Will we have a top 25 defense this year?

[gr82b4au 5,568]

Looking at the players that left and the players coming back, I think there is a decent chance we will be top 25 in total defense this upcoming year. There are a few things that I really like about this defense, and there are a few things that are very concerning. Here is my very generic group outlook

* Linebackers: This should be the strength of the team. They played very well last year, they are all coming back, and the freshmen coming in may be even more talented. We should be set for the next 3 years. Outlook for fall is great.

* DL: As has been noted, Brown and Davidson are very good. If they can avoid a soph slump they may be elite. Russell is good. PJ3 looked great in spring and hopefully will be our speed rusher. Holland will need to step up as will the second team in Coe, Jackson, and Cowart. Outlook for fall is good to great.

* Corners: When I watched Carlton Davis 2 years ago I thought he would be an all-american. Last year he struggled and people picked on him a little. I think he has the tools to be one of the best in the country and I think he will have a strong year. I am guessing J Davis will start on the other side. He is undersized but fast as lightning. As far as a backup - Is Dinson fully recovered? Dean? Will Daniel Thomas contribute? Overall I think C Davis CAN be elite and we have several others who are pretty good. Outlook for fall is OK to very good. 

* Safeties: Roberts, Ruffin, and Matthews are good. Sometimes I feel like Matthews is going for the big hit instead of making a sure tackle and that is worrisome. Also the depth is dreadful. One injury and we are in trouble. On a side note I have no idea what they will do next year when these 3 seniors leaving and no depth behind them. Outlook for fall is OK to good. 

If we avoid the injury bug then I think this defense will be good enough to be top 25. We have a good defensive coach. 

What do you think? Did I leave anyone out?

 

[AUld fAUx@ 2,584]

24 minutes ago, gr82b4au said:

......

If we avoid the injury bug then I think this defense will be good enough to be top 25. We have a good defensive coach. 

What do you think? Did I leave anyone out?

 

Paraphrasing my response to another (barely tangential) thread,

I'm not smart enough to predict, but I'm fan enough to guess,       um,

Yeah!

WDE

[corchjay 5,311]

Should have enough talent for top 25 especially with the youth of the QB position across the league.  However, I disagree with your "great" assessment of our linebackers.  I would describe them as slightly above average last year.  They benefited greatly from Lawson and Adams getting so much attention.  DL this year I was label as good.  DBs I'd say is good but any injuries could really change this.  Unless our offense is a ball control offense I think it will be difficult to hold our opponents to less the 20 on average.  

[Rednilla 5,383]

Well, the pieces are all there to be a top 25 defense, barring injury at safety. Of course, I wouldn't be too surprised to see one or two of the corners, like Dinson or Myers, move back to safety to provide the much needed backups, but the great thing is that we have depth everywhere else on both sides of the line of scrimmage, and an outstanding freshman class coming in to supplement what's coming back this year. I expect we'll hear from "Big Cat" Bryant a fair amount at the Buck end, and Byron Cowart might well become a legitimate beast at DT. So we've got a lot of promise added to an even bigger potential for a great D, but we shall see how it all works out.

[AUpreacherman22 3,876]

Many many factors to consider. 

I do like our LBs. I think with another year of experience and improvement, this group could be good to very good. 

We have a lot of potential on the DL. I think this group will be the strength of the D again this year. 

At Corner I think we are pretty good. At Safety, our starters are pretty good, but we have 0 proven depth. This group could be good (a strong pass rush can make them look very good) but an injury or 2 could cause them to look like a Chizik-era Secondary.  

Another big factor, as Corch alluded to, is our offense. If we have a top 25 offense that scores quickly and often, our D will most likely not be top 25.  If we have a Tubs-era TOP, this D could be top 10. 

In a nutshell, 3 biggest factors IMHO:

1. Offensive production/TOP

2. Injuries (especially the Secondary)

3. How will the pass rush develop?

[corchjay 5,311]

I still wouldn't be surprised to see Whitlow move to safety.  However he would bring nothing to the table for this year but for coming years I think he can be a very solid player.

but... we have the DL talent and depth to be a good defense.  Just depends on if someone up front steps up to be the vocal leader of the group.  A player on the field that crawls someone's butt if they loaf on an assignment.

