Safeties in numbers: A comparison between Donte Whitner and Antoine Bethea

We haven't had a chance to put up a preview for today's visit of the Washington Redskins. However, we do have some Sunday reading from you courtesy of Paul Kadwill, who has compared the performance of strong safety Antoine Bethea with that of his predecessor Donte Whitner.


Free-agent safety Antoine Bethea has put up impressive numbers in his first 10 games with the San Francisco 49ers. He has done so with little fanfare and his contribution has gone largely unnoticed by the media, who dedicated plenty of coverage to his predecessor Donte Whitner.

But how do the two players compare?  Have the 49ers seen an improvement in play from the safety position since Bethea has come in, or should they have given in to Whitner's demands and handed him a lucrative contract?

Lets take a look:

Both players are very similar in stature with Bethea slightly taller but Whitner a tad heavier. They each put up 40-yard dash times of 4.4 seconds at the scouting combine and entered the NFL via the 2006 draft. Whitner was the eighth overall pick while Bethea had to wait until the sixth round, when he was taken with the 207th overal pick, for his call-up into the pros.

Bethea, who is just under a year older than Whitner, signed a four-year $23million contract, with the 49ers after Whitner had departed to join the Cleveland Browns on a four-year $28million deal.

Analysing the first 10 starts in San Francisco for Bethea against the first 10 starts in Whitner's last two seasons with the 49ers, it is easy to see that both players have played almost the same number of snaps in each season.  This validates the comparison of their statistics, along with the fact that the data for both players comes from them playing in the exact same defensive system and are under the tutelage of the exact same coaching staff.  For the most recent two seasons both strong safeties also worked with the same free safety in Eric Reid.

The overall Pro Football Focus (PFF) grade for each player jumps out immediately as being quite drastically different. In 2012 Whitner had a quite awful -3 overall grade. A year later and this had changed to 9.1, possibly due to the fact that he was in the final year of his contract and was auditioning to the league in order to get the best contract possible at the end of the 2013 season.

Bethea has a staggering 15.2 overall PFF performance grade after his first 10 games, an increase of over 50 percent when compared to Whitner in the previous season.

Whitner's pass-rush grade for 2013 is slightly higher than Bethea's, but this is of course not the main requirement of a safety. When looking at the pass coverage rating Bethea's grade in that area is almost double that of Whitner in 2013, his strongest year with the Niners, although the Cleveland native does have a slight edge in run defense.

Former Indianapolis Colt Bethea also trumps Whitner in terms of tackling, compiling 12 more tackles than the ex-Buffalo Bill did in his contract year. That's a 30 percent increase in tackles from the strong safety position for the 49ers in 2014.

There may be a number of reasons for this increase, it may show that Bethea's decision making is better than Whitner's. Indeed, Bethea has displayed an impressive ability to put himself in a position to make the tackle and makes the move to get into the vicinity of the ball carrier quicker than Whitner.

Equally, with All-Pro inside linebackers Patrick Willis and NaVorro Bowman sidelined, there is perhaps a greater possibility of opposing ball carriers to get to the second level - although the play of Chris Borland has greatly aided the San Francisco front seven - and therefore the need for a safety to tackle is higher.

Sadly there is no way to find out what proportion of tackles made are against backs or receivers in order to help clarify this.  However, this does not detract from the fact that Bethea has a significantly outperformed Whitner as a tackler.

In 2013 Whitner had the least number of missed tackles through the first 10 games of all three seasons worth of data that we are looking at. This could be down to it being a contract year again, or it could be partly due to the difference in opposition played in each year, however, in each of the three seasons neither Whitner nor Bethea missed too many tackles so this is somewhat of a moot point.

Taking all of the available statistics into account, it is abundantly clear that Bethea has been an upgrade on Whitner at the strong safety position. In virtually every category Bethea has so far outclassed Whitner and in many he has been significantly better.

Paired with the numbers we have seen, it is the fact that Bethea was signed for $5million less than what the Browns paid for Whinter. A better player for less money? Signing Bethea is proving to be a trademark astute move from general manager Trent Baalke. Additionally, the fact that he was signed on the first day of free agency shows that Baalke and the 49ers had been following Bethea closely during the 2013 season and had already decided to pursue him as a replacement for Whitner before the free agency window opened.

Bethea may not have the same outspoken persona as Whitner or make as many big hits, but he has replaced his predecessor with a quiet, professional demeanour and has been superior on the field in virtually every way.  He is a genuine contender for the 49ers' defensive MVP award and another fine addition to an already super-talented defense.