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Fix The Defense


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How do you do it? Is it players? Scheme? Both (which would be unfortunate)?

Sadly it seems like the sum was greater than the parts last season and losing the likes of Weddle, Mosley, and Smith (though to a lesser extent, he's playing better in Green Bay than he ever did with the Ravens) is showing badly. Something we all have to keep in mind going forward when wanting the new, younger players in regardless. That's something I fall victim to quite often. 

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We almost lured in Gerald McCoy and Justin Houston. We were the runner up for both of them. I think we really needed to get one or both of those guys.

IDK if there's much of a fix we can do, until waiting for the offseason to draft/sign some front-7 talent. I don't think our secondary is that bad w/o Jefferson and it should improve with Jimmy back, and definitely with Tavon back next year.

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If we had our CB core from last year we wouldn't have lost a game yet. 

Also something that's flying under the radar is the regression of Michael Pierce. Elite player in 2018, just good in 2019. We've felt that. He embarrassed himself this offseason and hurt the club. 

Tony Jefferson is gone. So that's one issue taken care of. We can't do anything about Tavon, but getting Jimmy back will go a looong way. Beyond that there's not much you can do this year. Maybe you can swing a trade for a Chris Harris or something? That's about it though. 

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Harbaugh and company badly misevaluated the ILBs the offseason, and their assessment of the OLBs wasn't much better. Fortunately they grabbed McPhee to help out the OLBs. He's not great but a functional player. It was nice to see Bowser get some pressure today. But for them to have grabbed Bynes and Fort a few games into the season and have them immediately outperform our young ILBs is embarrassing. 

Getting Jimmy Smith back should be a boon to the secondary at least. And the run defense plugged its leak with Brandon Williams back healthy. So I think if the secondary and defensive line are health, and we can get improved LB play somehow, the defense will be okay. 

 

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I think the biggest problem is the linebackers coach. If you look at all the other units they’ve done solid with what they have been given. The ILB position has regressed and Bowser/Williams had not taken the steps and developed. It’s the weakest unit on our team.

How do we fix it though? Getting Jimmy Smith back will help as he provides more versatility and talent. Jefferson and Averrett have been removed from the lineup and Clark has already proven to be a better coverage option. The tackling has looked better with the veterans. The only other way to improve to this point further would be development of our current crop of talent. I can’t see another team trading us a nice pass rusher at this point in the season.

That said adding a CHJr or Patrick Peterson would be good additions. With elite coverage we could scheme more rush attempts.

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our current starting set of DBs should be enough to field a top10 defense imo, IF we had a somewhat competent front 7 able to generate pressure without relying on blitzing.

so i really don't see how guys still are enarmored with the idea of trading for another DB rather than somebody able to get to the QB constantly.
as WW said, this D would look so much better with McCoy/Houston since we wouldn't expect our DBs to cover for 5+ seconds which is an impossible task iyam.

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This season, I doubt there is a complete fix. We can hope an unproven player like Ferguson gets better. Scheme wise we might figure out to use a player like Bowser better and also get more production out of Onwuasor/Young - especially as blitzers.

The package with Levine, Elliot and Clark is also one I have high expectations for. If we can somehow play Clark closer to LOS, have Elliot play the robber/joker and let Earl play deep (simplify things), then I hope we with Jimmy Smith back can do some damage.

I think/hope that man coverage when we are healthy enough is what can make the big change.

One thing I noticed with our pass rush - especially Judon and Bowser, was that they seemed to have the angle on the tackle, only to get push /guide behind Dalton when he stepped up in the pocket. Both have to be able to convert that speed to power when they flatten to get to the QB. It was too easy for Bengals (bad) tackles to guide our pass rush away from Dalton who could operate too much form a clean pocket.

Against Wilson it probably won't mean much, but against some less mobile quarterbacks we have to be able to collapse the pocket from the sides to get QB's on the move.

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We need see if we can trade for some D lineman that can generate pressure. Judon McPhee and company always get pressure of the edge but the quarterback steps up to a clean pocket and makes plays of we can get a bit of pressure up the middle I think that would make all the difference. Getting Jimmy Smith back and having Clark back there should help a lot.

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