thebigo
Posts: 28301
Joined: 7/14/2007
Status: offline
|
quote:
ORIGINAL: Mark Anderson quote:
ORIGINAL: Brad H quote:
ORIGINAL: Mark Anderson quote:
ORIGINAL: Tom Sykes quote:
ORIGINAL: Brad H quote:
ORIGINAL: Tom Sykes quote:
ORIGINAL: Brad H This team is very thin in the defensive secondary and their two best players are on the back side of career mountain. They gave up 426 points last season. Anything short of addressing secondary needs should be considered GM malpractice. With no change in regime, I really believe the defense would have been worse in 2022 than 2021. It was that big a mess. IMO we should keep that in mind when evaluating our progress on defense this off season. Not only are we trying to improve on 2021 but we had to stop the bleeding first, stabilize the patient, AND THEN start fixing the problems. For one off season and very little resources for improvement ... We put our FA attention on the front 7. Smart. We squarely focused on the pass rush (keeping Hunter, signing Smith). Smart. [that also helps the secondary] We changed schemes which will highlight our three best defenders (Kendricks, Hunter, Smith). Smart. We didn't do anything dumb on offense (like shooting our complete FA wad at Scherff or worse, trading for Deebo) or ST (we invested minimal) which gave us just enough to bring in some 2nd-3rd tier defenders. Step one for rebuilding our defense ... CHECK. [it's relative, we are not significantly better but we are better and heading in the right direction IMO] Next, we addressed the secondary: Peterson, Breeland, Alexander, Woods, Smith -for- Peterson, Dantzler, Sullivan, Bynum, Smith. Step two for rebuilding our defense ... QUESTION MARK. [again, as we stand now, with no resources to improve, we are at least not worse, maybe slightly better] The draft will be Step Three. I agree with you that if we don't put significant draft attention on the secondary, the GM will be making a mistake. I disagree with some of this. Without cover guys, you could put the top talent in the league up front and it wouldn't make us a good defense. It is a different era. The quarterbacks aren't pocket passers any more. It's a two-step drop and the ball is gone. That or the QB takes off. If an offense that is running crisply, you could have the quickest guy off the line and it wouldn't make a difference. What is important in 2022 is to have athletic guys up front (for containment) and great cover guys. One of the teams that spent more money than anyone in the past 8-10 years up front on defense was Houston. They had Watt, Wilfork and Clowney for about 3-4 years. Never won more than nine games with that combination. Why? They couldn't cover anybody. They were 7th, 8th and 11th in points against (in a division with Tennessee, Indy and JVille, none of which were any good). Not bad, but not what they thought they were getting when they spent a billion dollars on guys up front. At the end of the day, you cannot win consistently with poor talent on the back end. That may have flown in 1975 or 1988, but not in 2022. In 2021, Tampa Bay threw the ball 43.3 times-per-game. There were 14 teams that threw it more than 35 times-per-game (and that was a down year for passing). In 2008 the Saints threw it a league-high 39.8 times-per-game and there were six teams that threw it at least 35 times-per-game. It's a different game than it was 15 years ago. With running quarterbacks being a thing, passing numbers have started to trend downwards. In 2016, three teams averaged over 40 passes-per-game and 21 teams averaged more than 35. That's why I say, you need athletes up front and guys that can cover on the back end. At the end of the day, you have to be good everywhere on defense to be a great defense. I'm not asking for that. I just want to be competent at this point. I really liked Peterson and Smith.............FIVE YEARS AGO! At the end of the end of the day you have to be good on all levels of the defense to be good. Nobody disputes that. CBs are critical. We’re hurting right now in that dept. (I am not sure how good Sullivan and Bynum will be … who we will draft, etc.). But … it doesnt matter how good your corners are if the QB has all day to throw or if the run game is effective . Former passing game coordinator O’Connell has emphasized the front seven (so far) in FA … are you saying he’s an old zchool coach for not beefing up the secondary first? You think cutting edge Kwesi processes analytics similar to Zimmer-ball? No. With only spare change in their pocket, I think they are trying to be efficient and thrifty, and approaching the D the right way. We need competent CBs. No doubt. DLine needs to be elite though. An elite DLine makes average corners above average. Giants upset undefeated Pats with an elite Dline. 85 Bears elite DLine, competent CBs who had to cover for 2 or 3 seconds. Like Brad said, we have more running QBs now. All the more reason to have elite agile Edge Rushers who can catch them. Plus, you need monster DTs who take up 2 blockers so LBs have a free run. Again, I wish you were right, but you aren't. An elite defensive lineman makes 15-22 sacks a year. An elite corner shuts down an elite wide receiver 35 times a game. You gotta have guys that can cover or your defense is doomed from the outset. It would be nice to get a 15-22 sack guy but I'm talking about the DLine as a whole. We need 6-8 guys who can get us 40-45 sacks a year. Of course we can't run guys like Alexander and Breeland out there and expect to be a competent pass defense. We need to draft 2 corners and probably grab another 2 UDFA CBs. I'm sorry. I want that 15-22 sack/season guy.
|