How good does the Dline have to be?

[Ricky Spanish]

i love glass half full kind of posts like this

[Peppers90 NC]

they aren't a top duo. Marshall is a nickel corner. I would not be surprised if Captain took his job at some point this year. Well, I take that back....wiht Fox you never know. Also, we have no clue who 2 of the 3 starters at LB will be right now.

I don't think Gamble is a leader. That is getting into Peppers territorty where you expect players to be something they aren't. Gamble is going to play corner and do a decent job. You can't ask him to lead. He would have done it by now if he was that type player.

I agree more with you on this one. One, we had a monster pass rusher in Peppers to help the secondary. Two, Beason is the only LB I trust. Three, Godrey now is going to the strong side, where he has to be more physical, this is another ? mark. I can think of numerous duo's better than Marshall and Gamble, both are very solid in coverage and tackling, but neither are great at either. We need all the help we can get up front for us to be a contender, which I am not ruling out. Pass rush can make a secondary look better than they are and vice versa. It would be very homerism of me to have very high expectations of our defense this year with the turnover involved. We need the offense to step up, and our defense needs to be very opportunistic like the Saints were last year by forcing turnovers, something I do trust in John Fox's defenses.

[CRA]

I agree more with you on this one. One, we had a monster pass rusher in Peppers to help the secondary. Two, Beason is the only LB I trust. Three, Godrey now is going to the strong side, where he has to be more physical, this is another ? mark. I can think of numerous duo's better than Marshall and Gamble, both are very solid in coverage and tackling, but neither are great at either. We need all the help we can get up front for us to be a contender, which I am not ruling out. Pass rush can make a secondary look better than they are and vice versa. It would be very homerism of me to have very high expectations of our defense this year with the turnover involved. We need the offense to step up, and our defense needs to be very opportunistic like the Saints were last year by forcing turnovers, something I do trust in John Fox's defenses.

is Godfrey moving? I thought he was staying and Martin was going to SS?

[Peppers90 NC]

is Godfrey moving? I thought he was staying and Martin was going to SS?

Either way, one is changing spots to a more physical position.

[BF91]

The two safety spots in the Meeks Tampa-2 are essentially the same, just on opposite sides of the field.

[Frizzy350]

im pretty sure godfrey will be playing ss.

even if we have issues in the middle with our DTs, i see us having no trouble replacing pepper's pass rush ability between everette brown, charles johnson, eric norwood and greg hardy. there is just too much athletic ability between those 4 to keep them all out of the back field.

it wasnt until those last 3 games that the defense really got the hang of meek's style of defense (which is much different than fox's, but i think even fox realizes with our DTs he has to change it up). we are going to rush the edges relentlessly, funneling runners up through the middle to beason. yea we wont get many tackles for losses on runs up the gut, but opposing offenses are going to be scared to take long drop backs and plays that develop on the outside (tosses/sweeps/screens).

see even tho kemo took up space, in meeks defense he was real easy to get around, because he couldnt really disengage blockers or push them back. in meeks system it spreads the ends out further opening lots of space for runners to easy prance right past kemo. lewis was downright useless against the run, he should be a 3-4 end.

our new dts, although unproven, are much more likely to occasionally get past a few linemen and i'd assume are better at disengaging blocks.

[monstercat]

The two safety spots in the Meeks Tampa-2 are essentially the same, just on opposite sides of the field.

Yup, they both have to be able to play in the box as well as cover deep. The only difference is that one of them (most likely Godfrey) will by on the strong side, which can be deceiving, since TE's line up on the left, or go in motion to the left quite a bit, so really either one of them could end up covering a TE.

[Snake]

For the Cover 2 to work we need pressure out of our Dline. No pressure would be very bad.

[Peppers90 NC]

see even tho kemo took up space, in meeks defense he was real easy to get around, because he couldnt really disengage blockers or push them back. in meeks system it spreads the ends out further opening lots of space for runners to easy prance right past kemo. lewis was downright useless against the run, he should be a 3-4 end.

