Safeties getting big money in 2019 is the surprising plot twist of NFL free agency

Landon Collins, Tyrann Mathieu, and Earl Thomas are three of only eight NFL players who hit free agency this month and flew off the market with a contract that averages over $13.5 million per year.

Mathieu got three years and $42 million from the Chiefs. Thomas landed with the Ravens for four years and $55 million. But Collins was the biggest winner with a six-year, $84 million deal from Washington — the richest deal ever for a safety.

It makes sense to invest in the position. The 2018 season set records for league-wide passer rating (92.9), completion percentage (64.9 percent), and touchdown passes (847). It certainly doesn’t hurt to have a reliable defensive back in the middle of the field to help slow down that onslaught.

That’s why it was so strange to see safeties struggle to get money on the market in 2018. It looked like 2019 would be another bad year for the position when Collins, Mathieu, and Thomas were all allowed to reach the market, while players like Eric Weddle, Tashaun Gipson, and Eric Berry were released. Instead, all but Berry were signed at the start of the new league year.

That’s a hugely talented group of players, so it’s not surprising that NFL teams parsed through the ranks. But the big money they received was in stark contrast to how the market treated safeties a year ago.

When Mathieu refused a pay cut from the Arizona Cardinals in March 2018, he was released and hit the free agency market hopeful to find money that made the decision worthwhile. One report said he was aiming to get a contract that averaged $11 million per year.

Instead, he settled for a one-year, $7 million “prove-it” deal with the Houston Texans.

That was the best contract any free agent safety got in 2018. Then there was a three-year, $16.35 million deal for Kurt Coleman with the Saints and a three-year, $14.35 million deal for Morgan Burnett with the Steelers. Other safeties — like Kenny Vaccaro, Eric Reid, and Tre Boston — had to wait months for a contract.

Having Reid on the market may have been part of the problem. Safety Mike Mitchell, who was a free agent in 2018 until the Colts signed him in October, and other sources told The Athletic that “NFL teams took an intentionally cool approach toward free-agent safeties in 2018 to avoid the appearance of collusion against Eric Reid.”

Whatever it was, the NFL seemed to seriously undervalue the position and left many safeties on the open market.

“It’s kind of unbelievable to me,” Boston told Sirius XM Radio in 2018 after a couple disappointing weeks of free agency. “We’re talking about a position that’s needed more and more on the field in today’s game.

”There are about five or six valuable starting safeties in free agency right now. But I guess it’s just trying to get us to take peanuts like the rest of them have. That’s just the business of the game.”

Boston eventually signed a one-year deal with the Cardinals worth $1.5 million. So far, he hasn’t found a new team in 2019 and sits 52nd on our list of the top free agents. Boston is one spot higher than Vaccaro — who settled for the same deal as Boston last year with the Titans. This year, he stayed with Tennessee, cashing in with a four-year, $26 million contract.

Reid was finally signed by the Panthers near the end of September to a one-year deal with a $1 million base salary, and played well enough to earn a three-year, $22 million extension from the team.

The crop of safeties that hit the market in 2019 was undoubtedly better than the one from 2018. But this time around was a much better foray into free agency for Mathieu, Vaccaro, and the safety position, in general.

When the salaries for franchise tags were released at the beginning of March, only tight ends and kickers/punters had a lower number than safeties.

It only cost $11.15 million to franchise a safety — less than half the $24.865 million price tag to franchise a quarterback — and the Giants still decided it was too rich to use to retain Landon Collins.

Now, Collins, Mathieu, and Thomas are the three highest-paid players at the position. No other position saw a reversal like that.

New contracts for Trey Flowers and Dee Ford made them the fourth- and sixth-highest paid pass rushers in the NFL. Nick Foles became the 11th-highest paid quarterback. Inside linebacker C.J. Mosley was the only non-safety to set a new standard at his position by signing a five-year, $85 million deal with the Jets.

Then again, no other position had so much top-end talent hit free agency. Still, there are a number of young defensive backs starring in the middle of a secondary, and any increase in the value of safeties is great news for them. Eddie Jackson, Jamal Adams, Kevin Byard, and Derwin James are all on rookie deals and stand to cash in big with extensions soon.

The contracts for safeties in 2019 have been surprising after the market was so dead a year ago, but there’s no reason to expect it plunge again. Now it looks like 2018 was the outlier all along.