Every time I see your nick, I read it as Donny Moist. You should change your moniker to reflect my dyslexia.
It is a legitimate concern that if we suffer an injury to Jonathan Joseph or any one of our DEs/OLBs we could see Brice McCain or Bryan Brahman starting. That is the kind of stuff that keeps you up at night. Although Brahman's helmetless tackles would be worth the price of admission.
WR is obvious need. all of our WRs either suck, their old, or injured. we need to probably draft 2 WRs or 1 draftee and another street FA.
Just concern in general that the D may not have been as good last year as the numbers reflected because of who we played. Also some concern that Wade's defense has historically regressed after year one. Also some concern that in the NFL I believe if you aren't improving you are getting worse.
But this is a concern for *every* team; no one is two-deep with All-Pros. If you lose a top-line starter, it’s going to hurt you. That's why more of these coaches prefer rigid systems - allows for plug-and-play where the unit is far more important than its individual parts.
Given no offseason, a truncated training camp with a new system and new starters at nearly every position... there's reason to believe it may have actually underperformed. Hopefully, Watt and Reed don't regress and they have another productive draft. And injuries, of course. They need to stay healthy. (But that's true of every team.)
It wasn't a concern for us last year in several positions. We're thinner this year, no sense in denying it. It's all shades of grey, the drop-off from one player to another is never the same. We're just standing on the edge of a cliff with our secondary and pass rushers right now, unfortunately. I ain't mad tho. Luck is a part of the game.
Oh, I think it's very much deniable. We're bringing every defensive starter from last year's playoff game against the Ravens. From that game, we've essentially lost one contributor - Jason Allen, who we all know is a dime a dozen CB. Heck, his replacement could already be on the roster (Harris or Carmichael). Plus: it's March. I would suspect they'll replace Allen adequately and add talent and depth as the year progresses. No need to lose sleep now.
I think people underrate Allen. While his coverage skills might be a dime a dozen, he made up for it by being a playmaker. I think he is tied with Ed Reed for most interceptions the past two years.
Ed Reed had 3 INTs last season. Jason Allen had 4. There were 11 players that had more than both those guys. In 2010 Ed Reed had 8 INTs and Jason Allen had 3. I think you must be thinking of someone else.
Allen actually had 6 in 2010, 3 with us and 3 with the Dolphins. So he is 1 behind Ed Reed the last two years. I'm not lamenting him being gone, but it is a downgrade to ho from him to Kareem.
Not this last year. They were both about on the same level, which is why Allen could never take over the starters role full time.
He had decent downfield coverage skills but the opposing WRs always seemed to have a 10-yd cushion on him at the line of scrimmage. QB's caught on and burned us repeatedly for short gains. Not that Kareem is any better but Allen certainly seems replaceable.
I think that's a little extreme. Watt, Barwin, Cushing, and Reed create havoc, and Smith/Cody do a solid job taking advantage of that. Mario would have been a cherry, but we still have one of the scarier fronts to face in the league, especially with Wade's aggressive scheme. And since we go to so much dime, I'd say a rush specialist and an end are the only depth concerns. Worst comes to worse, you can grab a usable backup for relatively cheap towards the end of free agency. Sharpton is there at LB, Mitchell and Cody are fine as a rotation. Secondary's a bigger concern, but they will ignore Jackson's incompetence as long as they can get away with it, a la Jacoby. QFT
I think his point is our new lack of depth, hence edge of the cliff not over. We're not sustaining an injury to Barwin, Reed or Watt like we did with Mario last year. It's a valid concern.
Lack of depth is a moot point right now because we haven't even gone through the draft and the rest of free agency. Draft picks, undrafted FAs, and roster casualties this summer can all improve depth. We can easily pick up serviceable guys for depth, just like we've done with Jason Allen, Derrick Ward, etc.
I'm talking about depth. Who do we have at DE/OLB for depth that is tested to be mediocre? Brahman, Nading, Bulman, Jamison? Bulman is the only guy there we have any kind of decent rap sheet on... and he's no world beater, spot duty, at best. At least last year we had a high draft pick ready to step in... but we'll see how FA and the draft plays out.
