Last year was rough, and probably the roughest part of it was seeing our once-proud defense get run around, run over, run down, run up on....  you get the picture, opponents did a whole lotta running on us.

Obviously that needs to improve, we can all see that. But the good news is that run D is an area that can be improved relatively rapidly.


In 2018 the Oakland Raiders were 30th against the run, in 2019 they were 6th. The New York Jets were 26th in 2018, 2nd in 2019. The Tampa Bay Buccaneers were 24th in 2018, and 1st in 2019. Those teams all invested in their run D to various degrees. It is also important to note that having elite run D didn't exactly lead to a successful season for any of them. 

We should actually be able to improve to an adequate level in this area without having to spend multiple early draft picks and invest important cap space. Look around the league at some of the better run-stoppers, both at LB and DT. You'll see many of them were drafted later, or bought in as reasonable priced FAs. This is exactly the kind of approach we need.

It's probably fair to say we have neglected the area of run defense over the last few years, and probably overlooked the importance of Dareus. This offseason there should definitely be a focus on improving this area in every way; personnel, coaching and scheme. However, we should not feel the need to over-correct and throw multiple high draft picks at a problem that can be solved a lot cheaper and a lot easier.

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