This guy in the sports bar that I go loves to mention this when watching college football.I know he’s referring to the safety position on defense, not the two point play.
Generally you “drop a safety” in to deep coverage. Safeties are the catch-all of the defensive backfield. They’ll come up close to help defend against the run, cover tight ends or slot receivers, or blitz if your playcaller is especially crazy. Dropping a safety refers to putting one or both (or all three) into deep zone coverage, and pretty much letting them play outfield against an offense that likes to throw long passes. They’re there to help out any cornerback that gets beat by the wide receiver he’s guarding, either to break up the pass or keep it from going all the way for a touchdown.
Lately, though, I’ve heard it referring to dropping a safety into the box, or bringing them in close to the line of scrimmage to help stop the run (“the box” is an imaginary area from that spans the offensive line, including tight ends, and goes about 5 yards downfield), which is where most running plays start. I hate that use, as it makes “dropping a safety” meaning two utterly opposite things and can lead to a lot of confusion without clarification.
Sorry if the explanation was a bit basic, but it’s easier to start at the bottom than guess where someone is on the ladder.
Yeah, “dropping” a safety either means to bring the player up to the line or farther from it. The former, because on a play chart, it’d be lower. The latter because dropping usually means going backward, as in “drop back a few steps.”
Perhaps the bar guy is really referencing the *number *of safeties that drop back, in which case he’s criticizing or praising the cover-1, cover-2, or cover-3 defense the team has opted for.
It’s weird because while “dropping” usually means to go away from the line of scrimmage, “low” is used to describe the offense’s side and “high” is the far field, where “dropped” players would be.