"Free safety is one of the better positions in the history of the franchise. The Eagles have had some really, really good players at the position and they can't say that about every position, obviously. For the purposes here, I would be shocked if Brian Dawkins doesn't run away with the voting. He deserves it, because he is one of the best players at his position ever, but the Eagles have had a bunch of other quality players at free safety.

"Don "The Blade" Burroughs was a key player and a player and a key acquisition for the defense in the late 1950s and into 1960. He is one of the tallest safeties to ever play in the NFL – they listed him at 6-foot-4, but he was closer to 6-5, and he was listed at 180-190 pounds, but he was more like 175 pounds. 'The Blade' was a very accurate description, a description given to him by quarterback Norm Van Brocklin.

"Burroughs was a college quarterback who converted to defense when he played with the Rams. The notion of the free safety was just being introduced in the NFL – the free safety would play centerfield and sit back and kind of read the quarterback's eyes and try to get a jump on the football. Burroughs was one of the best of that early breed of free safeties. He had a real good sense of where the football was going, maybe from having played quarterback in college, and he had those long arms and that height so he got his hands on a lot of balls. In 1960, as we have discussed here before, the Eagles intercepted 30 passes in 12 games and Burroughs had nine of them.

"Later on, Burroughs was used on the safety blitz by the Eagles and he had a good year in that scheme and had some quarterback sacks and made big plays that way.

"Joe Scarpati succeeded Burroughs and was a very similar player. He was different physically – Joe was on the small side and was a little bit more of an aggressive player. He was a real ball hawk.

"I remember Joe being described as someone who did not look like a football player. The Eagles claimed him off waivers and brought him to training camp and Pete Retzlaff saw him on the field for the first time and said, 'Who is this guy?' What the players found was that nobody wanted Scarpati to cover him because nobody could shake him. Scarpati wasn't very big and he wasn't very fast, but all he could do was play. He made a habit of being in the right place at the right time.

"Bill Bradley made history – he was the first player in the history of the league to win the interception title in consecutive years. He intercepted 11 in 1971 and nine in 1972. Billy was a college quarterback who played with those quarterback instincts in the NFL and he always seemed to be around the ball.

"Bill had a great pair of hands. If he got his hands on the ball, it was an interception. It wasn't a breakup; it was an interception. He did a lot of things for that team. He was the punt returner, the punter and he held for kicks. Whatever was needed for a guy with good hands, Bill was the guy.

"One of the most amazing parts of his performance was that Bill did it for a team that didn't win many games. The Eagles played from behind a lot in those years.

"After Bill, Brenard Wilson filled the role of free safety and he was a lot like the guys on that 1980 team in that he was the perfect piece in a team defense. He fit exactly what Marion Campbell's scheme required. That defense never made mental mistakes and rarely gave up big plays. They didn't blow coverages and they didn't give up big pass plays down the field, and the play of safeties Randy Logan and Brenard was key to that. The safeties provided deep help. He always carried out his assignment and was a good, solid tackler.

"Buddy Ryan's defense had the perfect free safety in Wes Hopkins and he was different than the other guy here. He was the most physical of the safeties for this franchise, prior to Brian Dawkins. Wes made his big plays separating people from the ball. He was a hard hitter and the town loved him. The combination of Wes and Andre Waters may have been the most hard-hitting safety tandem in the entire NFL.

"What you don't know is how good Wes would be had he not gotten injured. He was so big and he moved really well for a guy who played at about 215 to 220 pounds. He was a big, physical guy but he didn't sacrifice any range and his ability to get to the ball. Anybody who came across the middle against the Eagles was looking for No. 48. He was looking for No. 20 (Waters), too, but 48 commanded respect from everybody he played against.

"Dawkins is in another class, though. In my mind, he is a Hall of Fame player and I don't throw that term around loosely. I've been a voter for the Hall of Fame for a long time, and I use that term sparingly. I reserve it for what I consider special players, and in my mind Brian is a special player.

"I think he can do everything you could ever ask a safety to do, and then some. He can cover man to man, he can cover like a cornerback, and that is very hard to find. He can play half the field, he can play in two-deep coverage and he can play in space. Brian has such great reaction when the ball is in the air. He times his blitz as well as any player I've ever seen.

"Brian is everything you want in a safety. Brian isn't the biggest safety in the world, but he delivers a tremendous punch and he plays so big. When you watch him play in a game, you are impressed and then you watch him on film and you are more impressed. Brian has the instinct and the talent and the desire all in one package that separates him from any safety of the last 10 years."