Ravens' Lardarius Webb To Safety?

Lardarius Webb is coming off of his second Major, season ending knee surgery and is expected to be the cornerstone of the Baltimore Ravens secondary in 2013. Webb has had surgeries on both of his knees now and there is no telling how much that will impact his play when returning to the field.

Playing a position like corner Lardarius will be matched up against fleet footed receivers that can stop and change direction on a dime. After being weekend not once but twice, will he still be able to perform as one of the Ravens top corners again? Of course that is a question that will only be answered once he takes the field in training camp or beyond.

I have heard the question raised "what if the Ravens were to move him to the safety position?" Maybe the team could effectively kill two birds with one stone in finding a viable replacement for Ed Reed (if necessary) and put Webb at a position in which he may not be asked to put as much pressure on his surgically reconstructed knees.

Personally, I am not a fan of this idea because first of all, no matter what position you play someone they will be required to use their knees in all sorts of different ways. At Safety Webb will still be asked to cover and will probably need to tackle more than he would as a corner as he would be asked to help more in the run game. I would rather have him tackling 180 lb. receivers down field than 240 lb. running backs coming up the middle.

Secondly, Webb is the Ravens best corner and one of their most experienced as well. Maybe the Ravens secondary would be okay with Chykie Brown, Jimmy Smith and Cory Graham at the top three corners but the depth behind them would be non-existent. The Ravens would probably have to draft another corner early this year which they may end up doing any way. As Ozzie Newsome always says "you can never have enough corners".

On the other hand Webb did play safety in college and is familiar with the position and he would be left in less one on one coverage situations. So, maybe it could help him ease his body back into the game. I guess it all really depends on how his body reacts to training camp and the preseason.