Power rank our defense

BR’s rankings (Pats 3rd behind SF and Pitt)

Power-Ranking Every NFL Defense After the 2020 Draft

I agree Pitt’s defense will be tough. In fact as much as a lot of people are ready to crown the Bills in the division I think they might have a tougher schedule than we do. The difference in schedules is only that they have Pitt and the Titans and we have Texans and Ravens.

Although they do get KC at home and we don’t so that hurts.

And if this defense dominates against this schedule THEN you can bring out the nicknames.

sb1 said:

And if this defense dominates against this schedule THEN you can bring out the nicknames.

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https://imgflip.com/memegenerator

Our defense will be one of the best, if not the best again this season.
I think all of those teams they ranked as top 5 are about even.
One thing they all have in common is strong secondaries.
It's funny how dominant defenses have evolved over the last 15 years.
In 2004, the DL was the most important unit.
That's certainly no longer the case.
The secondary is and if you don't have at least a good one, you don't have a great defense.
Nickel and dime is the rule. I think the NFL ave for defenses last year was over 70% sub packages.
5 dbs is normal most of the time, you see 6 a lot too.
Safeties are playing lb now.
No team has more quality depth in the secondary than the Patriots.
Dugger was a great pick. Athletic safety who can play that s/lb hybrid,cover tes,rbs and running QBs. Tough,can tackle and rush when needed.
The defense will take a lot of pressure off Stid.

I think that we will be you 5 by midseason, however I think that this ranking is a little high to start the season. After all, we are replacing a DT, 3 LB's and a backup safety.

It is not at all clear that we will be as good in the front seven. It is asking a lot of Uche, Jennings and Copeland to immediate have the same production as Van Noy, Collins and Roberts.
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Given this and the fact that we are improving at OL, TE and WR, we might be better than we are estimating. One very major weakness and tough schedule should cause 5 games.

mgteich said:

I think that we will be you 5 by midseason, however I think that this ranking is a little high to start the season. After all, we are replacing a DT, 3 LB's and a backup safety.

It is not at all clear that we will be as good in the front seven. It is asking a lot of Uche, Jennings and Copeland to immediate have the same production as Van Noy, Collins and Roberts.
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Given this and the fact that we are improving at OL, TE and WR, we might be better than we are estimating. One very major weakness and tough schedule should cause 5 games.

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Why are you limiting the KVN and COLLINS replacements to newcomers (Roberts barely saw the field so he is irrelevant) when the clear next men up are winovich and Bentley?

I'm not too worried about the front 7, despite the losses.
One thing that bears watching is this:
Say what you want about TB12 last year, but fact is he handed our defense the #1 best starting defensive field position in the NFL in 2019.
I'm hopeful about Stidham, but I don't see him doing that this year.

Ring 6 said:

Why are you limiting the KVN and COLLINS replacements to newcomers (Roberts barely saw the field so he is irrelevant) when the clear next men up are winovich and Bentley?

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I'm thinking that Bentley picks up the reps of Roberts as well as his own from last year, moving from 20% to 40% of the reps. I don't see him as a major player, but he should be able to move to 40%.

Fair enough on Winovich. He had 20% of the reps already. We will need 3 things to be effective for this to be as good as last year.

Winovich need to move from a bit player (20%) to taking over for Collins (or KVN). I'm fine with that.

So the rookies need to replace the backup position of Winovich and either KVN or Colllins. I don't think that it is a given at all. Given that we also have Copeland (and Calhoun), the only issue may be that we are counting on a rookie to replace KVN or Collins in their rookie year, a tall order.

jimnance said:

I'm not too worried about the front 7, despite the losses.
One thing that bears watching is this:
Say what you want about TB12 last year, but fact is he handed our defense the #1 best starting defensive field position in the NFL in 2019.
I'm hopeful about Stidham, but I don't see him doing that this year.

