Usually when you lose seniors you take a step back but I think the defense will be upgraded this year. Kirksey and Stephenson had experience but were never really impact players and got gashed against the run, they weren't hole cloggers in any way. I think a mix of Wilkins/Joseph/JPO has more talent and more potential. Milewski is one of the biggest losses for me, he's fantastic against the run and chipped in some sacks. On the other end Mera is solid against the run while we can get some explosive pass rushers like Turay, Nash, etc. more time at the opposite side.
We all know Kevin Snyder played hurt most of last season, and reality is that him not being at 100% really hurt us. Which is a shame because he was a good player when healthy. But from the standpoint of replacing the 2014 version of Snyder, I think a healthy Lewis/Johnson could be an upgrade there. Everyone is a year older at corner and we are building depth. At safety Stephenson and Jacobs have more experience while Hester should be an upgrade on Waters in coverage. Not sure if Hester will be the force against the run that Waters was but Hester is a ball hawk which seems like something we are always missing. So yea I'm pretty optimistic about the defense, replacing what we lost on offense is a completely different story.
This post was edited on 4/6 9:27 AM by ruteelrice
We all know Kevin Snyder played hurt most of last season, and reality is that him not being at 100% really hurt us. Which is a shame because he was a good player when healthy. But from the standpoint of replacing the 2014 version of Snyder, I think a healthy Lewis/Johnson could be an upgrade there. Everyone is a year older at corner and we are building depth. At safety Stephenson and Jacobs have more experience while Hester should be an upgrade on Waters in coverage. Not sure if Hester will be the force against the run that Waters was but Hester is a ball hawk which seems like something we are always missing. So yea I'm pretty optimistic about the defense, replacing what we lost on offense is a completely different story.
This post was edited on 4/6 9:27 AM by ruteelrice
