There's actually talent on both lines. If the new regime can get some quality skill position players it need not be a long rebuild
The Defense is a cluster **** if you will and it all starts upfront. DE/DT group is a mixed bag. You have Watt who is doing everything he possibly can, and yet it isn't nearly enough. Crick has been improving up until this year, and I think he's getting thrown onto the fire trying to help Wilfork who hasn't been good at all. Covington has had a couple of snaps, and they have looked promising, and I don't even remember seeing Pagan on the field. You have nearly zero depth, and a bad starter that happens to be hurting teammates starting beside him. Wilfork can't take on 2 gaps anymore, and is easily getting moved off ball by single guards/centers. Because of that he's being pushed into Crick/Watt/Rushing LBs and causing plays to be missed. Covington at least shows a push off the ball and has pass rush skills. Crick isn't much of a rushing DE but he can play the hell out of the run, but not with his NT in his lap. Status - Watt, Crick, and Covington are keepers. Pagan hasn't shown anything more from last year, and Wilfork has been bad. 2 starters and a backup NT/DE isn't good for your Defense. OLB Corp is hot garbage outside of Clowney. Like many, people are treating this year as Clowney's rookie, rather than his injury riddled 1st season. Even though he isn't close to 100%, he's the best player on the team against the run. Manhandling Guards/Tackles with ease. The pass rush will get better once his knee gets better. Mercilus is a rotational backup that is suppose to be a pass rusher, yet he can't pass rush. Simon is suppose to be able to seal the edge and play against the run, of which he is hit or miss. Then you've got some former Psquad guys. Status - 1 high-quality starter in Clowney, and nothing else. ILB corp is plagued with being slow. It wouldn't be that big of a problem if the D-line was capable of getting a push on the o-line, but since that isn't happening that lack of speed is now showing. Cushing and McKinney are of the same cloth. Down hill, playing the run, with rushing ability. McKinney should get better at coverage as he learns, but you can't rely on it right now. Tuggle is a ST specialist that shows things here and there, but is primarily a backup. Bullough is the same as Cushing and McKinney, 2down backer. Peters is an unknown that's suppose to bring some speed on ST. Dent is garbage. Plain and simple. Status - Too many of the same guys, but nobody worth starting over Cush or McKinney. Need speed and coverage ability badly. The CB group is interesting to say the least. Kareem is a good CB2 that gets exposed with his back turned towards the QB. Would be much better at Safety like they have been playing him lately. Could be a top safety in the league I feel. JJo is a CB1 on a steep decline. Lacks speed now, bites on breaks, holds when he's beat. Kevin Johnson should be taking starts at Outside Corner. He's ready or will be at some point this year. Behind them are Bouye, Morris, and Rolle. All have their good and bad. Morris at least has speed, and Rolle has shown ability to play the ball. Bouye holds everyone and makes a ton of mental mistakes. There's more I want to get to with this group and safety, but that involves the coaching aspect of which I'll get to later. Status - 1 CB2 that should make the switch to Safety for his and the teams good. 1 CB1 in rapid decline and needing replaced. 1 CB Rookie that should become your CB1/2. 3 CBs that have flashed, but haven't played enough to really prove themselves. To be continued... The safety group is a huge work in progress. I think the starters could be solid with Moore and Kareem. Especially with Moore showing that he's slowly turning it around. Demps flashes sometimes, but is inconsistent. Pleasant is himself and makes mistakes often. Hal is making the transition and needs time, and Ballentine has been so oft injured that it probably won't be until late this year or next until we see things from him. Status - Things can be fixed with guys we have, but it will take out of the box thinking as well as getting snaps from Hal/Ballentine. Demps and Pleasant should after thoughts. Defensive players I would keep; DE/DT - Watt, Crick, Covington OLB - Clowney ILB - Cushing, McKinney, Tuggle/Peters (Bullough if Cushing is gone) CB - Kareem, Kevin, Bouye, Morris/Rolle Safety - Moore, Hal, Ballentine That's 14 out of 27 defensive players on the current roster I deem worthy of keeping. That could be adjusted if players get more time to showcase themselves or improve. But as of now, That's what I've got.
