There are silver linings in what we've seen through four games. DL/OLB is on the ascent as it pertains to the pass and there is solid depth at OLB. Lake showing up with a big game was nice so he might be a long term piece.
But our back 7 sucks. No matter what the combination.
This is why the frustration is so strong for me at ILB. Reeder & Rozeboom are a dead end, we know they're not good enough from years of performance on the field. Now maybe Speights & Hummel would end up in the same destination. But we don't know that. So way I see it Shula should have been able to forecast that a great way to upgrade that back 7 is bring in those two, who add speed, range, and tackling.
I chalk this up to hubris. Shula comes in during the offseason. Reeder & Rozeboom work their asses off to learn the nuances of the new DC and what he wants, while Jones plays games with the team (possibly - this is presumed since the Rams would have kept him for his final cheap season as we all expected otherwise) and ends up getting traded. So from there he wants to establish that two guys who have strong grasp of what they're doing can hold it down, which is not a stretch when it comes to ILB. We did, after all, win a Super Bowl with Reeder back there.
But Reeder is a backup because he is inconsistent. Rozeboom is probably the worst player on our defense snap to snap. So Shula not being willing to make the obvious call means he is either prioritizing his opinion of the players outside of their on-field production, or he is convincing himself that he can make these guys better in the scheme than they are individually. And when you face the quality of coordinator opposition at this level, giving up player quality is a recipe for getting beat.
So. Beating the same old fucking drum here. Start Speights and Hummel. Do yourself a fucking favor here Shula. And if they come up short, so be it. But at least you bypass weeks of that transition where you come to the realization the hard way that the other two are not good enough.
