What teams will be the top 5 defenses during the 2021 season?

[RayLew52]

8 hours ago, BayRaider said:

They will be good but who’s rushing the passer?? Oweh is not doing squat his first year. Probably will be a Top 10 Defense, but not expecting a great pass rush.

Ravens generate pass rush from everywhere on the field because of the scheme. Last year they were the first team ever to have a sack recorded for every secondary position in one game. They might night have a Myles Garrett yet but no other team in the league generates more pressure through scheme. 

[Deadpulse]

The Patriots allowed the 7th least amount of points in 2020 and improved vastly with Hightower returning and a rash of big FA additions. It would be surprising if they werent top 5 in 2021 

[BigTrav]

Ravens, Patriots, 49ers, Dolphins, Bears

[MSURacerDT55]

On 5/7/2021 at 2:11 PM, AkronsWitness said:

prove it: CLE - one of the most talented defenses on paper that should make QBs lives hell. But its all on paper. I need to see it. I also question how good Joe Woods really is to be able to get a defense to play above their heads, not just perform great because natural talent.

While I agree on the idea of proving it, I don't think it will be that hard given Wood's track record in Denver. But the part I disagree with is the part about playing above their heads, I think the defense actually did play above their heads and heres why, we lost two starters at DB the second live day at training camp, had two of the worst starting safetys in the NFL, worst linebacking corp in the NFL and only had a decent DL to save them.  We had a +5 turnover ratio which help tremendously, so even though we got gashed yardage wise, we got key turnovers when we needed at capitalized off of them.

I just think we had a defense full of guys who had no business starting on defense with playoff aspirations, I just think he did good enough with what he had in order to get us over the hump. I also think Stefanski and the FO knows this. He did the best with what he could, I'm not sure anyone could have done better with the defense talent we had last year.

[MWil23]

15 hours ago, Deadpulse said:

The Patriots allowed the 7th least amount of points in 2020 and improved vastly with Hightower returning and a rash of big FA additions. It would be surprising if they werent top 5 in 2021 

Playing the Jets twice and Dolphins twice will no doubt also help them. 

[Deadpulse]

5 minutes ago, MWil23 said:

Playing the Jets twice and Dolphins twice will no doubt also help them. 

We will see how that turns out. Zach and Tua are both such big question marks its hard to predict those offenses. You are right though, neither should be world beaters on offense in 2021. 

Also in their favor is the run first ToP eating mentality on offense for the Patriots. Helps the defense immensely. 

[MWil23]

11 minutes ago, Deadpulse said:

We will see how that turns out. Zach and Tua are both such big question marks its hard to predict those offenses.

To be fair, I'm an avid Tua and Zach Wilson hater. Plus, there's not a plethora of firepower on Miami to like, even if Tua is the real deal, which I don't personally buy that he is...not to mention the Jets.

[Hunter2_1]

13 minutes ago, Deadpulse said:

We will see how that turns out. Zach and Tua are both such big question marks its hard to predict those offenses. You are right though, neither should be world beaters on offense in 2021. 

Also in their favor is the run first ToP eating mentality on offense for the Patriots. Helps the defense immensely. 

We have 8th 'easiest' schedule this time, apparently. 

[WizeGuy]

On 5/6/2021 at 10:40 AM, Tk3 said:

Overall agree with this too.

The perception of Miami's defense was bolstered by all the Howard interceptions/overall takeaways which probably regress towards the mean this season

And I think you're off on Buffalo. We have some holes on defense. The entire defensive line has me concerned, and while our safety play is elite, we're missing a strong CB2. I don't think we will have a BAD defense by any means, but I think its unlikely that we are anywhere near the chat of "elite defenses"

I have to think Buffalo's defense takes a pretty big step forward this year mostly due to their schedule and (hopefully) less injuries. Last year they played a ton of good-to-great offenses/QBs (KC, LAR, LAC, LV, Tenn, AZ, Seattle, etc...)  while also dealing with a surge of injuries in the first half of the year. This year- at least on paper- their schedule looks much easier as the best offenses they'll be playing are TB and KC, though Houston and Indy are a bit of wild cards as is our division since it's full of young QBs. 

