Was Losing Godfrey The Biggest Step In Turning The Defense Around?

[TylerDurden]

It's been on my mind quite a bit over the last few games...  I was a huge detractor of Godfrey's for awhile, but it appeared to me that he had improved quite a bit over the last two seasons or so.  But, I was still unhappy with the sense that he still had not had to EARN his spot under either Fox's or Rivera's regime.  Well, he goes down with injury and we have several different guys step in and contribute so much so that Godfrey has become an afterthought.

 

Do you think losing him was the biggest step in turning around our defense?  Or at the very least, turning around the problems we have historically had in the secondary?

 

I think it's in bad taste to put that much of the onus on Godfrey, but I think it's a relevant discussion to be had.  No doubt, there are multiple reasons that our defense is this good, but do you think they'd be THIS good if he was still back there?

[rayzor]

i would have a hard time arguing that he wasn't holding the defense back.

[Mother Grabber]

certainly didn't hurt!

[SCP]

GodFuarey

[Peppers90 NC]

no, only elite safeties make that much of an impact.

[Doyle]

Who? 

[mwright350]

Before we lost him I would have never agreed with the idea.

 

Seeing how our defense has played this year after being sure that our secondary was going to cost us basically every game?  I think losing that entrenched starter and allowing the coaches to play around with the secondary to find the best group of players has been a welcome surprise.

 

We certainly don't have an all-world secondary but they've getting the job done more than they're not and it'd be hard to argue that Godfrey's departure didn't help that along.

[carolina-chuck]

He'll yea

[KendrickPanther]

I wouldn't say his personal performance was the issue. But I think our coaching staff changed the scheme a little with him gone. I think they put less responsibility on those guys in coverage now. We see more blitzes and multiple coverages.

[4Corners]

I've been a big Godfrey fan here. Got into some arguments w/ fellow posters regarding Godfrey during the past couple of seasons.

 

with that being said, I think there's a very strong possibility he's played his last game here. He's making a lot of money and there's been players step up behind him who've played at a very high level making a shitload less than he is.

 

Mitchell and Lester have both been excellent additions. 

[jtnc]

"YOU CAN"T SEE ME"

 

 

No, really, quarterbacks ignored he was there. 

[PhillyB]

yes, simply because it got mitchell/mitchell on the field full-time.

[teeray]

My opinion is that moving Luke to the middle

[TylerDurden]

no, only elite safeties make that much of an impact.

 

I don't know...

 

It just seemed that a great deal of our problems in coverage were safeties not being where they were supposed to be, or just not executing their assignments well in general.

 

If you have that many blown coverages, it definitely takes its toll on the defense as a whole.

 

I saw huge improvement from Godfrey as a tackler over the last two seasons, and he transformed himself into somewhat of a big-hitter...  That being said, he still seemed to get over the top to help way too late, way too often.  For all of his athleticism, he just always seemed to lack good instincts for the safety position.

 

Obviously, that's all just my opinion and there are many other factors at play here, but I'm so proud of the way our guys are playing back there, especially considering how no one expected Mitchell to be a dependable starter after the preseason and many, including myself, completely wrote Lester off as a career practice squad guy.