The third phase of the game is obviously Special Teams. Primarily your backups get the most snaps here. With the lack of quality depth on the team, especially depth with speed, this unit is hurting. I view it as a double edged sword with very bad coaching and fundamentals as well as the simple fact that most of our players are slow. They wanted to gain height and weight when OB came in, but forgot that tall slow guys can't keep up. This unit can get fixed with a proper ST Coach and the corresponding moves on the roster with adding much needed speed. They also lack one real true specialist. Tuggle is suppose to be that guy, but he hasn't done anything to earn that. Every ST has that one guy who beats blocking and makes those consistent tackles down field. We lack that. Remember Brian Braman? He was our last really good ST player besides the kicker and our long snapper. Pretty sad to say the least. We simply don't have the guys on the back-end of the roster that have the correct frame of mind and speed to make a difference here.
That is ALOT of turn over in the off season and you have not even mentioned Offense You don't think any of them can be coached up? Rocket River
He did offense on the first page. Traded away too many picks and signed too many mediocre or injured players
But it does seem like we would have high draft picks and cap space to try and improve this team. But you know how the Texans operate.
I'll be writing another piece on the coaching of this team, and where I think they fail at development and scheme. I think some players can be coached up, but a lot of players simply lack a basic function or skill to improve much beyond what they already are. It's also a matter of simply moving on from some guys to allow others to get a chance as well. I think the defense especially is being coached pretty poorly on the line and with the DBs. That includes allowing Watt to do what he wants more times than they should. This year, with the lack of push from the rest of the line, he is completely hurting his team by not following his basic roles. I think he's trying to do too much and it's causing a lot of issues.
Now keep in mind that with my list of "keepers" that's who I deep as positive players or players that do actually bring something for the team currently. I'll give a more realistic roster as to what I think the Texans will actually do later on. This is just my basic observations and judgment calls as if I were going to completely overhaul the Texans if you will. This is by no means a re-tool, it's a complete tear down. Which I feel would end up benefiting the Texans more, and would put a product on the field that actually resembles a respectable NFL team faster than to make smaller moves over a more prolonged plan.
Here are my thoughts on coaching on the offensive side of the ball; Head Coach - I believe Bob is actually a very good coach. He's worked for a lot of great coaches, and is in no way specifically like any of them. He's a like a sample plater, taking pieces here and there and building up his coaching philosophy that fits him the best. He was a very good coach in NE and he worked wonders with the whole Penn State debacle. With him it isn't about the scheme, or teaching it, I feel like working with Brady made life way easier for him. Having Brady spoiled him up in NE. I think he felt like even if you didn't have the greatest measurables, as long as you were smart, you could be nearly as successful. I don't think he fully understood the greatness he was working with at the time. I think he now realizes that there are certain intangibles that you must have to succeed at QB in the NFL. Simply understanding the offense and memorizing the plays, audibles, check downs, isn't nearly enough. I think he can develop a QB. Seeing what he turned Fitz into last year, and the statements regarding OB from Fitz is an example of that. Mallet has too much arm and not enough brain, and I think Hoyer has some of the brain, just not enough physical traits. Neither are ideal, obviously. Beyond the QB predicament, I think he's trying to outsmart people too much. I think this whole "multiple" philosophy is great, on a small scale. Him wanting to have guys play at a different positions at a given time is great on a small scale. But when you are constantly shifting guys around, out of their natural positions, they will begin to fail. You can't have a team of jack of all trades, and be okay at everything, but not particularly good at anything. He needs to just take a step back and play guys where they make an impact, keep them their for the most part, and have his "multiple" wrinkles thrown in the mix every so often. Bellichick does this, but he plays his guys where they are best nearly all the time. It all needs to be situational. This applies to both the offense and the defense. I want my players being comfortable in what they're doing, and doing what they're good at all the time. I rather have a guy be a specialist pass rusher on the outside, then try to move him inside or have him set an edge if he's no good at it. You can't ask guys to do things that they simple aren't capable or good at doing. It breeds failure. I happen to like the offense scheme a lot. Read about it here if you want to learn more. