Identifying which defensive player scored a safety on a pass play is quite easy using the locator table to determine who is awarded the sack. It is a different story for running plays, since there is not any clear-cut guidance, I’ve always selected a player who had a safety for the applicable season or rolled against the injury table to select a position code if the team didn’t have a safety during the season.

Using Pro-Football Reference, I decided to review safeties by decade starting, starting with the 1960s to present day. Of course, this list doesn’t identify what type of play was called (run or pass) resulting in the safety but it allowed me to break down by position code. While the below table is not perfect, it will at least provide a picture based on historical data.