[augolf1716 21,096]

2 minutes ago, corchjay said:

I still wouldn't be surprised to see Whitlow move to safety.  However he would bring nothing to the table for this year but for coming years I think he can be a very solid player.

but... we have the DL talent and depth to be a good defense.  Just depends on if someone up front steps up to be the vocal leader of the group.  A player on the field that crawls someone's butt if they loaf on an assignment.

This I would like

[bigbird 60,368]

11 minutes ago, augolf1716 said:

This I would like

I'm sure you would...

[Gowebb11 9,309]

I'm a big fan of Steele and the stability he has brought. I believe we could improve upon last years performance as players have more time in the system. Our defensive line could be one of the leagues best in my opinion. Need to tackle better at LB and improve at rushing the passer. 

[bikeriderga 134]

Short answer. Yes, we could be a top 25 defense.

Long answer, Gonna have to wait and see.

How's that for commitment?

[abw0004 10,108]

I think we will not see a drop off from last year.  The only thing that may cause that is if our offense is as good as I think we will be, the defense will be on the field a lot.  As in, if we score fast and often like in 2013, the offense will not be on the field long to score.  So the defense will be back on the field where conditioning will be tested.

I think our linebackers played really well last year, and they all return (minus Neal).  If there is some drop off on our defensive line, the linebackers can step up to fills those gaps.  One player I think will explode is PJIII.  He won Defensive MVP on A-Day, while only being 80% full speed.  Pretty good if you ask me.

Carlton Davis was on many islands last year, so it is easy for QB's to go after him like they did.  I would not read too much into that. Dinson looks ready to rock and roll, and he is on my "player to watch" radar this year.  Outstanding player.  I am curious to see how Dean responds after his full recovery.  

I think Stephen Roberts will emerge as our best safety.  Matthews does go for the hit, but is a good quarterback of the DB's.  Every team has a depth issue in one area or another, and this year it just happens to be safety.  I would rather it be safety than corner to be honest.

In summation, yes we will be just as good last year, with an added benefit that we get to better ease ourselves into the season compared to last year jumping straight into the fire with Clemson.  

[McLoofus 35,182]

49 minutes ago, abw0004 said:

Carlton Davis was on many islands last year, so it is easy for QB's to go after him like they did.  

Agree. Also regularly on an island against some of the best WRs in the country. He caught hell for the Clemson game, but when you have Deshaun Watson throwing strikes to Mike Williams's back shoulder over and over again, yeah, that's tough to defend. But there's probably something to be said for the fact that they kept having to throw to the back shoulder. Sorry for the sidebar.

I don't know if we'll have a top 25 defense, but we should have one good enough to give our offense a chance in every game. If we'd had this defense in '14, we're probably playing for hardware. Whether or not we'll have an offense that could even dream of performing like that one remains to be seen. 

[Linayus 676]

15 hours ago, AUpreacherman22 said:

At Corner I think we are pretty good. At Safety, our starters are pretty good, but we have 0 proven depth. This group could be good (a strong pass rush can make them look very good) but an injury or 2 could cause them to look like a Chizik-era Secondary.

I'm going to assume you were referring to HC Chizik-era and not the DC Chizik-era. Those are night and day differences.

I like our d-line and the depth we have there. We might have done well pressuring QBs last season but we didn't get a lot of sacks so that is a much needed area of improvement and emphasis for this season. As Coach Steele said, we need to have a pass rush without sending in 5-6 guys so that needs to continue to be a focus as well.

Linebackers are solid. Tre Williams is probably the better all-around LB and is a great leader but we have some drop-off behind him. These guys are great in run support but like most linebacker groups, pass coverage needs some work.

DBs as a whole are pretty decent. As everyone has noted - depth at safety is very thin and we haven't made it through a season in a long time without one or more of these guys going down with injury. That's a huge area of concern that can really effect the whole defensive unit as the season wears on.