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_England_Patriots_strategy#Erhardt-Perkins_offensive_system I like that he hired a new Offensive Line coach, Devlin is well regarded in the league. Once healthy, I think this O-line will work things out. George Godsey on the other hand shouldn't hold a position with this team. Both Healthy QBs have shown no growth, and while that's on both him and OB, Godsey is as much to blame since he is both the OC and QB coach. Having Godsey call plays dumbfounds me. The best play caller should be calling the plays, and that just so happens to be OB. He was a QB coach for UCF, then pushed to RB coach, then was an assistant with NE. At no point in his career did he ever have this responsibility. He never earned it, He hasn't shown any ability to do so. Why is he doing it now? Baffles me. He was a TEs coach for NE at the end of his tenure there. I mean, **** that speaks volumes to me about him being out QB coach and OC. Huge mistake. The play calling is all over the map. The inconsistency in play and player discipline is astounding. Constant dumb plays, constant dumb penalties. This team is always being outcoached, and for good reason. It's best coach isn't actually coaching. Hixon the WR coach I believe is a good one. 30+ years of coaching. Has had a track record, worked for a lot of good HCs. Developed talent well in the college ranks as well as the pros. It shows how well Mumphery has come along. Even Strong looked good yesterday. Hopkins is getting better as well. He's shown to have helped in development of WRs with the Texans, and thus I have no arguments against him. John Perry the TEs coach has a track record for being a HC, OC, WR and QB coach. Based off of his personal success I would have deemed him a good hire, but based off of the success of our TE corp, I would not. This group is either not coached well, or are completely void of talent. Fido and Griffin have shown flashes, but are inconsistent at best. A change here might help. Charles London has something to be desired from a RBs coaches background. Not much success personally or as a coach and the success of his RBs. Was a RBs coach at Duke, Got a job as a quality control guy for the Bears and was let go. His 1 year with the Titans saw a bit of a fall off from Chris Johnson, although he was already declining. Did come back for a better season the following year that London was gone. Joined OB in Penn State, rest is history. Beyond Arian being Arian, I don't know if he's a positive contributer. Blue looks better in a lot of ways, but he's carries are very low. Whether that would continue or fall off is to be seen. Shaky at best. O'Hara is an Offensive assistant, what he does is really unknown. Beyond that, his coaching track record his horrible as an OC/HC in the Arena League. Bad coaches are bad coaches, they usually don't change. Don't know why he was hired. As far as Offensive coaching goes, I like OB, Devlin, and Hixon. The other guys have proven nothing at their current positions and have shown an inability in their past coaching gigs to get the job done as well. Time to reshuffle this coaching staff. My main area of adjustment is that Bill needs to be much more hands on. He needs to start calling plays again. He needs to let the DC coach the defense, and the ST coach his guys. It's clear he's spreading himself thin with all the roster concerns on every side of the ball. Sad part is that he's basically the de facto GM and all this roster failure is falling square on him, rather than the guy that should be in charge of the roster. He clearly isn't Bellichick in the way that he's the HC and GM. He has yet to earn that right, and as a first time HC in the NFL, it's too much of an undertaking. He clearly shouldn't have total roster control like he does, he has errors in judgment as far as the roster makeup, and it's biting him in the ass. He needs to relinquish some of that control so he can do what he does best. It's time for OB to get back to basics. Coach his offense well, prepare them each week, and make sure they understand their job. This team is making the simplest mistakes each week, and it just snowballs. It's sad.
As far as the Defensive coaches go, Romeo Crennel is just about done as a DC in this league, and hopefully the Texans realize this and make a change after the season. His scheme worked well last year, mostly due to it being new for this teams players, and opposing teams not knowing what to expect. 1 year later and it seems as though every team in the league has figured out RACs scheme. He's defenses aren't actually as good as people think. They have never been in the top 10 of the league since he was NEs DC, and I would like to bet that was more to do with Bellichick than RAC. Plus, that defense was absolutely loaded. His base scheme is a 2 gap 3-4. Primarily it asks for your DE/DT to take on one or more blockers in order to keep the LBers clean so that they can stop the run/pass rush. It's a read and react style. Opposite of Wade Philips 3-4 where it's a 1 gap scheme where he wants his DE/DTs rushing between lineman, and the LBers cleaning up anything getting past them. The issue here is that the Texans aren't built for RACs scheme. They're more tooled for Wades scheme and would actually benefit more from a 4-3 scheme. The Texans don't have your typical 2 gap lineman. Watt can do it, but why waste his talents when he's your best pass rusher. Crick does it well, and Wilfork used to do it when he was still good but he isn't anymore. Covington is your best backup on the line and he's more of a pass rushing DT/NT. You've got 1 OLB thats a pass rusher in Clowney. Mercilus simply can't get pressure in the typical fashion this defense requires. Cush is a perfect mold for the scheme, but he's been hurt and I don't know what he's capable of anymore. You simply can't have a read and react line, when you simply don't have the LBers that you need to take advantage of it. With that ill fitting scheme, you then give opposing teams advantages to say the least. Being able to attack the flats and mid routes because you lack the speed at ILB and the pass rush at OLBer. Wade made up for it by having his entire dline attack. Those quick routes don't give Watt, Clowney, or Cush the team required to make a deference behind the LOS. Beyond the poorly fit front 7 scheme, you have issues in the secondary that are