This is one of more fascinating angles for this upcoming game that nobody seems to be talking about.
Don’s grandson is coordinating the defense. He’s been with the Rams for 7 years and worked his way up the ranks. He has only coordinated a defense one year and it was at DIII powerhouse John Carrol over a decade ago. He doesn’t really have a defined coaching tree that you can lean on. He’s coached under Wade, Staley and Raheem with three different philosophies. He’s a blank slate. Here he suggests stylistically the D won’t be divergent from last year.
But knowing Sean I wouldn’t be surprised to see a week 1 curveball here.
The good: he’s jumping straight into the deep end facing Ben and this offense
The Bad: Ben seems to draw much of his superpower responding to tells and between the young personnel and the blank slate DC he won’t have that to fall back on.
Yep. Upfront they’ll feature Turner at 293 with 31 3/8" arms and Braden Fiske at 292 with 31 inch arms. At the second level their ILBs are a 227lb year three UDFA with zero starts and a journeyman former UDFA in Troy Reeder.
They do have Bobbie Brown at NT but outside of a few scuffles with Whitney Houston he’s never shown much physicality.
First the trivia: Don Shula got his start in Detroit:
Shula got his first NFL coaching job as the defensive backfield coach for the Detroit Lions in 1960.[6] The Lions posted winning records in each of Shula’s three seasons there under head coach George Wilson and finished in second place in the NFL West in 1961 and 1962.[26][27][28] Detroit’s defense was near the top of the league in fewest points allowed when Shula coached there, including a second-place finish in 1962.[28] The defense also led the league that year in fewest yards allowed, with 3,217.[29] Detroit’s defense featured a group of linemen dubbed the “Fearsome Foursome” in 1962, consisting of defensive tacklesRoger Brown and Alex Karras and defensive endsDarris McCord and Sam Williams.[29]
Second, Ben should just go for the jugular early and when Shula adjusts have the next onslaught ready to go. So, a deep shot in the first series, and why not, he’s got four downs to play with. Pound with Monty, play action deep shot to Jamo. Loosen em up just a bit and hit them upside the head. Let the Rams try to play catch up against out revamped D.
100% agree w/what you say.
I also think there’s another dimension to our offense…the “Kick your ass and take your lunch money” portion of the game. Our OL, Monty, Gibby will force them to adjust to what we do. Stack the box against the run and get smoked trying to defend 1 on 1.
Truly… dirty deeds done with sheep. The Rams are in deep shit!
I expect some crazy blitzes which goff is great at beating. Guys this is either a high scoring game by both teams or a lions romp if our defense holds up.
Mcvay will definitely have the guy ready to run that defense. It’s still a tall task for a new DC when you lose AD then trade away Ernest Jones 2 weeks before the first game. I just rewatched the NFC championship game for the first time yesterday….Dmont was a monster. We are really sleeping on him because of Gibbs. If LA can’t stop the run they are going to have a long night.
Btw I also thought Paschal played a good game. Pretty encouraging stuff to see going into this year.
You’re right. Depth chart is confirgured in nickel as base (prepare for board segue )
Whoops btw. I read their depth chart wrong. It’s Roseboom and Hummul at ILB. But still 238 and 227 behind 292 and 293 (both with T-Rex arms) and a 320 pound Nose replacement level NT… agains The Motorcade? That seems sketch as hell. If they do line up in nickel with that lack
of beef I think we might see a good bit of 22 with Hesse at FB.
Also, I’d love to test Verse in space since they’re likely standing him up quite a bit. As explosive as he was linearly I always thought he looked super tight at FSU. Make him have to cover some two way goes by Gibbs, LaPorta, etc.
)