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There are a lot factors in that. Turnovers, special teams, points (if you can’t score you can pin the opponent deep by stalling at the 50) and the defense itself. A good defense controls field position and contributes significantly to this stat.

jimnance said:

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The defense will take a lot of pressure off Stid.

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I agree. The ST's will also take some of the pressure off.

However, when the offense is on the field, there will be no hiding, even with a better running game.

mgteich said:

I'm thinking that Bentley picks up the reps of Roberts as well as his own from last year, moving from 20% to 40% of the reps. I don't see him as a major player, but he should be able to move to 40%.

Fair enough on Winovich. He had 20% of the reps already. We will need 3 things to be effective for this to be as good as last year.

Winovich need to move from a bit player (20%) to taking over for Collins (or KVN). I'm fine with that.

So the rookies need to replace the backup position of Winovich and either KVN or Colllins. I don't think that it is a given at all. Given that we also have Copeland (and Calhoun), the only issue may be that we are counting on a rookie to replace KVN or Collins in their rookie year, a tall order.

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Well ultimately our defense is 2 DTs 5 DBs and 4 lb/edge guys. And the roles are ever changing depending upon which grouping is used.
Last year Hightower, KVN and Collins played the bulk of the snaps. (72,80,80%) Simon played 50% and the rest of the players were situational.
The starting point seems to be that Hightower, winovich, Bentley (and possibly an increased role for Simon as well) fill those spots and the newcomers plus guys like Potentially Calhoun, rivers, wise fill the reserve roles. Up until the newcomers advance (or don’t) up the depth chart. They may but we aren’t in a position to need them to.

btw you can’t really replace Roberts few snaps a game with bentkey because they often played together. Roberts had the 19th most snaps on the defense

We should get more production out of Winovich in his second year.

I’m curious to what people think of Cowart. I thought he had potential, but I don’t see much mentioned of him.

The front 7 is a weakness for this team. Interesting to see if teams running it down their throats.

Love it.. complementary football, with young game manager QB and great coaching wins lots of games.

I think we are more flexible on defense this year versus last year. I see more mixed fronts than usual...and more of a pass rush.

NYCPATS4LIFE said:

The front 7 is a weakness for this team. Interesting to see if teams running it down their throats.

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This is definitely a top 32 defense, though.

Last year, I predicted the secondary was going to be regarded as among the best of the BB era. I also predicted they’d be even better without Trey Flowers. Both came true.

This year, I see a drop off in their defense. Their D line is weak up the middle and their DE’s are trash. However, I’m not worried about the losses of KVN or Collins. Winovich has potential, but needs to develop more rush moves. He track star speed rush move was too predictable for tackles and easy to defend.

It better be top 5. I think it will be. And that will leave the rest of the NFL pissed.

TheRainMaker said:

Last year, I predicted the secondary was going to be regarded as among the best of the BB era. I also predicted they’d be even better without Trey Flowers. Both came true.

This year, I see a drop off in their defense. Their D line is weak up the middle and their DE’s are trash. However, I’m not worried about the losses of KVN or Collins. Winovich has potential, but needs to develop more rush moves. He track star speed rush move was too predictable for tackles and easy to defend.

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Aren't the DE's the same as last year?

With regard to DT, I would expect Onwenu to be at DT. In any case, I see us signing another DT.

The more we discuss the defense, the better I feel about it. The secondary is among the best in the NFL. We should be OK at OLB and DE. After all, the DE's are the same as last year on our top 5 defense.

My only issue, as was the case last year was run defense up the gut. Perhaps Bentley can play inside. We might get some help from Cowart (our 4th DT last year). We might even get help from Onwenu. I expect us to pick up a DT for competition. I suspect that we wouldn't be as concerned if Onwenu has been draft early with the idea ofd him playing NT as he did as a freshman. Perhaps, I'll fool myself and just list him as a DT on my rosters.

In any case, run defense was an issue last year, and we still were top 5.