Maine-iac

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.

The guy played safety so it's not totally surprising. Although I wish we had an enforcer at safety to make up for having only one LB with any size on the field. There are safeties bigger than Milano and he does fine for his size but outside of Edmunds in most situations we essentially have 6 DBs on the field and Poyer and Hyde are great in coverage but not exactly extra man in the box type safeties.

I think Oliver and Phillips stepping up mixed with White being healthy would have done it. I was somewhat impressed with the Bengals pass rush but the truly impressive thing was their coverage. Mohommes couldn't find anyone on several occasions. I think with White healthy and a step forward from our younger players we could be there. Speaking about the game over all. That 13 seconds on the other hand ............ something there had to be coached differently. I'll always believe that.

Somehow sign Clowney and Hicks and still manage to bring back Wallace. White comes back healthy and now we can cover and terrorize QB's and go 17 and 0 and cruze to a SB victory. If only it was that easy.

If Olivier Vernon was back healthy and wanted to play at a reasonable price it might be worth kicking the tires. As much as Hughes and Addison were veterans who knew how to rush a passer they are both horrible against the run and mediocre at best at actually getting to the QB. Vernon if healthy can set an edge and collapse a pocket along with getting to the QB. Akeem Hicks can still play if the price is right. There are several guards who may become free agents who would improve the talent level here as well. Daniels, Glowinski, Kappa, or Tomlinson would seemingly be good additions but cost could definitely be a factor. Johnson from the Browns might also be a good pick up to compete with Moss for a rb spot.

Everyone begging for a "speed" back. If I could pair Motor up with anyone it would be a big back to take some of the big back carries that our QB now takes 100 percent of. When I say big back I don't mean just anyone like a FB we brought up from the practice squad. I mean an actual rb who has some size and can carry tacklers.

I think the LB's overall will look better if the front 4 start being more disruptive. Edmunds will look much better in coverage if the front 4 get home more often and I'd imagine all the LB's would benefit from the front 4 blowing up run plays before they hit the LB's untouched. It's one thing to have to fill a hole it's another when they're getting blockers to the second level and the rb is untouched into the secondary. The crazy thing to think about is that the 2017 defense started Preston Brown and was largely just as effective as any defense we've had under McDermott.

Wallace plus a draft pick would provide great coverage at the CB position plus on a rookie contract and an incentive and back loaded contract for Walace you could not only afford it but move on from Wallace in a year or two with a trade if need be At least for the most part the money we are spending in the secondary is bringing production. There are far less productive players making as much if not more than what Wallace would probably command.

Schwartz knows how to get sacks I'll give him that. As long as his CB's don't get injured he puts a pretty good defense on the field.

In a primarily zone defense Wallace is our best CB until White is healthy and back up to speed. If you do draft a CB early the contract is going to be easy enough on our cap that signing Wallace for 2 or 3 years at a 10mil per year rate would work. Not only would we have Wallace but we'd also have that draft pick in case someone got hurt. The only real alternative is signing a free agent who is unproven in our system or drafting someone who again is unproven and also doesn't give us the depth of signing Wallace and drafting someone.

People do realize that the triple crown receiving leader and the guy who had the most YAC in the league ran a 4.6 40. You don't have to be a track star to be quick or productive.

Our receivers (burners or not) are great at getting behind the defense. There are a very small number of receivers not named Hill who are game changing fast and actually talented. Diggs and Davis both can and have burnt plenty of defenses because the DB cheats for a split second. Although I'm sure if it was the Titans that beat us in the playoffs we'd see endless threads about needing the next Henry.

Rather than talking Cinci defense I'll try going along with the the post topic. FA WR's I'd be interested in seeing in a Buffalo uniform. First as I look down the list is AJ Green. If he is out there I think he'd be a good veteran possession receiver who can make a catch in traffic. More of an outside guy to fill in for Davis or Diggs if they are winded or injured. Second is Josh Reynolds who I think is what we thought Zay would be when we drafted him. Again an outside receiver who I think can do a lot of what Davis does and not brake the bank. Then I see Chark and Gallup both outside guys who have decent experience and production who shouldn't break the bank. Then I'd clump McCloud, Austin, and Berrios together in a group and call them the possible kick returners group. There's a few bigger names on the list that might bring some production but someone else will probably sign them and I don't see the price tag as being what we are looking to take on vs what we need to add.

Rams trying their hardest not to score.