Published: August 07, 2008 11:54 pm            

Colts ‘other’ safety as special as they come

TERRE HAUTE — He’s the Indianapolis Colts “other” starting safety.

Not quite as famous on a national level as reigning 2007 National Football League “Defensive Player of the Year” Bob Sanders, perhaps, but a Pro Bowl participant this past February all the same.

And while he’s often overlooked by fans, who often gravitate to Sanders’ big hits and physical style of play, Antoine Bethea has started in the Colts’ defensive backfield since the first game of his rookie year and has never looked back. In fact, due to injuries in training camp, the Howard University alumnus has been a regular part of the secondary’s rotation since early in his rookie year.

But just how good is he? Bethea’s overall play last season, coupled with all the post-season honors that were afforded to Sanders, prompted one national NFL preseason publication to list them as the league’s best tandem of safeties on one team heading into the 2008 season.

Those type of accolades doesn’t surprise Tony Dungy. In fact, the Colts coach has pretty much ceased being surprised by much of anything that Bethea has done in his brief — he is heading into his third season — NFL career.

“I can’t remember a safety that stepped in as well as he did that played that position with as few mistakes, and I don’t know who I can go back to as a rookie player. That doesn’t happen that much and we kind of take it for granted because of Bob [Sanders], but Antoine is pretty special back there,” Dungy said recently.

How special? All anyone has to do is watch him play. He comes pretty close to being the perfect free safety for the team’s Cover 2 defensive alignment.

A few years ago, prior to Bethea being drafted, former Indiana State University free safety Vencie Glenn visited one of Indianapolis’ practice sessions in Indianapolis. Glenn began his NFL career with San Diego and played in Minnesota when Dungy was the Vikings’ defensive coordinator.

“You know what this defense needs?” the former Sycamores All-America selection asked after watching several minutes of the workout. “Somebody like me. A free safety who can go out and cover sideline to sideline. Somebody who knows how to play the ball back there.”

As it turned out, the Colts did exactly that.

“Antoine has been a really good player for us, especially last year. He’s got very good speed for a safety, he’s physical, but he understands what we’re doing and makes a lot of the calls for us,” Dungy said. “He’s been a very dependable player. To have a guy back there that has ball skills, but is also a good tackler really helps you.”

For his part, Bethea doesn’t like to talk too much about what happens out on the field. He’s just more interested in getting better at what he does.

“I can play better than I have,” he said recently. “I can always get better, do my job better. That’s always been my goal, to improve what I do all the time. All that other stuff is nice, but I just want to get better at what I do, to help this team win games. That’s all.”

Dungy thinks there’s certainly room for everybody in the Colts’ secondary to raise their level of play, Bethea included.

“Antoine, I think, is going to take another step. He had a very, very fine year for us last year. He’s comfortable in that slot now, a lot more vocal than his rookie year, and he knows his job,” he said. “I would think he’s just going to continue to play even better and last year he had a Pro Bowl year.”

Coe surgery successful, out for several weeks — Second-year cornerback Michael Coe underwent surgery on his left knee Thursday and is expected to be sidelined for a couple of months.

“His surgery went well. It’s going to be a long rehab, at least a couple of months,” Dungy said. “We are looking at probably eight weeks from now before he’s ready to get back going.”

Depending on what happens with the Colts’ roster prior to the start of the regular season, Coe may end up on the team’s injured reserve list. But that decision can wait for the now.

“We will have to look at that when we come down [to the end of training camp]. We won’t have to make any decisions now,” the Indianapolis coach said. “When we cut down to 53 [players], we will have to see where we are and how we are health-wise. It would be nice to be able to keep him [on the active roster]. We will see what happens.”

• Crossett coming back? — Rookie placekicker Adam Crossett may make a return to the Colts’ roster before Saturday night’s game at Carolina.

Crossett was signed prior to last week’s Hall of Fame meeting with Washington in order to ease the load of veteran kicker Adam Vinatieri during the preseason. He was waived, however, on Monday.

“We would like to if we can. We will see what happens, very much like last week. We were able to [last week] right before the [Redskins] game. But we will see how our injuries stack up,” Dungy said.

n Injury list — Second-year cornerback Dante Hughes missed Thursday morning’s practice. Hughes, who underwent a root canal, was scheduled to take part in the evening workout.

Strong-side linebacker Clint Session, who has been sidelined since last week, did some light work during Thursday’s morning practice.

• Return men up in the air — T.J. Rushing is expected to share kickoff and punt return duties against Carolina with Courtney Roby, Devin Aromashodu, Chad Simpson and Sam Giguere. Rookie Pierre Garcon, who some work there last week against Washington, will sit out after suffering a strained hamstring in the Redskins game.

“We will see Courtney and T.J. We want to get Devin Aromashodu some kickoff returns. Pierre Garcon is not going to play, so I’m not sure who the next punt returner is,” Dungy said. “We’ve got some guys we would like to look at [Chad Simpson, Sam Giguere]. Hopefully we don’t get that many kickoff returns to look at all of them. But we will see. Devin is a guy we would like to get going this week.”



Tom James can be reached by e-mail at tjames1475@aol.com.

        

• Click to discuss this story with other readers on our forums.