Declining Defense

[FinsAreLife]

i personally was worrying about it being a problem at the end of last season but as i see new young players coming in (including draft Picks,props to saban) im not as worried becuase their very athletic and have potential

 

[Phinnhedd]

This is a fear I have had for a while now, as our offense gets better over the next few years. Will the defense decline? We already lost some key players on D. Hopefully this wont happen as Saban has prepared for the future, but you really never know who might be a bust (Im not saying the guys we drafted are busts, but Im talking about later on in Saban's career.)

We have been spoiled by having such a good defense for quite awhile now. I think that Saban is defensive minded and will definitely not let the defense slide. He proved that in Cleveland; he turned the worst defense in the league into one of the best in a matter of 3 years. I dont know if he is planning on tooling around on the offensive side of the ball or just let Linehan have full control of the offense.

That being said, Saban IS the coach and overrules the other coaches, it makes me wonder how much control he gives his coaches and freedom that they have to experiment.

IMHO, I don't see him letting the defense decline at all.

 

[dolfanmark]

I wouldn't worry about the defense declining too much. First of all, the defense has been vastly overrated for the last 10 years. How many times has the too simplistic defense just folded late in the season or in crucial games? You don't lose playoff games 62-7 and 38-0 if your defense is any good. And that was when our defense was young. Saban's new defensive scheme will improve what we had, and he'll keep infusing it with younger players.

 

[T tes]

This is a fear I have had for a while now, as our offense gets better over the next few years. Will the defense decline? We already lost some key players on D. Hopefully this wont happen as Saban has prepared for the future, but you really never know who might be a bust (Im not saying the guys we drafted are busts, but Im talking about later on in Saban's career.)

Saban has done a wicked good job of bringing in young blood. Saban will have a young great team in a couple of years.

 

[Dolfan1000]

And dont forget Spragan, Pope and Moore are relatively young linebackers.

 

[LAphinfan]

It's not the D I'm worried about. We are replacing talent as fast as we lose it. Losing Surtain and Timbo (and Chester?) will hurt but we got stronger at DE and LB with Roth, Carter, Holliday, and Crowder. I think Daniels will be better than his 4th round pick would indicate. Saban knows him very well and the guy is already working with the "ones". Traylor is a Timbo clone but healthier so we will be OK in the interior as long as Chester doesn't retire as well. Also, our defense has been more of a statistically good defense than a clutch defense for a long time. I think we have added some much needed killer instinct that should make our D stronger when it really counts. If we can just build a solid offense in the next couple of years, the Dolphins will return to elite status.

 

[MDFINFAN]

if we have another strong defensive draft next year, we'll be in dam good shape.

But we don't know if we had a strong D. draft this year..we have no idea what we have in terms of rookie draft picks...not one has taken a nfl snap..

we lost poole, great pickup from last year's draft. Moore is still on the team and experienced. Pope played great last year and Bua. Howard is young, and so is Romeo, those are the only experienced players we have in terms of youth.

 

[cnc66]

If I remember correctly, in Clevland he had the #1 defense by year three. I too had similar thoughts about the decline but I believe St. Nick changes everything. It has been a long time since we had a plan.

 

[wazzy]

No worries Saban seems like he has everything under control and he proved that through the draft.

 

[LarryFinFan]

This is a fear I have had for a while now, as our offense gets better over the next few years. Will the defense decline? We already lost some key players on D. Hopefully this wont happen as Saban has prepared for the future, but you really never know who might be a bust (Im not saying the guys we drafted are busts, but Im talking about later on in Saban's career.)

I agree that the D has been declining for a period of time, but remember that Saban's specialty is D...To me, that means that even tho we will continue to lose the guys that have been special to us the last few years (some due to age, some due to Saban's new scheme and other just because of their cost to keep them). I'm not too concerned with the D as I think that Saban will affect a positive change with the players..

 

[gofins]

I'm actually not too worried about our D.

 

[infiltrateib]

You know, our D has underperformed for a while now.

I mean if you sit back and just look at players "in a vacuum" you have/had Taylor, ZT, Madison, Surtain (at the time), Bowens and Brock Marion. If that D isn't top 3, you're underachieving. Every single one of those players is a pro-bowler. ZT, JT, and Surtain could all go to the HOF. Bowens was underrated, as is/was Madison.

The thing that really stuck out to me was how we couldn't execute when we needed to. We had a vanilla scheme that would just maul teams for 3 quarters and then implode. Can you even count the number of times we blew a 3rd and 7 in the 4th quarter? We were still an excellent defense, but there is definitely room for improvement. We had a defense predicated on speed. I think Saban is trying to install a smashmouth, gargantuan D that is just well-coached big guys who can still move and have the athletic ability to keep up with the littler guys. We're sort of collecting the "freaks" and then showing them how to play smart ball.

We have an excellent (seriously) young LB corps waiting in the wings and a very, very good CB in Poole. I wish he could play this year, but you take what you're given. We're aging at DT and there is no denying that, but Roth infuses some much-needed youth at DE. I'm not saying we're infants over there, but Roth is a start.

It is WAY too early to start talking concretely, but Daniels does have the look of a good player and Saban certainly knows his abilities. Daniels was pegged early (by some) as a sleeper and if he can even serve as an adequate #2 CB he will be a steal.

Our young strengths are RB, OL (seriously), LB, TE. WR, CB are in the middle. We need DT (my early guess is that DT is our first round pick next year) and S first-thing next year.

If QB works itself out and we grab a DT in round 1 next year, we will have a young team poised to make a serious long-term impact.

 

[popularwar]

The defense will change a lot over the next few years. If Will Poole can stay healthy, I think we could continue having a top 10 defense for several more years.