What Is Up With The Defense

[duke1861]

I think it's pretty simple - our defense doesn't have the talent to be a good defense in this league.

That doesn't mean we should be as bad as we have been playing, but our D-line is average, our linebackers are average, and our secondary is one of the worst in the league. Ryan Kerrigan has been outstanding, but after him it's a laundry list of problems. Orakpo is overrated and has the physical gifts of a Lavar Arrington, but none of the brains/instincts. Fletcher is old. The D-line does okay, but gets little push. The secondary is awful - it's hard to pick what I like least about this squad - Merriweather is never 100%, Hall can't cover anyone, Doughty can't cover anyone, Wilson can't tackle anyone, and Rambo can't tackle or cover anyone. They are fucking awful.

I personally don't like the 3-4. And I'm not strong on Haslett one way or the other, but we aren't going to change coaches or systems mid-season. It isn't going to happen and there are probably very legitimate reasons for that, especially since we are ultimately only 1 game worse than we expected to be at this point.

We have to hope the defense can learn and play a little better and, mostly, that the offense will come around since they are the key to us winning games, not the defense.

And we have a winner! Shanahan needs more talent on the defensive side of the ball period. This offseason will be crucial as we get our cap back and we will have to replace tenured starters (Hall and Fletcher). As I have said in a previous post, we need at least 5 upgrades (RT, CB, SS, ILB and WR). I am beginning to think that we need to use FA on defense and draft the offense.

Here are the top names:

WR: Eric Decker and Jeremy Maclin
RT: Jared Veldheer
ILB: Brian Cushing
CB: Sam Shields
SS: TJ Ward

I honestly think we need 3 of those players to rebuild the defense. I would prefer Cushing, Shields and Ward as our secondary is terrible. We can draft a RT and WR. It will be expensive but we have to do something to bring in speed and talent on the defense.