Anyone else think Defense may be a weak link again this season??

[Jersey DolFan]

had some success with the last "anyone else think.." thread so heres another.


At first i was really just enthusiastic and optomistic about our draft and about the crazy crop of LB's we have coming in. But the more i think about it, the more i think i may be being a "homer".

Dont get me wrong i think Nolan and Dansby are HUGEEE additions and should definitly help a lot. But my problem is that we tried to land 2 FS's in free agency and were unsuccesful - so as much as we'd like to ignore it or be overly optomistic, we have to come to the realization that we did not fix that need at all, and against the jets and pats wr corps not to mention other afc powerhouses idk if we'll be able to get better than last year in that respect.

what i do love is that Dansby is a playmaker who can get to the QB and cover, and stop the run, and you can beleive Nolan will make use of all that. I think ILB is pretty darn solid.

THe outside worries me however. - we certainly can do w/o porter and JT as they both struggled last year esp in coverage and stopping the run, and they didnt even rush the passer in most cases so its not like we are losing a ton with them gone - i have to say JT made a few big plays though. I love wake and Misi's potential - but the bottom line is these guys are unproven starters...what are the odds they come in and really perform THAT much better than JT and Porter. i do see wake being excellent against the pass when hes rushing as he had a pressure or sack almost every snap he played last season - but is he a starter?? or he will he be exploited??

also - D-Line - i am sticking with it being pretty good - but we cant ignore the fact that Starks - who emerged as one HELL of a DT last season, is now being moved inside. this can be a two-fold problem : 1) we lose that great DT we had 2) can starks clog the middle like a true NT like Ferg can?? also im loving how these FA's are being brought in but that has to say at least a little bit about Ordrick.

bottom line - i think most of these draft picks esp misi and odrick and prob edds will pan out and fit Nolans defense for years to come, however, while we def adressed the ILB posistion with Dansby coming in - i do not feel we got much better on defense overall - hopefully will allen back and a year of experience for the 2 young corners helps but other than those few things i feel we are the same as last year with Defense or even took a step back with less experience. i feel like while our Offense may surge even mroe than last year in every aspect, our D might still have us drowning our faces in our beers and wings.

what do you guys think??

 

[Coach_Rob]

special teams is our weak link, we need a pr and kr (bess is not the guy for the job). imo i think the d will be better than we expect. i think we will get lots of pressure,the front 7 will be fine imo. vontae and sean need to take that next step. so my only huge concern is fs and i think we are way better of than last year

 

[cafinfan408]

Cant do anything but agree with that.
The D has a lot of questions to be answered.

But we have good players at every level of D.
The D line has questions but also has a lot of proven talent.

The Lb's as a whole have questions
But I believe Nolan will find the answers.
I can see us running a 3-4 with Crowder and Dobbins in the middle with Dansby and Wake outside at times.

The secondary has players that we have seen play good ball in 4 of the 5 positions.
I say 5 because I count the nickel back since he is used so often now.
I think the FS position will not be to bad this year.
between Clemons Culver and Jones I think we will get a player.
Personally I think if Clemons does not go out there and grab the job Culver should get it.
He has shown to be if solid if anything

 

[Coach_Rob]

yeah if clemons doesnt out right win fs, just start culver the rotate them. it would be safer that way

 

[Sgt.FinFan]

No

 

[Daytona Fin]

a lot of question marks on d this year. rookies, is dansby the real deal, new coordinator and scheme. defense killed our season last year. but i think they will be better this year especially if the offense can keep them off the field. its going to be an interesting preseason.

 

[Fin Thirteen]

It's impossible to predict, because we're building a brand new defence virtually from scratch. The ingredients look pretty good and the chef knows how to cook, but the proof of the pudding will be in the eating. I expect a scratchy start and for things to click after 4 or 5 games. When you look at how clued-in and motivated a lot of the draftees are, it could come quicker than that.

 

[MD]

IMO the secondary will tell the story. Smith has to learn to start taking smart chances instead of giving to much room. The return of Will Allen is a great help but the safety play is key. Clemens has the athletic ability, excellent speed in correlation to his size, and a big hitter so hopefully he can put it together and fill the gaping hole we had last season.

