(DISCLAIMER: the free/strong safety designation means nothing here. A safety is a safety is a safety for these purposes, and I’m not far enough on the spectrum to differentiate right now)
THE GOOD: MARK CARRIER (1990-1996) – The 1990 draft was the first one I ever paid any real attention to, so I was really excited about this guy as a rookie, which was precisely the time period during which he exploded the entire goddamn league. He busted right out of the gate and led the league with ten interceptions, won Defensive Rookie of the Year, made the Pro Bowl, was on everybody’s All-Pro teams, and was really useful on Tecmo Super Bowl after using Mike Singletary on every play had made the game too easy. Thing is, such a statistically-rich season never happened again, and this led to the Internet Blood Libel of Mark Carrier being a guy who had one good year and sucked forever after that. This is all double-bullshit though, as he remained excellent, and just didn’t have quarterbacks trying to pick on the rookie (and failing miserably) anymore. As such, he made a couple more Pro Bowls and remained perhaps the only useful player to control on the default Bears roster in 1995’s Tecmo Super Bowl III. (Donnell Woolford had no hitting power, so running backs would just smear him, you see) So if you see anyone out in the streets badmouthing Mark Carrier, stab them. It’s okay, you’ll be okay, trust me. I am a scientist.