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So Lets Talk Defense....


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I wasn't that excited about the Shaq pick until I heard Rivera's presser afterward.  I was looking at the Shaq pick in terms of last year's team.  We ran a nickel package most of the time.  If we continued to do that, I just didn't understand taking another LB in the 1st when there was no way he was going to see the field over Luke and TD.  But, hearing Rivera talk about how they ran so much nickel not because they wanted to, but because they HAD to and that adding another fast, athletic LB would allow them to stick with their base D on a lot more snaps really intrigues me.  Running so much nickel really caused our run D to suffer.  I'm hoping Shaq works out and we can allow Collin Jones to compete at safety instead of playing him out of position at nickelback.

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I think it is interesting, and several of you have pointed this out, that our improvements to the o-line and specials teams should benefit our defense. I am still a little worried about RDE. Ealy took some steps toward the end, but it would be really nice to get Frank back for good. An Ealy/Alexander rotation makes me much more giddy than an Addison/Horton one.

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Assuming our defense stays healthy I believe our defense Should have no problem being top 12.

I believe our defense could be very good the keys to be great include:

A healthy Thomas Davis and Charles Johnson. Thomas Davis makes our defense special. He can do so much and brings veteran leadership. Johnson is the star of the defensive line and must create pressure because our defense must create pressure with the front four to be successful.

The development of Kony Ealy. Ealy played well near the end of the season. If he can continue to show improvement I see no reason why he shouldn't be a starter and get 8+ sacks. If he doesn't then we will have to rely on Alexander, Horton and Addison to create sacks.

Charles Tillman at least good enough to be a solid #2 CB. If Tillman ends up playing like Cason did last year then we may be in trouble at CB considering Bene may not be suited to be a starting corner.

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I think this could be one of the best defenses we've fielded in many years, the only weak spot I see unless an UDFA comes out of nowhere is Harper at SS and whilst not great he could have been much worse (i.e. nakamura)

 

 

He graded out at just about zero on PFF last year IIRC.  Zero meaning not positive and not negative.  Considering the amount of hate he got around here, he really wasn't all that bad.

 

However, a few things to take into account is that he DID start playing better towards the end of the year when the young guns were stepping up.  And also, one of the main reasons we hated Harper (at least it was the main reason for me) was that he often completely whiffed his assignment in the run game, resulting in several 60+ yard TD runs.  A missed assignment on PFF is a missed assignment.  The cricitcality of it doesn't matter.

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Assuming our defense stays healthy I believe our defense Should have no problem being top 12.

I believe our defense could be very good the keys to be great include:

A healthy Thomas Davis and Charles Johnson. Thomas Davis makes our defense special. He can do so much and brings veteran leadership. Johnson is the star of the defensive line and must create pressure because our defense must create pressure with the front four to be successful.

The development of Kony Ealy. Ealy played well near the end of the season. If he can continue to show improvement I see no reason why he shouldn't be a starter and get 8+ sacks. If he doesn't then we will have to rely on Alexander, Horton and Addison to create sacks.

Charles Tillman at least good enough to be a solid #2 CB. If Tillman ends up playing like Cason did last year then we may be in trouble at CB considering Bene may not be suited to be a starting corner.

 

I think some fans may be misunderstanding reports that Bene may be better suited to nickel back.  In todays NFL, nickel back essentially is a starting position with teams playing so many 3 receiver sets.  And the reason many think he is better suited to NB is that he has very good short area quickness, and questionable long speed.  But last year, he proved he could handle the outside.  Remember, he was one of the highest rated CB's in the league. 

 

And with Tillman, the most likely way it will play out, I believe, is that when we are in nickel, Tillman will play outside, and Bene will stay inside.  However, when we go to traditional two CB sets, Bene will be on the field with Norman.  With Tillman getting up there in age, even if he still has some gas in the tank, he won't be able to play a full time role.  He'll need to rotate a good bit to keep him fresh...particularly if we want him strong down the stretch.   

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I expect a top tier defense, and when I say top tier, I'm saying top 3.

Over the past few years, they've been great at times and average to garbage at times. I expect a consistently great defense, and I expect them to be great during the playoffs as well. They stumbled against the 49ers two years ago, and the Seahawks.

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