Bob Sanders: Is He the Best Defensive Player in the League?

The Colts are three and four this year. People are saying time has caught up with them and teams have learned how to contain them. That may be true but they are still scoring. What they have not been able to do is play consistent defense. The main reason is they are without Bob Sanders.

Remember the Super Bowl run two seasons ago. The Colts were a dismal defensive team, could not stop the run, and were winning by outscoring their opponents. Then, just as the playoffs were about to begin, Bob Sanders returned to the line up after missing about half the season. All of a sudden, the porous defense that yielded record ground yards earlier in the season was now shutting down the opposition ground game week after week. In short, Sanders was everywhere and was just the spark the defense needed to propel them to victory.

Sanders followed this performance the next year by being elected to the pro-bowl and topping that off by being voted defensive player of the year. It was as dominating a performance by a defensive back as the league had seen in many years, so much so, that number 21 of the Colts was voted defensive MVP by the Pro Football Writers. When all is said and done, who can point to a more valuable to player to a team than Bob Sanders is to the Colts? With him on the team, the Colts won a Super Bowl, and without him, they are already three and four in 2008.