both on RAC and on the play of players. RAC likes to use a lot of coverage 4 looks in his base defense. Basically, 2 safety high look with CBs having the oppurtunity to play man/zone, or give a man look while still in a zone scheme. It rellies heavily on the safeties making the correct reads and reactions so that the CBs aren't left on an island, or allow the safety to come down field and make a play on a player they're responsible for. The first issue here is our talent at safety. Moore looks to be coming along slowly, but still isn't the player people are expecting him to be yet. After that, you pretty much are unknown, and with such a heavy reliance on safety, that's a huge issue. With the CBs being prone to giving up big plays due to their lack of speed and ball skills, safety play is then even more important. With the Texans inability to play press because they lack the speed outside at corner to recover, they are always give the WR a cushion. Most of times thats fine, problem is with the lack of pressure from the front 7, those cushions are easy completions for short yardage gains. The poor play at safety itself has been giving the Texans issue. With misreads and reactions, they're leaving the CBs on an island with no room for error, especially so if they can't get the inside leverage they need to shorten the field to the sidelines. Those miscues are also hurting the ILB play in the middle of the field. Where the mike (Cush) is responsible for walling off any recievers making their way in the belly of the secondary. With the lack of speed at LB, safeties recognizing these plays is key so that they can run down hill and make tackles/break up passes. I'm sure RAC is aware of these issues. He has been using dime packages quite a lot, putting as many DBs out there as possible, to cover up issues at safety and the speed this defense lacks. Problem with that is most of the backup DBs are making mistakes as well. I have seen nothing from Crennel that shows me in the least that he's trying anything different to over come this defenses short comings. It's the same thing every week. His players aren't getting any better, and his schemes are getting beat on a regular bases, no matter if it was played perfectly. Opposing teams are teeing off on everything RAC is throwing at them. It's really bad. Now, I can't fault Crennel for all these issues. A lot of them are the players faults. My main issue is with Watt. He's given freedom to do what ever he deems fit on any given play. This constitutes that whomever takes over his basic role of that play to cover his ass if it blows up in his face. It has worked great for a while, up until this year. Where the rest of his d lineman are having issues themselves, and he's just pilling up the problems on top of it all. Instead of sticking with his specific role, he's choosing to attack on every play to make up for the defenses short comings. A lot of those times, he's allowing teams to either run right past him, push him so far up field that the pressure isn't felt, or allow guards and tackles that are free from blocking him to move his teammates out of the way for positive gains. He needs to focus on his basic fundamentals first. I understand he's getting doubled and tripled on blocks a lot, but when he does get free, it's more whiffs than not right now. I rather see this defense play a lot more fundamentally sound, than have him get outrageous stats and still lose a game. To put it simple, we don't have the players to run RACs scheme effectively, and the players we do have mostly do a poor job of executing those plays. It's all around a bad fit. As far as individual coaching performances here's how I feel; Paul Pasqualoni is suppose to be a d-line guru, like a la Kolar. It's been an up and down year I would say. His history and those that speak highly of him gives me the feeling that he isn't the issue. John Butler the secondary coach is relatively unknown to me and I can't find much on him. He seems to be close with OB, but from everything I've seen as a whole with this secondary, he hasn't exactly given me confidence. Lack luster player abound, and a ton of mental mistakes. Along with Butler, Anthony Midget is also a secondary coach. I've got nothing to say than what I have already stated. The play of the team hasn't given me confidence. I like Vrabel, and not because of his personality on HK. The work he has put in with Clowney is amazing. The kid is grading out to be one of the top 3 rush defenders in the entire league. While his pass rush isn't quite there yet (I put that on him not being 100%) he's still dominant, and the only other guy on the team getting pressure on QBs. Now, He's just coaching up talent already there, he's not going to turn a nobody into a somebody. We still have issues with the rest of our OLBers not showing up, and he can't coach speed into our ILBers. But fundamentally, they don't look lost. It's just lack of tallent. My 2 cents says they have to move on from RAC and a bunch of these position coaches. Even if it isn't all of their faults, the lack of development in players is worrisome.
As far as Special Teams goes, both Ligashesky and his assistant must go. I can't say they are the complete issue, but the overall lack of discipline and the inability for the players to stick to running their designed schemes is astounding. This unit as a whole seems to be the dumbest of the bunch. The lack of success on STs also falls squarely on the build of this roster. This team is slow, and slow isn't going to get you anywhere in returning and or covering returners. They're also dumb. How many times have they been told not to block in the back and they still do it nearly every time down? It's beyond me. This also falls into OBs lap as well. He put this team together. He's to blame for why they are so slow.
