2012 better Offense but fall off on Defense?

[normaniii]

With Philbin & Mike Sherman, even with the loss of Brandon Marshall, I think it is fair to expect far better production from offense, but is it fair also to expect a drop off on D, with the loss of Mike Nolan and players such as Langford and Bell?

 

[Wind]

Negative, not so, It most likely will improve!

 

[Twitches Brew]

There's another thread about the Defensive Ends. Really, that's what matters to this defense right now. Not sure how Wake will fare with more time at DE; not sure if Vernon/Odrick will get it going quickly. We HAVE to improve out pass-rush from last year, whether with new scheme or emergence of a DE. All that matters.

 

[ziggyslimak]

Yeremiah is still avaiable, no? I really hope we resign him. He is my favorite player right now...

 

[BenchFiedler]

Yeremiah is still avaiable, no? I really hope we resign him. He is my favorite player right now...

Let's resign Bell and we will get abused by TE again and again and again....

If he is that good, how come NO ONE signed him yet???

 

[JerryD]

Hard to see how we could be better on Offense, alot of O crumbling in the off season.

We also have a rookie Head Coach & new coaching staff ... that never bodes well.

Looking like another "Top 10 Draft Pick" season.

 

[Miamifinz]

This defense could be very good this year in my opinion. We already pro bowlers in Wake/Soliai/Starks. Not really worried about our run defense with Big Paul plugging up the middle. The key will once again be the secondary. Kevin Coyle is a DB coach and if he can get the most out of Vontae/Sean/Reshad, etc. like he did with his group in Cincy we'll be fine.

 

[The Omen]

I think we'll go through growing pains early in the season on both sides of the ball simply because of the change of style, scheme and coaching staff... Things will need time to gel and we also need to realize that this team is rebuilding and not ALL the peices are in place, prodominatly on the offensive side.

With that said, I think the offense will be slighly better this year due to a solid run game from the start but the passing game may need time to click. The defense may drop off a tiny bit because IMO Nolan is a better defensive game planer then Coyle. What we lost in Lankford we gained in Westerman/Vernon same goes for losing Bell but gaining Marshall in the backfield.

 

[kdog69]

I think the D will be better and more flexible this year. It may strart slow depending on how fast we can learn new scheme.

 

[normaniii]

Although I like Langford and Bell (overly criticised IMO), they were both run first defenders. With the signing of R.Marshall, drafting of Olivier Vernon and moving Jimmy Wilson to FS, together with Ireland stating this is a 'nickel' league, it is obvious we are looking to be a more 'pass-aggressive' D.....which is a good thing.

 

[chrispepper]

has this defence really got worse? Sure we lost langford, but he didnt really fit in the 4-3 (dont really know why the rams got him), Odrick/Starks/Soliai rotation is much better. Our only weakness is at safety, same as last year plus our offense should be better so the D shouldn't be knackered by the end of the game.

 

[LikeUntoGod]

Our Offense started off very slowly last season (I do not count the game against the Patriots). It seems like our coaches had little idea what to do with our new players. Plus players like D Thomas etc had early hamstring problems.

Then Henne was hurt and Matt Moore who had very few reps had to learn the offense and we had to learn about him.

I think our Offense will be better and that it could make our defense look better stat wise.

More 1st downs, longer drives, scoring more will help our defense a lot.

We were 6th in scoring defense, giving up only 19.6 points, but our offense only scored 20.6 points per game (20th in the NFL). So we only 1.0 points more per game then we allowed. Our 3rd down percentage was also low, 26th in the NFL at 33%.

So longer drives and more scoring will keep our defense off the field.

 

[skeezy]

Only time will tell. GO PHINS!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[CANDolphan]

Soliai isn't a rotation, he's going to be the NT in the 3-4 looks and the UT in the 4-3 looks. It's likely that Starks will kick inside on passing downs and on running downs we will have McDaniel.

DE will be Vernon + Wake. Our pass rushing DTs are looking nasty (Starks + Odrick)

 

[circumstances]

there are numerous players with future-pro-bowl-worthy-type-play potential on the defensive side of the ball: karlos dansby, cameron wake, randy starks, jared odrick, vontae davis, and paul soliai. kevin burnett may be on the cusp of getting to that level of play (he probably played at a pro bowl level his last year in san diego). that is 6 to 7 of your 11 defensive starters. olivier vernon is an unproven commodity who could factor. if we miraculously get our safety play worked out, and sean smith (if he keeps his starting job) and the nickel corner hold their own, we should actually kill on D.