Maine-iac

So in 18 games he had 2 less sacks than our best pass rusher had 17.

From what I've watched Settle can play 5 if he needed to. I'd love to see a big 4 of Lawson, Jones, Oliver, and Settle. We could definitely mix and match. Seems like a pretty versatile group and finally some interior line guys that can really be disruptive. No offense to Harry but he got out muscled a lot. I can see this years group having more power to it.

He can McKissic my butt.

People always talk about "just throw it" Tyrod but fail to recognize that when Taylor had Woods, Watkins, and Hogan he was top ten in a bunch of metrics. The "afraid to throw it Tyrod" that they are talking about was throwing to Deonte Thompson, Zay Jones, Jordan Mathews, and Kelvin Benjamin (post injury). I can see why he didn't have a ton of faith in just throwing it up at that point. I'll fully admit the guys ceiling isn't super star like Allen or Rogers but if you put a few weapons around him he can lead an offense. They didn't do Taylor any favors after his first season and it only got worse with Dennison. I've never understood the Taylor hate. He would have had us in the playoffs years earlier if Rex had been able to coach defense. Much like Fitz (who everyone loves) he has limitations but the guy can win some football games in the right situation.

If we actually sign one true run stuffer to match with Oliver we will forget about Phillips by week 2. No offense Harry. Enjoy your cash.

Just for fun I was looking at nexgen stats and McKenzie made top mph plays 5 times. You'd never guess who was next with 2 times on the top mph list ............. the rb who's "painfully slow".

Robert Foster was my favorite receiver. When all we had was Benjamin, Zay, and Pryor.

It means that we play a 4-3 where Jones might be a rush end but we've previously adapted to rush LB's like Alexander who started his career actually at DT and ended up here as a LB. We can "scheme" for Jones talents and that is what he said he was looking for.

Alexander worked out fine.

The guy has more forced fumbles than Hughes does sacks the last 3 seasons and he was injured more than half a season.

Addison had 5 sacks in his first season and 7 in 17 games after that. Paid him 20 million the last two years.

If we somehow clear some cap space and magically sign Clowney I'll be cheering as loud as anyone.

Lawson's last season here he had more tackles, almost as many sacks, and more than double the tackles for loss than any DE currently on our roster had last year and we paid him half over 4 years what we paid Addison over 2.

Hughes was a great speed rusher about 5 years ago. At best Hughes might get a QB to take a step forward as he breezes behind them. Then there's his wild inside rushes where he usually gets rolled on and the QB escapes to his side and next thing you know Matt Ryan is doing his Lamar Jackson impression.

He's doing youtube videos with Nick Symmonds and Lorax is giving the olympic athlete fits.

What I like about Lawson is that he is physical enough that he WILL get to the QB. It may take a second longer but he'll shove the tackle back into the QB. All these speed rush guys like Hughes and Addison who either swipe at the QB or run completely past him and out of the play. Lawson will collapse the pocket. So maybe the QB will have a second but he will not have 3 plus seconds like they did all year this year. It's one thing to not get there in a hurry and another when you can't get there at all and there were points where we couldn't get there at all. He's not going to fix the interior, hopefully Oliver and Phillips are both there and lock that down. He's not a premier pass rusher like Bosa but he's solid. Hopefully Rousseau takes a nice step forward this year and starts slapping around some tackles.

We essentially ask our MLB to be a strong safety. That is why he doesn't appear to be the next Ray Lewis. In this defense do you need a 13 million dollar MLB? I'm not sure but if the coaches and the front office pay him then I'm assuming we do. They were good with Preston Brown every year that Rex wasn't coach (2 out of his 4 seasons) just like everyone else.

Think of how much we could save dumping Hughes and Addison? Imagine Clowney on one end and Rousseau on the other.

Wilson is a good one I'll give you that but they're not growing quality MLB's on trees and there's certainly not many taken later than the first or second rounds. As to whether he'd would have done anything any better than Edmunds behind our front 4 in the defense we typically play I'd have to say I doubt it. His biggest addition if he was here would be his salary cap figure. I'm not going to argue he's worth 13 million. I'm just saying I don't think he's a bust and it's more complicated than just moving on from him. They probably gave him the 5th year because we have so many young guys on rookie contracts that we have this year to hope some of them step up and we have a truly dominant defense this year. If it doesn't happen than we start clearing the cap and retooling. Hell even if the line does get better in front of him if they think they can draft to replace him that still might be better done next year as we get closer to making decisions on the younger DL players or trying to make a splash in the FA market for a pass rusher.

Tell me which 3rd round pick is better or would be better in the defense we currently play.

Just to try something different I'd say Clowney to the the Chiefs could make a difference. Spagnola is known for getting after QB's if he had elite pass rushers it would make the Chiefs even harder to beat.

When you realize that it's a defensive unit (a group of 11 players) and that they perform as a team to do as the coaching staff intends then you realize that Edmunds is accomplishing the majority of what they are asking of him and the DL is not. That is why the emphasis is on making the DL better and not getting rid of Edmunds. In line with that thinking I'm in agreement that Edmunds will make more splash plays when QB's aren't standing for 3 to 5 seconds largely untouched and OL players handing off our DL players and going second level on running plays.

I wasn't all in for Allen because he was touted as a project and I thought from a QB coaching stand point our coaching staff was not equipped to handle that. I didn't see Daboll coming in here and having as much success as he did. Dennison was so bad I wasn't against getting rid of him but I wasn't sure Daboll was the answer. All of that was theoretical and luckily Allen has been great and Daboll's time here was very successful. Flip side of that, I thought Zay Jones was going to be our Cooper Kupp. They were both great in the Senior Bowl. Both had good size and seemed like great route runners and pass catchers. Zay may put it all together some day but he was for the most part a mess here.

I think in 2018 and 2019 we had Jordan Phillips, Shaq Lawson, Kyle Williams, Lorenzo Alexander and just a bigger stronger group up front in general and the team had well over 100 TFL's both years. The last two years with two young DT's and two old, smallish, speed rushing ends our TFL's are down by 10 to 15 per season. I just don't think we play an attacking type defense and it leaves Edmunds playing a lot of space a lot of the time. Rousseau and Oliver give me some hope but I have to believe (from a splash play standpoint) that we miss Alexander and Kyle and even Phillips for that matter and when Edmunds is back there in zone trying to lock down a crossing Hill or Kelce I'm guessing Edmunds misses them also.

Funny you should say this because in this defense I feel like they expect Edmunds to chase down everything but don't put any space eaters in front of him and they want Edmunds to cover like Milano but he's 6'5" and 250 while Milano is 6'0" and 223. As much as I agree that Edmunds doesn't make a ton of splash plays I feel like he has a lot on his plate. We play such loose, deep, "safe" coverage that Edmunds is covering a lot of ground. If coverage was even a little tighter and we had safeties that made guys hear footsteps it would help our overall defense because right now our 250lb MLB is busy chasing guys in coverage all over the middle of the field instead of running down hill and laying the wood. I'm not saying some of it isn't because he isn't processing fast enough but certainly some of it is scheme also.