Time For Dennis Allen To Rebuild Our Defense....Again! (1 Viewer)

People can question Allen’s ability to be HC, but you can’t criticize his ability to build a competent defense. I’d much rather have a few needs on defense and RB than pretty much any other offensive position.
Aside from his D’s inability to close out games, I totally agree.
 
Don't think we lost that much, Davenport was not a 1st round talent, David O was a 3rd rounder who played like a 2nd rounder until last year and the rest were UDFAs. I think we can draft and sign FAs to shore up the d line. Besides taking Davenport (semi bust) and Turner(possible bust) both DEs in the 1st rounds, we haven't spent any high picks on DT since Sedrick Ellis.
Don't forget we drafted Sheldon Rankins in the 1st round.
 
So we had one of the best defenses in the league, but 60% of our defensive line snaps were bad? I don’t buy it.

Struggling against the run was a league wide phenomenon in 2022, which is why the market is big for DT’s in 2023.
We went from 3.7 ypr in 2021 to 4.5 in 2022 That's almost a yrd difference and it was mostly up the middle. Top ten defenses in 2021 averaged 4.0 ypr in 2022 it was 4.2 not so much a phenomenon
 
I don’t think it’s the players we’ve lost but rather losing so much along the dline. Like it or not but both were our starting DT’s. Yes, our run defense wasn’t great but obviously last year both Tuttle and Onyemata were our 2 best DT’s. Roach was depth and even if he comes back he’s still depth. It’s also not realistic to rebuild and entire line through one draft. You fill holes in free agency to allow you to pick BPA. DT or DE might be that pick but just like any other position you don’t want to be forced into something because you need a player or more likely a position. We’re going to have to address the line in free agency. There’s still plenty out there to do it but it will definitely need to be addressed prior to the draft.
Interior D line was not great??? They were putrid DO has not been the same since he got suspended for PEDs
 
Obviously we will find players to fill those holes, it’s whether we can find players good enough to help us maintain our top 10 defense. If players like Onyemata were a dime a dozen, he wouldn’t get $12m/yr.
I understand your logic… seriously, I do.

But name a big play that Onyemata or Davenport made last season? And I have always been a huge Davenport supporter.
 
I understand your logic… seriously, I do.

But name a big play that Onyemata or Davenport made last season? And I have always been a huge Davenport supporter.
Not as worried about losing Davenport since he couldn’t stay on the field, and we also have four DE’s returning from last year. He did log 34 pressures compared to 37 for Jordan, and he had 200 fewer pass rush attempts than Jordan. If he can figure out how to convert those pressures to sacks in Minnesota, congrats to them, hopefully we make good use of the comp pick.

The interior is more concerning due to the void we have at that position as well as the current market prices for replacements. Onyemata was our best pass rushing DT, in terms of pressures per attempt and total pressures. Even in his alleged down year he put up 35 QB pressures, our other three DT’s combined for 41. Interior pressure is a QB’s worst enemy, it helps our other rushers to get home, and we lost our most reliable way of generating it.

Losing Tuttle is more of a “getting kicked while you’re down” loss, but he adds another 600 DT snaps of starter level play we need to replace. He played 17 games two seasons in a row, so we could rely on him from week to week. And we don’t have any other DT’s on the roster not named Prince Emili (with his 27 career snaps).
 
We went from 3.7 ypr in 2021 to 4.5 in 2022 That's almost a yrd difference and it was mostly up the middle. Top ten defenses in 2021 averaged 4.0 ypr in 2022 it was 4.2 not so much a phenomenon

Yup, I think it is a bit optimistic to just assume that the D is going to be good/great going into next year. I don’t disagree with letting O, MD, and KE walk but those are holes that need to be filled/addressed. To me there is as much uncertainty on D as there is on the O right now, maybe more….

And above highlights that it some crucial areas the D actually regressed last year, can’t argue that they were great against the pass, but against the run they clearly regressed and they couldn’t generate any turnovers which is one of the most important (and overlooked) stats…..
 

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