When did Kemo ever play one snap under Meeks? Lewis was solid, but more hit or miss. He was good at shooting gaps, when he hits even on run plays, he would make a nice play in the backfield. If he missed, then it hurt us. Even Meeks' best defenses with the Colts were porous vs the run. I don't know the yardage numbers off top of my head, they may not have seemed bad, but that may have had to do with their offense creating leads, managing the clock and forcing the opposing teams to throw more often, which fed to them with their monster ends, which we have nothing to compare to Freeny and Mathis here.

[Peppers90 NC]

The two safety spots in the Meeks Tampa-2 are essentially the same, just on opposite sides of the field.

About 50% of the time maybe, we cant just drop into cover 2 every play, the def has to be mixed up. Playing deep safety is not the problem for either, especially Martin. I think the two safeties will work out fine, may take some time, but I think they can both do well playing a robber or playing in man or blitzing. Only time will tell for sure, and until proven, they are question marks.

[monstercat]

All I'm really worried about is depth. We need guys like Irvin, Johnson and, yes, even Nick Hayden to step up their game and become solid parts of the rotation.

Obviously, I'm not nearly as worried about Tyler and Leonard as most people seem to be. Hell, Leonard put more pressure on QB's in less than two full games than kemo did the whole time he was here, and we all know that QB's absolutely hate getting pressured up the middle. That is the #1 thing this D-line needs to accomplish to help those young DE's out.

[Frizzy350]

When did Kemo ever play one snap under Meeks? Lewis was solid, but more hit or miss. He was good at shooting gaps, when he hits even on run plays, he would make a nice play in the backfield. If he missed, then it hurt us. Even Meeks' best defenses with the Colts were porous vs the run. I don't know the yardage numbers off top of my head, they may not have seemed bad, but that may have had to do with their offense creating leads, managing the clock and forcing the opposing teams to throw more often, which fed to them with their monster ends, which we have nothing to compare to Freeny and Mathis here.

he did not, my bad. i meant that when he was here, not with meeks specifically.

yea the colts werent that great against the run, but look at the linebackers theyve had there over the years.

the problem with lewis was that he was missing and hurting us much more then hitting and making decent plays. and he rarely ever held his own against single blockers, he was often shoved upfield.

monster ends? nobody was fed to dwight freeny. yea he gets a bunch of sacks, but if u look at his numbers, he rarely averages 2 tackles a game. mathis gets a few more, with a few less sacks. you look at peppers, gets 50ish a year. jared allen, even a few more. freeney is not an elite end, despite what espn will tell u. sit there and study freeney for a full game and compare him to some other highly touted ends, i guarantee ull change ur mind.

[Peppers90 NC]

he did not, my bad. i meant that when he was here, not with meeks specifically.

yea the colts werent that great against the run, but look at the linebackers theyve had there over the years.

the problem with lewis was that he was missing and hurting us much more then hitting and making decent plays. and he rarely ever held his own against single blockers, he was often shoved upfield.

monster ends? nobody was fed to dwight freeny. yea he gets a bunch of sacks, but if u look at his numbers, he rarely averages 2 tackles a game. mathis gets a few more, with a few less sacks. you look at peppers, gets 50ish a year. jared allen, even a few more. freeney is not an elite end, despite what espn will tell u. sit there and study freeney for a full game and compare him to some other highly touted ends, i guarantee ull change ur mind.

when it comes to getting after the QB, he is. That was my point, the Colts would play with a lead and pretty much forced teams to have to pass, and they could take advantage with their ends. Our ends may be more versatile, but they are not as productive yet as far as pressuring the QB.

[monstercat]

Robert Mathis, the other Colts DE, had 65 tackles in their Superbowl year, and he's only 245lbs and plays the strong side. So playing the run is clearly not just about size. The Panthers don't have a DE that small anyway, nor do they have small DT's. Leonard is 325 lbs, which is actually perfect for a 4-3 NT and Tyler weighs in at about 310, so he is actually bigger than Lewis was.

The Panthers are not trying to duplicate exactly what the Colts defense did anyway, although they were pretty damn good against the run in the 06 play offs even with those little guys.