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Anyone else worried about the defense?


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I know it's way early in the season and FA hasn't officially started yet but I'm getting nervous about the D. Kiko is gone and Hughes and Searcy are probably out the door too. These are good/very good players and I don't know if we can get the same quality players in FA. Factor in a new HC, DC and the potential switch to a 3-4 scheme and it's got me worried. It wouldn't be good if the D regressed this year given the ground and pound offensive strategy.

 

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I'm a little concerned, but will wait til things happen. But if we lose Spikes, Hughes and Searcy, 3 of 11 starters, that's a legitimate concern. Not terribly difficult to address, but still not the best scenario. Kiko isn't a loss. When he played , run defense not so hot.

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If it was me the front seven would be

 

M Williams, Dareus, K Wiliams , G Hardy

Alonso, Brown Bradham

 

The truth is that I've loved Doug's small moves - draft rounds 3-7, stealing other teams practice squad players, finding guys on the wavier wire, Incognito etc

 

I have not loved the Bills flashy moves- Chris Williams, Sammy Watkins, Bryce Brown, Rex Ryan, McCoy, Cassel

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A little nervous. Rex got whored twice by Kyle Orton last year.

Not really. Rex got whored by his own QBs. Given chance after chance to put the game away, Orton hardly did anything. Eventually Watkins took a quick slant, cut between two defenders, and showed everyone why the Bills traded for him. But Orton was pretty substandard.

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I know it's way early in the season and FA hasn't officially started yet but I'm getting nervous about the D. Kiko is gone and Hughes and Searcy are probably out the door too. These are good/very good players and I don't know if we can get the same quality players in FA. Factor in a new HC, DC and the potential switch to a 3-4 scheme and it's got me worried. It wouldn't be good if the D regressed this year given the ground and pound offensive strategy.

 

 

were fine

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I recall reading that the best defense is a good offense. Last year's D played great, with an offense that struggled to move the ball. This year the O should be better, reducing the pressure on the D. Or so one hopes. If it works out and the O improves, the D will be fine even with the losses.

 

If we get Revis, we win the AFCE.

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Kiko didn't exist last year. Searcy?? Depth guy. Hughes not gone yet.

 

Worry not...

 

Searcy was not a depth guy. He is significantly better than Duke and was coming into his own. Highly undervalued by Bills fans. If the Bills don't fine a quality replacement I'll go WAY out on a limb and say they'll end up missing him more than Hughes.

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A little nervous. Rex got whored twice by Kyle Orton last year.

 

The CBs who were playing for the Jets last season would like to take your order...please speak into the clown's mouth.

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I would still really like to find a way to keep Hughes. I'd like them to keep Wynn too who I think was a really underrated rotational guy. There will be at least 1 veteran added to the linbacking corps I would think, given that Kiko, Spikes and Rivers have all departed (at least we think Spikes has). At safety I think they have to draft a guy relatively high or bring in a free agent. I am not that worried about Duke and I think he is a good fit in Rex's scheme. Everyone remembers the owning by Gronkowski and is down on the kid, but I thought at times he played really well as a rotational guy last year and let's be honest - many better players than Duke have been owned by Gronk. However, there is next to no depth behind him. Bacary Rambo had the one game against Green Bay that we all know about but I'm not convinced he is more than a one hit wonder type and Meeks has shown nothing (including, for example, an ability to stay healthy).

 

Hughes is the difficult one to replace if he walks.... the additonal LBer and safety are two of the easier positions to plug and play reasonably priced non flashy free agents in my opinion.

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Searcy was not a depth guy. He is significantly better than Duke and was coming into his own. Highly undervalued by Bills fans. If the Bills don't fine a quality replacement I'll go WAY out on a limb and say they'll end up missing him more than Hughes.

Couldn't Corey Graham be the fill in piece?

Yeah, if we lose Hughes Hardy and Shady should be two motivated players

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If Rex wants instant pressure on the QB, he'll get it when he wants it. They won't overpay for Hughes because they need a true 5-tech right now, and they just might get a decent one for a lot less than Hughes's eventual deal. Rex values interior D-lineman a lot, even more so than Corners. Rex's defense's between the hash marks is about zones and blitz's if he can man up effectively outside and set the edge against the run consistently. Many are down on Leodis right now, but the guy had his best season under Pettine. Why Is that? Press man coverage. Zones will never be Leodis's strength. In fact, it really is a big weakness. Press-man is another story entirely. He is a hip pocket player. Rex knows this already, and will build Leodis's confidence all Summer.

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I think we'll could be back to Pettine levels of inconsistency, but still be solid overall... I liked Schwartz's scheme better than I have ever liked Rex's. That being said, maybe we'll grab a couple solid guys, and have a good draft, to mitigate losses. Not worried too much yet. :)

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Couldn't Corey Graham be the fill in piece?

Yeah, if we lose Hughes Hardy and Shady should be two motivated players

 

Graham could, but his real value is at CB and he'd be missed in the nickel package in particular. I know there are lots here who love Robey but he was exposed time and time again in coverage last year. No matter how you slice is Searcy leaving has an impact on the D, whether it's with Duke taking his spot (ouch) or having to move CBs around. The guy played well last year and will be missed.

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wait til hughes goes from the 4th best lineman on his team to the #1 guy who gets the double teams. you will never hear from him again. check the cleveland game, he literally got pancaked 6 times. his 10 sacks are mostly "coverage" sacks after 5 seconds. your not going to miss him.

 

kiko , nice player, but didn't play at all last year and the defense improved (just sayin)

 

searcy, nice player, but can be replaced by rambo, robey, graham and duke williams.

 

 

plus i'm sure they will add defensive players via free agency.....david harris, a true NT, others ......

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wait til hughes goes from the 4th best lineman on his team to the #1 guy who gets the double teams. you will never hear from him again. check the cleveland game, he literally got pancaked 6 times.

 

I agree with this bit - I think he is a great complimentary or 2nd edge rusher. If someone wants to give him $12million per year or thereabouts to be a #1 you will see a difference.

 

his 10 sacks are mostly "coverage" sacks after 5 seconds. your not going to miss him.

 

This was not true last year. In his first season as an OLB he got a lot of coverage sacks. I have been through and watched last year and he turned the corner fast a lot and got to QBs quickly for a number of sacks and in a lot of QB hurries.

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I will wait to see what happens in free agency and the draft before I get concerned. No point in it now before the job is done. Even as it stands there's a lot of talent on this defense so there aren't huge leaps to be made to stay where they were last season, but some moves do need to be made (obviously) for that to happen.

Edited by BarleyNY
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"Coverage" sacks is kind of what makes Hughes great, sure he gets some immediate pressure, but the fact that he never gives up on a play is pretty big. It keeps the QB under pressure throughout the play, giving us a large advantage. If his first move doesn't work, he'll continue churning until he gets there, and that's awesome.


No. I am worried about the OL. That's first priority right now IMO. Fix that and we have some hope.

Can you imagine what consistently sustained drives would do for our defensive averages?

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Anyone that is concerned... Well just stop posting for a while b.c that is ludicrous.

Yes with a team that had no CBs b.c of his GM... How quickly you forget.

Our defense also probably did as much as our offense in those games. In our first offensive explosion we had all of two long passes and a ton of points on incredibly short fields.

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You know how this board gets, we are going to lose Searcy and Hughes, so let's dismiss them as not big loses or diminish their talent. They are both excellent players and all things considered, I would love to have them back. That said, we can't afford the $15+ million it would take. Rex will figure it out as he is a great defensive coach. But I find it amusing when posts dismiss their loss with a wave. The Hughes is a coverage sack guy comment particularly, that's just stupid.

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