 

[Krie30511]

I think it has a strong potenitial to be weak but it really depends on the rookies stepping up and the new pick ups stepping in. I think the saftey position could be a glaring weak spot... I do not however think there are any other "glaring" weak spots.

 

[Ed Norton]

Absolutely this defense COULD be a weak link. There isn't one area of the defense that is proven. Starks going inside we don't for sure that it will work. Not only that but by moving him you took a pro bowl player away from one position so now you have to fill where he left. OLB we don't know, the coaching staff probably doesn't even know who is starting. Secondary you have one proven player in Bell. Davis and Smith might be pretty good but they have to get better. FS again even the coaching staff probably doesn't know who this is. God forbid there is an injury in the secondary, then what? The good news is there is POTENTIAL at these positions.

 

[Strangeworld]

The D will be porous... all but guaranteed. We will be in alot of 27 - 24, 31 - 28 games I fear. Way too many question marks...

 

[Slim]

I don't think people realize how improved our Defense will be this year...

1. Vontae & Smith have a year under their belt - They will undoubtedly improve.
2. Will Allen returns - this is HUGE. I think people forget how good Allen was before the injury.
3. PP is out - MN is in. This alone will improve our defense dramatically.
4. Dansby - Does everyone remember how badly TE's burned us last year? Dansby will help reduce the amount of big plays coming from TE's this year. Furthermore, his presence takes the pressure off Crowder a little bit.
5. Peezy is gone. Let's not kid ourselves the guy was DOGGING it last year. I don't care if Wake/Misi are unproven they'll play with heart which we can all agree is something Porter did not do last year.

Obviously we've created holes that are huge question marks right now (Safety, NT) but i still think the +s outweigh the -s.

 

[Nublar7]

I think the defense will be much improved over last year, but I do think they are the weaker of the two main units(offense & defense).

The defense will sink or swim really depending on the growth of guys like Wake, Misi, Smith, Davis and Clemons.

 

[PhinsPhan11]

I think the defense will have some problems in the beginning of the year, but as the season goes on they will play better.

 

[Clipse]

Nope. Nolan knows what he's doing, Pasqualoni, not so much. We have many players on this team who can play both the 3-4, and the 4-3, of course Nolan runs both in his hybrid scheme. I don't see how losing JT and Porter is a bad thing. That combo was a big weakness last year, not a positive. Cam Wake was an infinitely better pass rusher than both of them last year. Now he's going to get the snaps he deserves. "But he's not great against the run!" Porter is awful against the run, Wake can't be much worse. "But he's only effective with his hand on the ground!" Elvis Dumerville played over 80% of his snaps last year with his hand on the ground. Why would Nolan not do the same with Wake? Misi is a great fit at SOLB in Nolan's scheme. He can cover, and that's important in Nolan's defense. Davis and Smith have another year under their belt. Will Allen who was off to career type year last year is back, and hopefully healthy.

Gibril Wilson is gone, and there's no way whoever starts at FS can be any worse. I've seen enough tape to know if Culver starts at FS, we'll be fine. He's a solid player. Nothing special, but neither was Renaldo Hill. We need someone who's always in position, limits mistakes, that's Tyrone Culver. Yeremiah Bell is great as always. One of our biggest problems last year was our LB's inability to cover. Dansby and Edds are great in coverage, and the staff seems to think Misi can be good in coverage as well. No more Crowder trying to cover. Problem solved. Dobbins brings solid depth as well. Nothing I've seen on tape gives me any reason to believe Starks won't be as good at NT, as he was at DE. Starks is incredibly strong, and that's much more important than weight. He holds his own against the run, and will offer much pass rushing from the nose. I see no reason he can't be a Jay Ratliff type NT. At DE we still have Langford, and Odrick is a very talented pass rusher. Merling is out for the year. Sucks for him, not necessarily for the team. Merling isn't very good. Douglas is a better player. Grant in my opinion would replace Tony McDaniel, and he's better than McDaniel.

To sum this up. There's really no way our defense will be worse than last years. I know the debbie downers like bla bla bla who's never had a positive thing to say about this team would rather not believe it, but it doesn't make a difference to me.