Hail Mary Posted June 22, 2019 Share Posted June 22, 2019 The Smiths, Amos, Savage, Gary, Alexander, Martinez, Fackrell... King when he’s not injured. Im most likely missing a few players, but those are the ones that come to mind. The Smith brothers naturally have me excited, I want to see what they can do for us. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OneTwoSixFive Posted June 22, 2019 Share Posted June 22, 2019 I remember the old adage that the battle is won and lost on the lines, and I think that is at least partially true. Our O line looks solid, with good additions of versatile guys like veteran Turner and early draft pick E.Jenkins. If Bakhtiari stays healthy and most of the rest hold up (and Lane Taylor should be fit again), it should be a pretty good line, compared with most O lines around the league. The D line (and edge rushers) have a great mixture of experience and quality youth. This unit could also become just a little below the best NFL D lines. Prognosis, O line (which was already fairly good) takes a small step up. D line/edge (which was below average at edge and above average on the line) takes a bigger step up. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Golfman Posted June 22, 2019 Share Posted June 22, 2019 1 hour ago, Hail Mary said: The Smiths, Amos, Savage, Gary, Alexander, Martinez, Fackrell... King when he’s not injured. Im most likely missing a few players, but those are the ones that come to mind. The Smith brothers naturally have me excited, I want to see what they can do for us. You're missing out best defender: Kenny Clark. Not to mention the guys on either side of him in Daniels and Lowry who are both good players. There are also a few guys who could make the second year leap in Burks and Jackson. Your bigger point, yes this defense looks poised to make a big leap, ON PAPER. Let's hope it translates to pads. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mazrimiv Posted June 22, 2019 Share Posted June 22, 2019 The defense always manages to look promising in the off-season. Nothing to do but wait and see if the potential finally translates to actual production on the field. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AlexGreen#20 Posted June 22, 2019 Share Posted June 22, 2019 Gonna need to see it live. Good on paper, disappointing on the field is the last decade. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OneTwoSixFive Posted June 22, 2019 Share Posted June 22, 2019 13 minutes ago, AlexGreen#20 said: Gonna need to see it live. Good on paper, disappointing on the field is the last decade. From my perspective, the defense was rather disappointing on paper, fully borne out by the play on the field. This is close to what I felt at the time, rather than with the benefit of a perfect rearview mirror. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MacReady Posted June 22, 2019 Share Posted June 22, 2019 Player I'm most excited about is Savage. He is our best hope at anything close to Nick Collins we have had since Nick Collins. Add an actual pass rush and quarterbacks might be afraid to throw against us. Quarterbacks have not been afraid of our defense since 2011, and 2011 only because they had to force things to keep up with Rodgers. Jaire Alexander and Darnell Savage have, I think, the talent and physical ability to be the next Sherman/Thomas. Except Alexander can actually match up with receivers all over the field in man and in zone. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
boratt Posted June 22, 2019 Share Posted June 22, 2019 I think it has a good chance at being our best defense since 2010. I agree with you 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sasquatch Posted June 23, 2019 Share Posted June 23, 2019 If the defensive unit can stay mostly healthy, I believe GB will have finally turned the corner. If even a few key guys go down, we’ll see if our depth is good enough to keep us in games, especially if the O struggles. Overall, I’m more excited than I’ve been in a long time. Just hoping everyone can stay healthy. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ReadyToThump Posted June 23, 2019 Share Posted June 23, 2019 On 6/22/2019 at 7:57 AM, Mazrimiv said: The defense always manages to look promising in the off-season. Nothing to do but wait and see if the potential finally translates to actual production on the field. Always looks good before the injury bug hits. *knocks on wood* Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cannondale Posted June 23, 2019 Share Posted June 23, 2019 (edited) The bar has been set so low for so long ........ god I hate that guy Edited June 23, 2019 by cannondale Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joe Posted June 23, 2019 Share Posted June 23, 2019 Come to me week 8 and see how many of those guys are still healthy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gopher Trace Posted June 23, 2019 Share Posted June 23, 2019 Looks solid, could use a bona-fide playmaker at ILB and better CB depth. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MacReady Posted June 23, 2019 Share Posted June 23, 2019 18 minutes ago, Gopher Trace said: Looks solid, could use a bona-fide playmaker at ILB and better CB depth. Define playmaker. Is it one who makes plays? Define a play. Let's play playmaker. Interception = 1 Forced fumble = 1 Sack = .5 PDef = .25 Tackle = .1 Darius Leonard = 22.6 Luke Kuechly = 16.3 Bobby Wagner = 14.15 Roquan Smith = 13.65 Lavonte David = 12.65 Blake Martinez = 12.35 You can name an ILB and I will provide their playmaker rankings, it's just those are the only ones coming to mind right now. So you've got 5 ILB ahead of Martinez, but then you've got to stop and consider the defenses those other players were on. Then consider Martinez and the defense he was on. Clark, Daniels, King, Wilkerson all on IR by season's end. I don't even remember who our starting safeties were in the final four games of the season. I want to say Campbell and Brice, but I think it was Campbell and Tramon. Jaire Alexander missed games, our pass rush was Matthews and Perry. Our pass rush was Matthews and Perry, then Matthews and Fackrell. Consider that totally made up on the spot playmaker ranking system, then consider Blake's second year score of 14.1. Then consider what our defense looked like in 2017. Everybody acts like Blake Martinez is some okay run stopping ILB and that's it, but that couldn't be further from the truth. He's been making plays his entire career. I don't know if it's speedism or if it's draft pick numberism or what, but Blake Martinez has been perfectly capable of making plays under two different defensive coordinators on defenses that have had Clay Matthews as the number one pass rusher and undrafted players who might not make an XFL roster at defensive back. His five sacks last year are more sacks than Kuechly has ever had in his career, and in three seasons, Martinez has 5.5 less sacks than Kuechly has had in 7 seasons. And that's just what shows up in stats. Blake is always around the ball, he's always making key tackles and the difference between him and all the linebackers better than him is the supporting cast, which has been unquestionably in their favor. Considering Blake Martinez has had Clinton-Dix as his best safety for his entire career and that he's had Clay Matthews as his best pass rusher in his entire career, I think more than any other player, Martinez is going to make a lot of people eat a lot of crow this season. People act like the best ILBs have 7 interceptions and 10 sacks every year when that's not the case. The all-time record for interceptions in a season by an ILB is like 6. And passes defended? Brian Urlacher's career high was 12. Ray Lewis' career high was 10. Blake Martinez had 8 of them in his second year with a defense that had I don't even remember who at cornerback. I'm sick of everybody here acting like Blake Martinez is some meh player when he's actually very good in spite of very bad around him. If he had been a first round draft pick, people around here would be calling him the second coming of Brian Urlacher, and yet since he was a 4th round draft pick he sucks. 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MacReady Posted June 23, 2019 Share Posted June 23, 2019 Martinez could have 10 sacks, 3 interceptions, 13 passes defended and 4 forced fumbles and people would still assume he's not a playmaker because he didn't have a good 40 time. People act like speed is synonymous with making plays. Literally 97% of people on this subforum would take Roquan Smith over Darius Leonard right now because Leonard ran a 4.7 40 yard dash. Leonard just had arguably the best rookie season for an ILB of all-time, but everybody's still expecting Roquan Smith to be a nightmare for 10 seasons because he's fast. There is nothing Darius Leonard can do physically that Martinez can't do physically. Leonard: 6'2, 234, 34.5 arm length, 10.25 hand, 4.7 40, 1.69 10 yard split, 2.77 20 yard split, 4.63 20 yard shuttle, 7.37 3 cone, 38 vertical, 10 ft 8 inch broad, bench press 20 reps. Martinez: 6'2, 237, 31.5 arm, 11 hand, 4.71 40, 1.61 10 yard split, 2.73 20 yard split, 4.2 20 yard shuttle, 6.98 3 cone, 28.5 vertical, 9 ft 9 inch broad, 22 bench press reps, 27 wonderlic. So I guess I was wrong. Leonard can jump 10 inches higher and broad jump a foot shorter. And he's .01 seconds slower. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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