Ericstocracy - Thanks for the great insight. Your analysis is pretty detailed - way beyond even the serious fan. Are you from the Texans organization? I guess we will never know.
Here's what I feel the Texans should do. O'brien needs to continue to reshuffle his staff. Replace some positional coaches and figure out what to do at DC. Whether that's promoting Vrabel or going another route, RAC simply isn't getting it done. As far as the Offensive roster goes, I will predict these players to be the hold overs before any adjustments made because of draft picks. I predict the Texans to keep 21 out of 25 players. QB - Hoyer & Savage RB - Foster, Blue, Prosch TE - CJ & Griffin WR - Hop, Shorts, Mumphery, Strong, Worthy T - Brown, Newton, Adams, Quessenberry G - XSF, Brooks, Aboushi C - Jones & Mancz The Texans clearly need to draft a QB next year. Savage in his limited time hasn't shown enough, and with the mistake of placing him on IR they aren't able to play him now to see what he's got. Not being able to practice will also hurt him. They're in dire need of a true QB1, and he's probably not on the roster. You have clear needs at RB. Foster will be 30 and overpaid for a guy that will probably only give you 10-12 games. Even though he's still very good when 100%. Blue still hasn't been given a large enough load to really show you he can or can't be an RB1. While looking much improved, you really can't expect him to be that type of back. Prosch is turning himself into a solid FB, and I expect him to continue on that path. Your Grimes and Polks are a dime a dozen, and neither have shown anything good other that they can catch here and there. Maybe Hilliard makes the jump. Your best all-around TE is Griffin, but he can't stay healthy. Fido is penciled as your TE1, and I feel like that's mostly due to his blocking ability. Which still leaves you disappointed more times than not. I understand that TE is the second hardest position on this offense to learn. I think their development has been stunted with poor QB play. Both guys need to have some serious growth. You need more athleticism at this position. The WR group shows a lot of promise, even for their youth. I would lean towards them keeping Shorts for a veteran presence, but I think the talent behind him is better. Moving on from him might not be an issue with the growth of Mumphery and Strong. You still need more speed at the position though, Worthy alone isn't enough. As far as the offensive line is concerned, I honestly think we could end up having good depth by TC next year with the current guys on the team. Hear me out. You've got a solid group of Brown, Jones, Brooks, and Newton. With playing time this year, one of XSF or Oday will take the LG spot. XSF is better at run blocking, while Oday is better at pass protection. Both need to improve, but both have potential. Whoever loses the battle still holds a key role in being your swing guard. Mancz is a true center that can play guard when called upon, and just needs another offseason to get his playing strength up. Adams was your projected swing tackle until all the injuries occurred. He has more upside than Clark and is much younger. Quessenberry can play both T and G. He at one point his rookie year was competing for a starting role at either RG or RT before an injury slowed him. With him coming back next season, it will offer a lot more depth inside an out. I like this group as a whole once things settle down and people get back on the field.
People seem to be overlooking Savage. I expect that if Savage is healthy towards EOY, and the Texans are out of Playoff hunt, O'Brien will give Savage a shot. Hopefully he performs because we have a ton of holes outside of QB that definitely need addressing. OLB is the biggest IMO, but you have no depth at RB or OL, your CBs have looked rough so far, ILB outside of Cushing and McKinney is straight trash, and we don't really have much of a WR threat outside of Hopkins. One draft won't fix all of our problems, and I'm hoping at least a couple of our young guys, Savage and Covington specifically, can show marked improvement by year's end. I also think we have enough talent at RB and the OL to be passable, assuming good health - you can get depth on the FA market. But we HAVE to do something about our LBs - it's embarrassing that we can't get pressure on the QB with Watt and, at times, Clowney doubled.
Isn't Savage on IR? I think that means he can't practice or play for the entire season. I may be wrong. If true, wasted year for him. He will already be 26 when the season opens next year without having any significant playing or practice time. Looks like a wasted pick.