If you look at our total defensive stats by player - we're returning 10 of the top 12 (Lawson came in at 13). With that much experience returning we could very well be Top 25 in total defense. Lose a couple of those guys in the secondary though and we might be thinking more along the lines of Top 50 at best.

[cole256 17,039]

It's as simple as the d line. Good pass rush top 25. Good pass rush and run defense top 10. Can't do neither??? Hot seat

[AUIH1 1,515]

6 hours ago, cole256 said:

It's as simple as the d line. Good pass rush top 25. Good pass rush and run defense top 10. Can't do neither??? Hot seat

We have enough talent to be be both on the D Line.  Do we have the coaching? My opinion since 2014 is no, we do not.  uga posters were correct in their assessment of our DL coach IMO.

 

wde

[AUpreacherman22 3,876]

8 hours ago, Linayus said:

I'm going to assume you were referring to HC Chizik-era and not the DC Chizik-era. Those are night and day differences.

Yes. Lol. I was actually thinking about that as I was typing. HUGE difference!

[Tiger 8,818]

16 hours ago, AUIH1 said:

We have enough talent to be be both on the D Line.  Do we have the coaching? My opinion since 2014 is no, we do not.  uga posters were correct in their assessment of our DL coach IMO.

 

wde

I'm not one of those FIRE GARNER guys at all, but sometimes I do wonder what's going on considering there are long spells where it looks like we can't get any pressure on the QB from the front 4 -- and we had 2 top-2 round NFL draft picks on the DL. It seemed like last year was a little better but the previous 2 years it felt like our DL was struggling mightily to get off blocks. I suppose I understand the argument that Garner can't do it for them but we have recruited really well on the DL.

[Auburn2Eugene 2,317]

We have the talent to be a top 25 defense. IF we can get a consistent pass rush. Lawson is going to be tough to replace...

[Rednilla 5,383]

3 minutes ago, Auburn2Eugene said:

We have the talent to be a top 25 defense. IF we can get a consistent pass rush. Lawson is going to be tough to replace...

I don't know why, but something tells me Byron Cowart is going to be making a lot of noise rushing the passer at DT. He certainly has the ability, but time will tell if he does truly reach his potential.

[Auburn2Eugene 2,317]

14 hours ago, Rednilla said:

I don't know why, but something tells me Byron Cowart is going to be making a lot of noise rushing the passer at DT. He certainly has the ability, but time will tell if he does truly reach his potential.

I certainly hope so. I hate we moved him inside, but im not a coach. So im not saying they were wrong, just thati liked him as a de. Either way, as ling as he is in orange and blue, im golden.

Does amyone know if Dean will be ready? And if he is, will he start over Davis? Is Dinson healthy? 

[Linayus 676]

3 hours ago, Auburn2Eugene said:

Does amyone know if Dean will be ready? And if he is, will he start over Davis? Is Dinson healthy? 

I think Dean and Dinson are both expected to contribute but it'd be hard to replace the experienced Davis' on the outside, even though Carlton looked to struggle here and there last year. Dinson is battling for the nickel spot against Daniel Thomas and Dean will have to fight to earn a start at corner.

[Auburn2Eugene 2,317]

3 minutes ago, Linayus said:

I think Dean and Dinson are both expected to contribute but it'd be hard to replace the experienced Davis' on the outside, even though Carlton looked to struggle here and there last year. Dinson is battling for the nickel spot against Daniel Thomas and Dean will have to fight to earn a start at corner.

Thank you

[Linayus 676]

2 minutes ago, Auburn2Eugene said:

Thank you

Oh, and Steele said he'd never have guessed Dinson was injured as badly as he was so that's always good to hear!

[milehighfan 1,239]

On 4/24/2017 at 6:55 PM, bigbird said:

I'm sure you would...

One of my favorite episodes of Seinfeld.

[aucanucktiger 1,789]

Watched the Spring game (again) and it's hard to tell if our starting D line is as good as they appeared or our 2d string O line is really that - not good.