Of course, things change from year to year, so those mediocre looking offenses in the offseason could surprise. 

[WizeGuy]

17 hours ago, Deadpulse said:

The Patriots allowed the 7th least amount of points in 2020 and improved vastly with Hightower returning and a rash of big FA additions. It would be surprising if they werent top 5 in 2021 

BB is also one of the best defensive minds in the game. I don't doubt they're going to have a great defense this year.

[AkronsWitness]

2 hours ago, MSURacerDT55 said:

While I agree on the idea of proving it, I don't think it will be that hard given Wood's track record in Denver. But the part I disagree with is the part about playing above their heads, I think the defense actually did play above their heads and heres why, we lost two starters at DB the second live day at training camp, had two of the worst starting safetys in the NFL, worst linebacking corp in the NFL and only had a decent DL to save them.  We had a +5 turnover ratio which help tremendously, so even though we got gashed yardage wise, we got key turnovers when we needed at capitalized off of them.

I just think we had a defense full of guys who had no business starting on defense with playoff aspirations, I just think he did good enough with what he had in order to get us over the hump. I also think Stefanski and the FO knows this. He did the best with what he could, I'm not sure anyone could have done better with the defense talent we had last year.

Thats fair but Im still unsure. That DEN defense (especially the secondary) took a step back from when Woods took over and Phillips left. Im wondering how creative he can be on defense. Ive always wondered that. Even in DEN his defense relied heavily on 'our guy is going to win their 1v1 matchup and we are only going to rush 4'. He was far less.....aggressive? Exotic? whatever word you want to use, compared to Phillips. Not sure if that was the same in SF but given the talent on that defense I imagine it was.

 

[MOSteelers56]

The Steelers will have a good defense, but I doubt it'll be top 5. A lot depends on the offenses ability to hold onto the ball, though. They did lose some talent too, so this might be kind of a transition year for the defense(and probably for the entire team). 

[AkronsWitness]

1 minute ago, MOSteelers56 said:

The Steelers will have a good defense, but I doubt it'll be top 5. A lot depends on the offenses ability to hold onto the ball, though. They did lose some talent too, so this might be kind of a transition year for the defense(and probably for the entire team). 

Most likely, but they have a good foundation. Tuitt, Watt, and Fitzpatrick are going to give them a nice solid baseline. Its the rest of their roster that seems to be up in the air and transitioning to becoming new/younger.  

[J-ALL-DAY]

The Niners defense is going to be filthy this upcoming season. The depth at the DL is 2019-esque and Bosa will be returning. I would feel better about the secondary if they can bring Sherman back though. The safeties are awesome, the DL is super deep, the LBs are very good but the depth at the corner position is the one big weakness. If Verrett was to go down, then you either have to rely on a rookie like Thomas stepping in or Johnson and that's a big no no. 

I'll go with Pitt, WAS, SF, LAR and TB/NE 

[MSURacerDT55]

38 minutes ago, AkronsWitness said:

Thats fair but Im still unsure. That DEN defense (especially the secondary) took a step back from when Woods took over and Phillips left. Im wondering how creative he can be on defense. Ive always wondered that. Even in DEN his defense relied heavily on 'our guy is going to win their 1v1 matchup and we are only going to rush 4'. He was far less.....aggressive? Exotic? whatever word you want to use, compared to Phillips. Not sure if that was the same in SF but given the talent on that defense I imagine it was.

 

I don't think it was about rushing 4 (even though they were a 3-4 defense) is was more about who they had in the defensive backfield that he was super comfortable with a defensive backfield of guys like Justin Simmons, Darian Stewart, Aqib Talib, Chris Harris Jr and Bradley Roby, he probably thought he could cover all day. Not to mention having Von Miller, Shaq Barrett and Shelby Harris rushing, he probably didn't feel the need to blitz for the sake of blitzing when you had guys that could get the job done.

Plus I have seen plenty of nickel blitzes from Woods with the Browns, I think he is calculated with what he does, you don't ever want to predictable with you scheme to where a team can call certain blitz beaters because they know when and where you are blitzing from. Plus being a defensive coordinator is not about just blitzing, its about stopping teams from scoring, there is no one way to get the job done.