The defense is much harder to predict because of what I feel is an obvious move at DC. Everything depends on scheme. This is what I predict the Texans to do with the defensive roster; DE/DT - Watt, Crick, Covington, & Pagan OLB - Clowney, Mercilus, & Cliett ILB - Cushing, McKinney, Tuggle, Bullough, & Peters CB - Kareem, JJo, KJo, Bouye, Morris, & Rolle S - Moore, Hal, Ballentine That's also 21 out of 25 current players. Now I would actually make some different choices, but being the Texans, We know they will make mistakes in not moving on from players. At DE/DT you clearly have talent with Watt, Crick, and Covington. Pagan has been hurt at the beginning of the year, and that may be to blame for his absence on the field. He's still an unknown factor. You basically have no depth. A great deal of attention must be placed on this line in the off-season. With the OLB group you clearly have Clowney on his recovery path, but showing you what he'll be doing once he's fully healed. Mercilus hasn't progressed like he was expected to, primarily because he lacks the speed to get around the edge. He's more of a cleanup OLBer when ball carriers are flushed his way, he doesn't fit the scheme well either. I would assume they give him another chance to right the ship. Simon was suppose to be a good edge setter and a run stopper. While he shows flashes, his inconsistency is a major issue. Cliett was suppose to be a major piece rotationally as well as a huge factor on ST with his speed. I have no doubts he'll be apart of the rotation next season. You've still got lack of depth here, and you've really got no one else worthy of the spot remaining. ILB is interesting because you've got a girth of players, but most of them being the same guy. Cushing has been hit and miss and definitely isn't worth his contract, but with him being signed until 2019, I think he's staying. Speed is much needed here though. McKinney is a starting caliber player that needs to shake the rookie jitters. He's clearly a work in progress in coverage, but his speed shouldn't be a hindrance. Just needs to get comfortable with it. Tuggle is a smart player, but isn't that physical and is relatively slow. While he seems to make a lot of good reads, he doesn't seem to make the play a lot of the time. Always in the area, but never the play maker. Bullough is a 2 down thumper. He brings physicality, football IQ, and an old school mean streak up the middle. He is a liability in coverage though. He's not much of an athlete and is relatively slow. Peters is unknown because he's only been here for a short time. He's a converted FS that was previously in the CFL before signing with the Vikings and later being waived because they're stacked at the position. His ability to cover is a huge get, and he's relatively quick for his size. I'm not sure he makes an impact this year because he's behind the 8 ball, but I would lean to the Texans wanting to bring him back for his ability to cover at the LB spot. He should also be a nice piece of the ST squad. Could end up being our new Mohamed. Dent just like the other guys is slow and can't cover. He's smaller as well, and gets lost in the shuffle of linemen a lot. He's never made a positive impact for the Texans. Was a 3rd round draft pick from Atlanta, and has been a bust. He shouldn't be back. CB is where I make the most drastic changes if I were the Texans. Kareem should be your starting Strong Safety. While he's a very good CB2, his skill set lends him to potentially being a much better SS. With his decline, JJo honestly shouldn't be brought back. His contract is easy to get out of, even if it makes the Texans look foolish for extending him. Kevin Johnson is your future CB1 or at least a top flight CB2. Bouye is predominantly a slot corner who does well there, but when moved outside he gets beat a lot. I like him as your 3rd inside CB. Morris and Rolle show flashes, but get inconsistent playing time to really develop. The both offer different looks. While Morris is fast and can hang with anyone, Rolle is more physical and actually plays the ball. They both have potential, just not sure if it's starter quality however. I could actually see them move Andre Hal back to CB if they were to make moves like this. Safety has it's own issues with only having one starting caliber player in Moore. Like I've said, he's starting off slowly but has been turning it around. Communication and the understanding of their role has been a big issue. Demps made a couple flashy plays, but as a whole has been a black hole back there. Eddie Pleasent is suppose to be a great STer that can spot play, but all he seems to do is make dumb decisions when on the field. I don't know why he's here. Both Hal and Ballentine are making the transition from CB to Safety. Both have very good physical traits. Hal has okay size, but good play speed. Can play both man and zone, and is a solid tackler. Smart player. Ballentine is a physical freak with being 6'3" and being clocked with a 4.39 40 time. The guy is a gifted athlete and if can get the mental part of playing safety, he could work his way into a starters role. Could even possibly make the move to LBer if he adds 20lbs or so. Should be an x factor covering TEs like Travis Kelce once he's healthy and gains experience. If it were me, I'd move on from JJo and Tuggle as well. Bringing it down to 19 out of 25 defensive players. This defense is a cluster **** and is poorly coached at the same time. I'll give some guys a chance to reprove themselves (Mercilus & Pagan mostly), seeing how there is little depth at positions, and you aren't going to replace 50%+ of one position group in a single off-season.
