towards the half of the field with the other three receivers on it, Brees has to hold on to the ball and attempt the safe play.
6:55 left in the 3rd, Saints on own 36 yard line (With Ihedigbo)
Remember when I said that safety play is hard to evaluate? This play from the Saints exemplifies why. The offense lines up in an 01 package (1 TE, 4 WR) similar to the play above, simply with an extra wideout instead of a running back. The Lions counter with their nickel defense again, with Ihedigbo as the lone safety. Marques Colston is lined up in the slot to Brees’ right, while an extra receiver stacks behind him. Colston runs a go route from the slot position, while the receiver behind him runs an out-and-up to try and confuse the defense by shifting their focus. The tight end on the play, Benjamin Watson, runs a short curl in the middle to drag the linebackers in while Colston goes over top. To make a long story short, the play works to perfection for the Saints. The Lion’s linebackers on the play (Stephen Tulloch and Tahir Whitehead) both sneak up to take Watson, while Darius Slay and Abdul-Quddus follow the receiver running the out-and-up, leaving Colston with more open field than a soccer pitch after a World Cup in Brazil.
So what does Ihedigbo have to do with the broken coverage? Well, going back to the play before with Quin in the lineup, one major action taken by the two separate safeties is glaringly different. The plays the Saints run are not identical, however they are similar enough to point out the contrasting attributes of each player.
The key deviation is how the two safeties line up. Of course, without seeing the playbook, it is impossible to be 100% sure of the responsibilities and assignments, but there is enough evidence to break it down. Glover Quin lines up approximately 16 yards behind the ball, and moves back three yards just before the ball is snapped. Ihedigbo also lines up 16 yards behind the ball, but instead of retreating just a few more yards, backpedals eight more yards before the snap. A quarterback like Drew Brees will notice these changes in alignments more often than not, and that is exactly what he does. In the play with Quin in the lineup, Brees is not able to take a shot downfield because of Quin’s positioning and patience. Ihedigbo on the other hand, not only shades to his right, away from the play, but is too far from the ball to make any sort of difference. Had he been five yards closer and sat in the middle of the field like Quin, there is a much better chance of making a play on the ball, negating the 28 yards the Saints gained.
In the heat of the game, and without the All-22 film, it is damn near impossible to quantify exactly how the safeties are playing if not for an interception or big play. What made this game stand out was how easily Brees dissected the Lions’ defense after Quin went down with an injury. Luckily for the Lions, they had built a big lead in the game before he was removed, and the resulting comeback from the Saints fell short.
While there are certainly flashier, more extravagant safeties in the league than Glover Quin, there are few teams in the NFL that would balk at having him playing free safety. His ability to read the offense, limit his mistakes, and come up with a few big plays every game has been unmatched on the Lions for years. Considering Quin’s average salary is 22nd in the NFL for safeties, he is also quite the bargain, and should be appreciated in Detroit more than he is now.