Quote:
Originally Posted by Chris Meck
There is a veteran upgrade at each level of the defense before you even get into considering the draftees or young players improving.
Xavier Williams, Anthony Hitchens, and Eric Berry.
There's no reason to think they won't be at least marginally improved. If any of the rookies contribute, that improvement may be dramatic. Even if they don't, it should overall be an improved squad. I think it likely, however, that at least Nnadi and Speaks would be rotational players at a minimum, and clearly have some talent as opposed to JAG's.
A middle of the pack defense with this offense's capabilities should be a play-off team.
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Exactly. With the exception of #1 CB and MAYBE one of the DE spots, every position on this defense is addition by subtraction.
Yeah, the safety position is a huge concern. A lot of unknowns, and we're relying on JAGs to make contributions. But even Berry + Sorensen/Watts/Golden is an upgrade from last year, when it was Ron Parker with no gas left in the tank and Daniel Sorensen.
LB? Instead of a Ragland who took several weeks to get used to our team and get back into the swing of things from the injury and JAGs, it's now Hitchens, Ragland, and all those JAGs who are perhaps ready to make more contributions. OLB is mostly unchanged, but we're not going to be relying on Zombo if one of the guys gets injured now. Depth at that spot has been dramatically improved.
For DL, I view Xavier Williams/Bennie Logan as a wash. Logan wasn't anything special, but we're still entrusting Wililams with a starting job that he hasn't really shown he can take command of-- he was rotational depth his entire time in Arizona, having only started 1 game in his entire pro career. That's a question mark, but at least we're left with some half decent backup plans in Nnadi and Hamilton (more competition the better). Williams might be able to serve effectively as RNR's rotational role, bringing a run-stuffing specialty we haven't had in any of our DL players since Mike DeVito. Everything else is the same.
The defense will almost certainly improve from last year. It still might not be good enough, but the talking heads going, "Oh, but they lost Derrick Johnson, Tamba Hali, Ron Parker and Bennie Logan..." clearly don't have a ****ing clue what they're talking about.