https://www.si.com/nfl/2018/03/26/ndamukong-suh-rams-defensive-line-aaron-donald
So that’s the good.
The bad—or, more accurately, the caveat—is that this dynamic defensive tackle duo doesn’t suddenly make Los Angeles a surefire top-10 defense. Two big questions remain. First, with both men being classic first-and second-down 3-techniques, who moves to 1-technique on running downs, and how will that go?
And second, can a defense afford to have TWO linemen who take as many risks as Donald and Suh? When they penetrate and make the play, it’s beautiful. But when they penetrate and don’t make the play, the defense gets gashed.
First, the PFF grades :
Donald - Graded #1 overall out of all the 122 graded DT's, scoring a grade of 99.7.
Suh - Graded #5 overall out of all the 122 graded DT's with a score of 91.0.
Donald scored 87.5 in run defense and 99.9 in pass rushing.
Suh scores 92.4 in run defense and 83.9 as a pass rusher.
Even if you don't love PFF, this partially explains where these players tend to excel.
Brockers graded #31 overall last season with a 83.1 score. His run blocking was scored at 88.0 and his pass rush score dropped to 50.8 for his first year outside.
Westbrooks is the likely interior spot which Suh will now command, and he graded #71 overall while scoring 70.4 in run defense and 73.8 in pass rush.
Lets not even discuss how poor both Tyrunn Walker and Tanzil Smart graded overall and in run defense.
Unless someone new is added, I suspect Easley will be the rotation for Brockers & Westbrooks will be behind Donald and perhaps even Suh, although I won't be surprised if Omarius Bryant off our practice squad or a later round rotational NT type is also brought in.
What bothers me about the author of this article is not only the qualitative improvements of our DL, but not expecting or adding that our LB'er corp is also apt to improve a good deal in the coming months, especially so with run defense. jmo.
