(07-15-2019, 09:43 AM)The Real Marty Wrote:

(07-14-2019, 10:22 AM)Caldrac Wrote: I can't speak for the Wolfster but I think you could look at the defense and have valid concerns. 

Starting with the back end at FS and SS. No more Church. No more Gipson. That's a lot to ask of Harrison as a 2nd year player who finished on IR and Wilson who has very limited starting experience. Ramsey, Bouye and Hayden should keep the CB positions competent at a high level and could make everyone's job's easier. But if one of them misses any action? The burden falls back on Harrison and Wilson. 

Move up a bit to the linebackers. You have, again, limited starting experience here now with Myles Jack holding it down in the middle and going into this year with no Telvin Smith. This leaves Quincy Williams and Jacobs along with a few other journeyman here to fill the outside positions. Could be some learning curves and growing pains there this year. 

Along the trenches? Campbell, Ngakoue and Dareus are fairly consistent. We know what to expect from those guys. Bryan needs to step it up inside now. Jones needs to showcase more abilities this year coming off of only 6 starts from last year and Josh Allen seems hopeful at this time as a rookie. 

There's plenty of room for error this year on defense. Will we see a catastrophic backslide in production? I don't personally think so. I think on paper the schedule does have some fairly strong opponents offensively though. And a lot of these rookies and 2nd year guys are going to get picked on early and often.

Well if you want to find things to worry about, sure.   You're a lot like my mother.   She worries a lot about everything.  

But the actuality is, the players we have lost from our defense were not our best players.  We lost some average players who had really good surrounding teammates who made them look good.    Church, Gipson, and Smith were not our best players.  Our best players are Ngakoue, Campbell, Ramsey, Bouye, and Dareus.  All of those players are still there.  Plus, we've added Josh Allen, arguably the best defensive player in the entire draft.  

Also, I have to emphasize very strongly how much an improved offense will help our defense, by keeping them off the field and putting them in much better situations. 

So, worry all you want about our defense.  I'm not worried.  Not even slightly.

I don't really have too many concerns. Despite everything that I mentioned earlier I have been saying all along that I still expect this team to finish in the top 10 at the minimum on defense and that it's possible they either win the division as a 4th seed or at least clinch the 6th seed in the AFC this year. 

I like putting myself on both sides of the argument. Happy medium I suppose. I think despite all of the inexperience on the defense starting this year that they'll be able to overcome a lot of that by leaning on all of those great players you mentioned above. I was mostly making an argument or case for Wolfie here. 

Because that's honestly what you'll hear from most of the local pundits and/or outside critics. I did the same exact thing in the other thread about ESPN's rankings with our offensive skill positions. I made a case for and against each side of the argument while leaning towards being personally optimistic about the direction they're going in with Foles and Flip.

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