In new breed of safeties, Lynch wasn't first

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Denver Broncos coach Mike Shanahan threw it out there as if it were a foregone conclusion."They don't come around very often, and that's why I believe he'll be in the Hall of Fame," he said Monday of John Lynch as the veteran safety retired after 15 NFL seasons.If Shanahan had recently checked the list of pure safeties in the Pro Football Hall of Fame, he might be inclined to hedge his prediction.Of the 247 members of the Hall, exactly seven are identified exclusively as safeties: Jack Christiansen, Ken Houston, Paul Krause, Yale Lary, Emlen Tunnell, Larry Wilson and Willie Wood.Not one of them had fewer than 46 career interceptions. Lynch had 26.So, being the quarrelsome type, I mentioned a couple of pretty good former Broncos safeties that can get in the Hall only with a ticket -- Dennis Smith and Steve Atwater.Was Lynch better than those guys?"To be honest with you, Dennis Smith is the hardest hitter I've ever been around. On any team. Bar none," Shanahan said."Steve Atwater, I think we know what type of player Steve Atwater was. Very similar to Dennis Smith."John Lynch we got at the tail end of his career after he was basically let go from Tampa Bay and he came in here and made four Pro Bowls. And he's got a Super Bowl ring and a bunch of Pro Bowls himself. I think Dennis Smith and Steve Atwater should still be in consideration for the Hall of Fame. The only thing John's got over them is probably a Super Bowl ring that they don't."Somebody mentioned that Atwater has Super Bowl rings."That's right," Shanahan said. "I shouldn't have said that. How many has he got?"Two, he was told."Since he went to the Jets I'm still mad at him," a chagrined Shanahan said. "No, not really."Shanahan's senior moment reinforces how important it is to get considered by the Hall as soon as you're eligible. If your own coach can forget your Super Bowl rings, imagine how fast they might slip the minds of mere spectators."People that make a case for me often say, 'He was instrumental in changing the way that position's played,' " Lynch said."(Colts coach) Tony (Dungy) and those guys came in and said, 'Hey, we're going to do some things that change the way this position's played forever.' So you take some pride in that. Used to be you grabbed a safety in the third, fourth, fifth round. Wasn't really high on people's draft priority. And now you're seeing, year-in, year-out, guys are being taken high in the first round."While it is fair to say that Lynch represents a breed of safety not yet recognized by the Hall, it is not true that he was the first of that breed. Twenty-seven years ago, Smith arguably was -- a 6-foot-3, 200-pound locomotive out of Southern Cal.Safeties have been first-round draft picks since at least 1981, when the Broncos selected Smith with the 15th choice overall.Eight years later, they grabbed an even bigger version -- the 6-3, 218-pound Atwater, also in the first round."At times you were asked to be a defensive lineman, at times you were asked to be a linebacker, at other times you were asked to cover like a cornerback," Lynch said of the modern job description. "So they asked a lot, but I always loved that challenge."You take pride when you see the great safeties of today, the (Troy) Polamalus, the Bob Sanders, the Ed Reeds, that do all those things so well, that maybe you had a little part in the evolution of that position."It is no knock on Lynch, an intimidating tackler, to point out that Smith and Atwater were playing his brand of safety a long time ago. In fact, by the statistical measures we have, Smith had more tackles than Lynch (1,152 to 740), more interceptions (30 to 26) and more sacks (15 to 13).Lynch has an edge in Pro Bowls (nine to Atwater's eight and Smith's six), but Hall of Fame voters tend to discount modern Pro Bowls because so many alternate selections end up there, including Lynch last year."You guys know how much I love this league and everything it stands for and that's the best of the best," Lynch said of the Hall. "So to even be considered is extremely humbling."In terms of what my chances are, I don't know. Herm Edwards used to say, 'Every time you go on that field, autograph your performance.' I tried to do that for 15 years, and if it's good enough, it's good enough. But I don't make those decisions. I did my part and we'll see where that goes."If Lynch has an advantage over Smith and Atwater, it is that he didn't play the bulk of his career in the lost time zone. That should improve his chances.(Contact Dave Krieger of the Rocky Mountain News at kreigerd(at)RockyMountainNews.com.)