Who Do We Trust To Evaluate The Front Six/Seven? The Season Is ONE week old!

mgteich said:

THE FRONT SEVEN

Who should we trust to decide who fits best, who is good enough and who will succeed as a front 7 player this and for the coming years?

I simply don't know why the answer isn't "Vrabel, of course, with the advice of staff and coaches". If it were, there would be little questioning of the Defense. The Defense certainly didn't let me down last year with their performance.

Didn't Vrabel do a good enough job in bringing in players last off-season and even later (Durden, Tavai, Gregory, Muma). Didn't he do well enough in the draft? We have plenty of draft capital and cap money.

Yes, most of us judge that we need an ILB and an EDGE player. Surely adding quality players helps a Defense. But can't we trust Vrabel to acquire the players he needs? And, no, I don't see how we will improve a lot from last year. But I have confidence that Vrabel knows.

OUR 16 FRONT SEVEN GOING INTO THE DRAFT

DT/DE
Williams, Durden, Barmore
Farmer, Gregory, Taylor

ILB
Spillane, Ellis
Britt, Mumu, Mapu

EDGE/OLB
Jones, Landry
Ponder, Swinson, Luketa
=============
WE HAVE A LONG WAY TO GO, but I trust Vrabel to add what he needs in
1) free agents before and after the draft
2) draftees
3) UDFA's
4) trades from now until the trade deadline
5) claims and pickups at or after the "final" cut

Click to expand...

Hugepatsfan said:

Not really sure I get the message here. I think we have a competent front office and coaching staff from what I see but that doesn't mean there aren't holes. Even the best front offices build rosters with weak spots. Our LB and EDGE play was kind of suspect last year. At LB they lost Gibbens/Tavai and added Britt. At EDGE they lost Chaisson/Jennings and added Jones. On paper, hard to really argue those suspect areas didn't get worse even though it's more for loss of depth than it is the starters being any worse.

Guys can develop, there could still be hidden GM signings and the draft is there so it's not like they're doomed. And they can coach around a weakness with the secondary looking so strong. But Vrabel and co. being competent in the front office doesn't automatically mean they can manifest talent. Vrabel doesn't have a LB tree in his back yard he can shake until a starter falls out.

Click to expand...

mgteich said:

THE FRONT SEVEN

Who should we trust to decide who fits best, who is good enough and who will succeed as a front 7 player this and for the coming years?

I simply don't know why the answer isn't "Vrabel, of course, with the advice of staff and coaches". If it were, there would be little questioning of the Defense. The Defense certainly didn't let me down last year with their performance.

Didn't Vrabel do a good enough job in bringing in players last off-season and even later (Durden, Tavai, Gregory, Muma). Didn't he do well enough in the draft? We have plenty of draft capital and cap money.

Yes, most of us judge that we need an ILB and an EDGE player. Surely adding quality players helps a Defense. But can't we trust Vrabel to acquire the players he needs? And, no, I don't see how we will improve a lot from last year. But I have confidence that Vrabel knows.

OUR 16 FRONT SEVEN GOING INTO THE DRAFT

DT/DE
Williams, Durden, Barmore
Farmer, Gregory, Taylor

ILB
Spillane, Ellis
Britt, Mumu, Mapu

EDGE/OLB
Jones, Landry
Ponder, Swinson, Luketa
=============
WE HAVE A LONG WAY TO GO, but I trust Vrabel to add what he needs in
1) free agents before and after the draft
2) draftees
3) UDFA's
4) trades from now until the trade deadline
5) claims and pickups at or after the "final" cut

Click to expand...

mgteich said:

We have had hundreds of posts on just how weak and needy the Defense is.

As you point out, we need an EDGE player to replace Jennings and a backup ILB to replace Tavai.

There is no way that this represents major weaknesses compared to our top 10 Defense in 2025 (top 5 when everyone was healthy).

We have a great opportunity to draft a top EDGE player in the first two rounds.

.

Click to expand...

Hugepatsfan said:

So therein lies our source of disagreement. I don't think this is a top 5 defense. They played a pathetic schedule last year in the regular season and drew insanely easy playoff matchups too. Everyone went gaga for them playing well against SEA but in reality they could hardly actually stop them. SEA just figured out very early on that we might not score a point so they played ultra conservative. We couldn't actually get stops on them when it matters. They were content to just drive up the field and play conservative in the red zone since FGs were enough to beat us.

I think this is a middle of the pack defense talent wise to start with and they've taken some small depth hits so far (offset a bit by I think Byard is better than Hawkins and then Jones> Chaisson). I think they're ranking was inflated by who they played last year. That is not to say they suck or anything before people jump down my throat, but I don't think they're on the cusp of elite or anything like that either.

Click to expand...

Hugepatsfan said:

So therein lies our source of disagreement. I don't think this is a top 5 defense. They played a pathetic schedule last year in the regular season and drew insanely easy playoff matchups too.

Click to expand...

Hugepatsfan said:

Everyone went gaga for them playing well against SEA but in reality they could hardly actually stop them. SEA just figured out very early on that we might not score a point so they played ultra conservative. We couldn't actually get stops on them when it matters. They were content to just drive up the field and play conservative in the red zone since FGs were enough to beat us.

Click to expand...

Hugepatsfan said:

I think this is a middle of the pack defense talent wise to start with and they've taken some small depth hits so far (offset a bit by I think Byard is better than Hawkins and then Jones> Chaisson). I think they're ranking was inflated by who they played last year. That is not to say they suck or anything before people jump down my throat, but I don't think they're on the cusp of elite or anything like that either.

Click to expand...