And an answer at Edge
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I never said he’s not part of it. I agree with that. I’m not saying dump the guy. Like I said, I think he’s solid, but he’s not the answer. Meaning they need more, or better. We’re all in an agreement they need DT as well as CB, and DE. A top DT would be amazing. I’m all about DT’s/DL, but I’m actually not prioritizing one because they gave up a lot for Brodric so I want to see how that goes.
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I think your mention of Autry or lets say…Zadarius Smith could be a short-term answer at EDGE
Alright, well my point was there aren’t any one man answers. Not hardly. So if you were saying he should be a one-man answer, which it seemed to me like you were, I disagreed.
He seems like an @sshole 
Didn’t say that. Depth is important. Not sure what you mean by one-man answers Superstars like Chris Jones or Aaron Donald doesn’t mean they’re a one-man show. I mean they need better than Alim McNeil otherwise no one would say we have a need at DT. Let’s say Hutch is a superstar, and Paschel is solid. They still need better than Paschel. Like, Paschel is not the answer at DE across from Hutch.
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Agreed that’s why I do not think CB is as big a need as some think. I do think we need one really good one who can play tight man coverage.
We’re on the same wave length here. If we can add a stud run stuffing DT we won’t need to stack the box as much and we can drop LBers into coverage or have them camp on throwing lanes. Suddenly our CB’s will look a lot better.
Personally I want a complete DT who is capable of stuffing the run and collapsing a pocket. A DT who can eat up space but still apply pressure. Find that guy and this defense take a massive step forward.
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OK, well it’s about semantics and I just honestly don’t care enough to keep going. I thought saying Alim wasn’t the answer was overly dismissive, and if you didn’t intend that I apologize. But that’s what it seemed like.
Nah no problem. No need to apologize. This is football talk. I think Alim is solid like I said. I like him, and want him to stick around.
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Buckner is a guy I always hoped they’d trade for. He’s the perfect fit.
I cant say I know. I do like Autry.
I wonder if the way we address this is with our new high level DL coach. Maybe development, or lack thereof, was the issue with some of our players underperforming?
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I need Brodrick’s 6’5 100 inch arms 330lb to get unleashed. I got high hopes he’s a BH gem. They gave up a lot for him.
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Some positions hit the wall I don’t want us to ever sign 30 year old CB unless its on year cheap. 34 for me is to old for the money he wants. Look how fast Harris an Romeo slipped granted coming of injuries but they are not players you count on anymore. The wall is real an position is big factor,look how teams think about RB’s now i agree there are exceptions i am hoping we don pay millions to find out. We did that in past years with different people making calls.
Maybe the new DL coach we just signed will be the coach who does it.
Alim has been our best player on defense for the last 2 years. We stop the run because we load the box with 5 DL and 3 LBs. Some teams are stupid and still try to run it. We do not have the CBs to defend anyone. We need a quick twitch DE like Chop Robinson that can get home. An upgrade at DT would be nice but it will not have the impact of a freak DE.
Christian Wilkins is one of the best run stuffers in the NFL and has been getting better as a pass rusher every season. He would be a massive addition.
I’d like to weigh in on a couple of salient points.
Listened to a pregame earlier this year where they were discussing the Lions defense after the conclusion of the 22 season. Basically, they admitted to themselves that they sucked against the run AND against the pass. Their temporary solution was to get good against one of those with what they had to work with. They chose the run. Fair enough. It worked out well enough.
Second, and I’m speaking from experience here playing defensive line in a run stop heavy defense, don’t get wrapped up in individual statistics with the guys on the line. Quite often their work WILL NOT show up on a stat sheet, especially if you are running a heavy gap control scheme that is designed to keep your linebackers clean and force the action to bounce outside after the delay of not having their hole open. Your help coming down from linebackers and safety is designed to clean up to the outside of the line. The Lions had quite a bit of that going on this year, and I don’t believe a defensive Lineman gets positive metrics for gap control. It’s patently unfair to be downgrading these guys for executing a job that doesn’t give them pretty statistics. As a unit, they achieved their objective in the top echelon for run defense. It should be fairly self apparent that you can’t achieve that kind of success if everyone sucks.
Benito is kinda the linchpin here. I believe he was effective at gap control, which is why he was getting the snaps in the commitment to run defense. He was the best of what they had to make it work. Obviously, if you have a guy who can control the point of attack and occasionally gear up and collapse the pocket on obvious passing downs, you get the best of both worlds and it changes the percentages of your pass rush success rate in your favor. We didn’t have that second guy capable of lining up one on one, while McNeil was getting the double team, and winning that rep with pressure. At the end of the year, we were masking that weakness by bringing safety blitzes. It worked, but that’s not where you want to be.
Fail to get home with the blitz and Kindle Vildor is lined up one on one without help over the top. NOT ideal. You need someone that, as a defensive playcaller, you feel confident in winning a big enough percentage of that one on one matchup inside to push the pocket, that you can leave that Safety back in coverage. Sometimes the win simply comes in changing the visual for the QB so they don’t see the disguise in coverage where you are trying to bait them to throw. It all hinges on front four pressure, or lack thereof.
I, personally, believe McNeil and Benito excelled this year at what they were asked to do. Finding someone you can bring in on passing downs and increase those percentages, I think Holmes will add one guy to the mix there for that purpose and hope that one of our current members can also take a development step forward while maintaining what we already do well. I believe if someone makes themselves a threat from the inside, McNeil will eventually get some winnable one on one matchups himself. Forcing a RB to stay in to block? Once again that’s a win, because now you have six or seven defenders on four targets. Little things change the percentages, change the balance, change the outcome.
Where you find the solution to this issue is where it gets murky. It really boils down to who you can envision doing it. A smaller DT that works leverage like Donald and Kancey? A pure technician that’s going to win with moves? Both leave you potentially vulnerable to a surprise up the middle. A mass earth mover like Alau or potentially Sweat? It’s limited snaps and no guarantee. There are no guarantees. Simply what you envision.
The beauty of internal pressure is you force the QB off platform. Drift right and there’s Hutch who is now two steps closer. Drift left and there’s Houston/Paschal/maybe someone else. Drift back and you’re changing the timing and air time of those passes. Little changes, percentage changes, culminating in large net effects. Keep what works, just augment it. That’s where I envision the win.
Go the free agent route to fix it, and you’re going to pay through the nose. Draft someone and you sink that resource. Either way you are an injury away from being back to square one. One of those guys needs to take a step forward in conjunction with an addition. That’s simply what I see.
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