Battle for supremacy more than Lewis vs. Bailey

William L. Bryan, Special to the News

Published October 9, 2006 at midnight

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Three is a crowd, which may be why the good folks at ESPN try to bill Monday's game in Denver as a battle between Ray Lewis and Champ Bailey as the best defensive players in the NFL. It's a little more difficult philosophically, to say nothing of a clumsier sound bite, to bill it as a showdown among Ray Lewis, Champ Bailey and Ed Reed. Even John Facenda could not make that sound good.

Lewis has the best body of work of any active player, but today he is neither the best at his position, nor is he the best defender on his own team. Lewis used to rampage over the field with the absurd intensity of a Batman villain but has now mellowed to merely frightening. Injuries and the specter of time have sapped Lewis' skills to the point that, while still an elite linebacker, he is neither the penetrator nor the sideline-to-sideline threat that the Bears' Brian Urlacher is. In Lewis' wake, Reed, the best safety in football, has taken over as the Ravens' leader and best defender.

Champ Bailey is the best at his position, but not without notable competition. The Falcons' DeAngelo Hall is a better pure cover guy. Houston's Dunta Robinson might be comparable were he not betrayed by a pitiful front seven that routinely left him covering receivers for minutes at a time. Bailey is the best corner in the league against the run, but much like being a great blocking receiver, this is a priceless luxury for a 13-win team and a pointless distinction for a four-win team.

Ed Reed is probably the best defensive player in football. He is the best at his position by a ridiculous margin, a threat to make plays all four downs and as gifted a leader as the NFL has. Urlacher, Lewis, Bailey, Pittsburgh's Joey Porter and Jacksonville's Marcus Stroud all belong in this discussion. If one of these is your guy, we can fight about it, but I will concede now that you may have a point.

All that said, Bailey is the best player in football at any position. Although I dismissed Bailey's run support a couple of paragraphs ago when I was younger and sillier than I am now, I love that he is man enough to hit from a position popularized by lack of contact. He has not caught a pass in two years, but Bailey would be the scariest slot receiver in football if the Broncos chose to use him that way. He has only 25 career punt returns, but for a dazzling 12.1 yards per, a significantly higher career mark than either Deion Sanders (10.4) or Dante Hall (11.5). Bailey's versatility, though largely unutilized, delineates him from the also-rans.

Further proof of Bailey's greatness comes from the tragically underused John Facenda test. If you say all of these players' names in your best imitation of the legendary NFL Films voice, the doom-laden intonation of "Champ Bailey" is the runaway winner.