D-line, then and now

Our DL should definitely be better. With Broderick Bunkley, Marcus Thomas, and Kevin Vickerson, we have 3 solid DT’s.

The problem is that Bunkley and Thomas are hurt and might not be ready for Week 1 in which case our DT’s will be Vickerson, McBean, and Unrein and that has to be concerning to say the least.

Ty Warren should be on IR if he can NOT help until week 12-13. EFX very wasted spot, plus you have just guaranteed his salary for the year. DUMB IMO.
Bunkley and Thomas HAVE to practice this week, even if only for backups.
If not then I can see a bunch of 2-5 to stop the run.

Don Martindale tried in vain to create and establish the defense that Mike Nolan started building. Martindale may be a better position coach than he is a defensive coordinator. What he tried to do was more than he could handle. The players were there on the roster saying “take me Bill Tyler, take me”, but their words or body movements were just warm stale air filling up a locker room. Now with the acquistion of Dennis Allen and the old Fox, this new system seems to breathe a sigh of relief. Finally we have somebody that knows how to coordinate and teach a defense. It’s like “night and day” as one player stated early in camp and the enthusiasm is strolling once again down the halls of Dove Valley.

Many media affilates and fans failed to listen to the subtle clues coach Fox gave us in February after he was first hired (“there are pieces already here on the roster”). How true was that statement when we see players like Marcus Thomas and Ryan McBean on he 53 man roster? What he said is true and that’s what John Fox will give you if you listen. Clues. It is clear the both of the afore mentioned players were playing out of position. Now they are intune to make runners suffer when the run their way and they do enough to draw double-teams from OLinemen that can’t afford to let them loose in the backfield.

The same can be said about Robert Ayers. This 274 lb DE was squarely pegged into a round hole of Martindales system, it showed. Now, for at least in pre-season he has played the position he feels he is better suited for, DE/DT. He often times drew double-teams from OLinemen way bigger than he is. They know his physicality and try to neutralize it, often without success and this leads to Dumervil and Miller wrecking havoc in the backfiled. This tells me one thing if it doesn’t tell anything else, Dennis Allen and John Fox know what they are doing. I look for Ayers to have a probowl type season getting turnovers and pocket collapses.

Vickerson and Bunkley will suffice if they stay healthy and they should help greatly in our run defense as well as collapsing the pocket. All in all, i like our chances against teams that have already been given the win by pundits. Those teams include the Patriots and Tom Brady. Brady will pick you apart if he has time. Our front 7 might not give him the tie he needs and running out of the pocket is never his good side. The Jets with Mark Sanchez. Again Mark doesn’t seem to be the smartest quarterback on the block, but he does make plays and will jump out and take off if he has to. He may have to with Miller, Doom and BDawk breathing down his collar.

The bottom line is this, this team can beat anybody on any given day and opposing HCs and OCs will have sleepless nights trying to figure or defense out. A key will be solid coverage to give time for the rush and the LBers covering the TEs and RBs out of the backfield. If we are going to struggle it will be against the run and the short passes over the middle to the TEs and RBs. Other than that, we could have a top 10 defense. You heard it here first.

I admit I didn’t realize it before, but you are completely right. Pass rushing. The key word here, and this we all know. We lacked on this last season because we had no Dumervil on the field. Jason Hunter? A good pass rusher, nothing more, who couldn’t do much alone… And so we struggled a lot with a mediocre sacks number in the entire season.

Now we have 2 elite pass rushers (Von Miller and Doom back) and we are likely the top-5 defense rushing the passer, imo. Ok, why I’m saying that? Everybody here knows it! I’m saying that to us all understand why our DLine is not weak anymore.

It would be great to have Osi playing opposite to Doom? Of course… But my point is that with this elite pass rushing, we can have great talented DLs to stuff the runs (this is much easier to findo) with lacking talent to rush the passer. We don’t need anymore complete players capable to stuff the runs very well and still get to the QB at least fairly. We already have this job very well accomplish with VonDoom… so if Ayers, Bunkley, Vick and all our defensive linemen “just” stuff the runs properly, we will have a great defense!! A completely different one, btw.

And how you noticed we have a big amount of 1st round talents at DLine! This is great… And we can’t forget Marcus Thomas, who is very similar to Bunkley and Harvey: great run stuffer with lack rushing the passer.

The only problem is: if Doom is hurt again or Von Miller gets injuried, we are stuck a little minus than last season (because last season we had none, and this season if 1 gets hurt we still would have the other), but still very stuck. Because this way, yes the pass rushing would become a problem that our DTs and Ayers can not help that much. And our season would be sold… probably selecting Andrew Luck next year :S

Let’s hope these 2 key players remain healthy!