ANDERSON – Once revered as the NFL’s most dominating defensive player, Bob Sanders had become a punchline about the dangers of paying an injury-prone player a ton of money.

Sanders played in only nine of 36 games in 2008 and 2009, on the heels of winning NFL Defensive Player of the Year honors and signing a five-year $37.5 million contract that made him the highest-paid safety in the league.

With Sanders seemingly healthy again – a ruptured bicep sidelined him most of last season – the question is will he be the same player he was in 2007, when he had 74 solo tackles, 3 1/2 sacks and two interceptions?

“The same player I was? I’m looking to get better,” Sanders said.

Sanders has never been short on confidence, though he’s short in stature at 5-foot-8, 206 pounds. But his stay in the lineup has always been short, too.

In six seasons with the Colts, he’s played only 47 regular-season games. In only two seasons has he appeared in more than six games, and he’s never made it through an entire season. Along the way, he’s suffered recurring knee injuries, an ankle sprain and a foot injury.

Playing with reckless abandon has been hard on opponents, who have felt the force of Sanders’ hits, but it’s been tough on the 29-year-old Sanders, too.

But he doesn’t know how to play the game any differently.

“I don’t think you could put yourself in less danger on the field,” Sanders said. “We’re football players. We’re going to be physical. It’s a physical game. I make tackles. You just never know what’s going to happen, and you just play your best, hope for the best and pray. … If there were a way to change, I probably would have done it already, so I don’t think (there is).”

In Sanders’ absence the last two years, his replacement, Melvin Bullitt, flourished with 21 starts at strong safety, 97 solo tackles and four interceptions. Coupled with his special teams work, where he’s a captain, Bullitt, 25, became one of the defense’s leaders.

“It’s definitely benefited me greatly,” Bullitt said of Sanders being out. “I definitely needed those reps and I got them, and it’s helped me out so that I can add quality depth to our secondary. I can play many different positions and that helps us as a team.”

Sanders lauded the efforts of his replacement.

“(Bullitt) is a great player and has done a lot of good things, since I’ve been out. He’s stepped in and been able to make plays, and he’s improved,” Sanders said. “He’s becoming a veteran on this team and definitively a defensive leader. We look for that leadership in him and look forward to him getting better.”

Free safety Antoine Bethea, 26, got his second Pro Bowl selection in three years last season, totaling 75 solo tackles, four interceptions and two forces fumbles.

Is there enough room in the defensive backfield for three stars? Sanders, Bullitt and Bethea believe there is, and that the Colts will play with packages that put different safeties in nickel and dime packages so they’re all on the field at the same time.

“(Bob) is a great player, so of course having him out there on the field is not going to do anything but elevate the defense,” Bethea said.

“We’ve got three good players, and being able to have everybody out there on the field, three playmakers, three people who know the game, the more the better.”

After the Colts chose to hang on to Sanders, despite star receiver Reggie Wayne and defensive end Robert Mathis unhappy with their contracts, they’re hoping the safety is worth the expense.

“It’s been a hard road having to rehab that much, and you want to be on the field playing,” Sanders said, “but you’ve got to take it in stride and think positive, stay positive, and continue to work. That’s what I did.”

jcohn@jg.net