New Defense - Ongoing season discussion

[Kupped]

Speights keeps looking more comfortable.
He flashes some explosiveness that's fun to see and I think we'll start to see him get home on the QB as he gets a little more experience.
He doesn't have the arm length and swim move Jones had developed.. but he's more sudden than Ernest.

 

[Elmgrovegnome]

Agreed. I believe the management may have under estimated how much AD wrecked opposition.

Our rookies are studs but it took some game experience for it to show. Verse is looking like he'll be a beast. Imagine if we had a stone wall linebacker. I must say Speights and Rozeboom is a better combo that having Reeder in there.

The defense is improving, now the offense has to score more touchdowns.

If Speights and Rozeboom were a bit faster, this defense would be much better. One area it lacks is closing on the crossing receivers and outside runs. Drake Maye was able to manipulate both LBers all day in the passing game.

 

[shovelpass]

NFL Pro breaks down a player's snaps by alignment. I was curious about guys like Hoecht and Lake because they move around a bunch.

I do question the accuracy or how they tabulate it. I think some of Hoecht's DT snaps are actually LB. Situations where he's standing directly over the center/lineman, a mugged LB. Which would explain why the ILBs and DBs have snaps at DT as well.

Hoecht

Lake

 

[PARAM]

Did they let Seattle score a TD in 1 minute with 0 timeouts? That's the point.
The offense sucks balls and is the reason why the team is losing more than winning. Looking at the defense from where the season started, they have made great strides and are really coming together. BUT there are areas where they need to improve, closing out games (and 1st half) and starting slow. When they clean that up, and I believe they will, the defense will be ELITE

The numbers show improvement over the course of the season. Nobody expected them to be a great defense early on. Hell, decent was about all we should have expected. Over the first 5 games they allowed 16 TDs and had 4 takeaways. Over the last 5 they've allowed 9 TDs and have 11 takeaways. First thought might be 'the quality of opposition' isn't as high. That's true. There was only 1 beatable team (Chicago) over the first five. Over the second 5 there were two (Las Vegas, New England). Perhaps the initial 5 games prepared them for these last 5 games and they've done what they're supposed to do.

Yes, they allowed Seattle to drive 73 yards for the game tying score late in the 4th. Seattle got the ball with 1:54 remaining at their 27 and no timeouts. Ironically, against a better, more experienced defense Seattle got the ball at their 20 with 2:38 remaining, 1 timeout and did the same thing vs San Francisco. They did it quicker vs the Rams but that's only a complaint point. The real point is, they did it against both defenses. The difference is they only tied the Rams.

This defense isn't great or elite. They're good and getting better. Which is all we could have expected coming out of camp. We've managed to hover at .500, so now with the offense healthy and the defense still improving, we're in position to earn a playoff spot over the final 7 games of the season. It's funny how things play out. We expected our offense to be studs out of the gates. A new and improved OL, Puka, Kupp, Kyren and Stafford. We just had to survive the growing pains and development of the defense. And the latter was a "hope" with a lot of new young guys, no AD and a rookie DC. Instead what we got was a lethargic, injury riddled offense over the first 5 weeks, that has been inconsistent over the last 5 weeks and a defense that has developed perhaps a bit ahead of schedule.

 

[Tumak61]

I like the new Chetah package on Defense. Looks like the 5 man front they have been running previously but they put a LB where a DL would line up. Perfect use of Hoecht. He can rush or drop in coverage. Gives the OL more to think about.

 

[dieterbrock]

The numbers show improvement over the course of the season. Nobody expected them to be a great defense early on

Yep. That’s why this is an ongoing conversation.
The slow starts are concerning but by the same respect there now should be an expectation of the team figuring it out and turning it around. They’ve proven that time and time again.

 

[PARAM]

Yep. That’s why this is an ongoing conversation.
The slow starts are concerning but by the same respect there now should be an expectation of the team figuring it out and turning it around. They’ve proven that time and time again.

Slow starts or not, late TD drives or not, I think they're right where we reasonably could have expected them to be, probably even better. Just like last season, some expected we were in a rebuilding year and some expected all those new moving parts (replacing Ramsey, Floyd, Wagner, A'Shawn, Gaines, Rapp, Scott, etc) to be a bit confused early on and get better as the year passed. I think both happened. And I think it's happening again this year. Last year's progression and turnaround might be the reason they unloaded Jones so easily (with apologies to AD, "hell we lost a lot more last year and were fine"). I'm not concerned. I'm anticipating continued improvement.

 

[dieterbrock]

Slow starts or not, late TD drives or not, I think they're right where we reasonably could have expected them to be, probably even better. Just like last season, some expected we were in a rebuilding year and some expected all those new moving parts (replacing Ramsey, Floyd, Wagner, A'Shawn, Gaines, Rapp, Scott, etc) to be a bit confused early on and get better as the year passed. I think both happened. And I think it's happening again this year. Last year's progression and turnaround might be the reason they unloaded Jones so easily (with apologies to AD, "hell we lost a lot more last year and were fine"). I'm not concerned. I'm anticipating continued improvement.

Like I said, they clean up the slow starts and late meltdowns, they are looking elite.
The run defense looked like the worst in the league out of the gate and now it’s among the best. The pass rush? Amazing. From inside and edge. It’s a special group no doubt. And I’m here for it.

 

[Tumak61]

Kinchens first rookie DB ever to win two Defensive player of the week awards in his rookie season.

 

[CGI_Ram]

View: https://x.com/tompelissero/status/1859386277977592051?s=46

 

[shovelpass]

 

[PhillyRam]

He easily could have been a late 3rd or 4th rd pick. I was really happy when they drafted him. I mocked him to us a number of times in the 3rd, or after a trade down into the 4th.