What are your predictions/hopes for the defense now?
 

Alright guys, the moment of truth is dawning on us as we head into the first game of the season.


Our defense last year

Corner-backs (Nelson, Fuller, Scandrick, Ward, Smith)

Safeties (Parker, Sorensen, Berry, Lucas, Watts, Murray)

Line-backers (Ford, Houston, Smith, KPassagnon, Niemann, O'Daniel, Ragland, Speaks, Hitchens, Zombo)

Defensive-linemen (Jones, Bailey, Nnadi, Williams, Hamilton)



Our defense right now

Corner-backs (Breeland, Fuller, Ward, Fenton, Claiborne, Smith)

Safeties (Mathieu, Thornhill, Sorensen, Watts, Lucas)

Line-backers (Hitchens, Lee, Niemann, Wilson, Ragland, O'Daniel)

Defensive-Linemen (Clark, Jones, Nnadi, Okafor, Ogbah, KPassagnon, Ivie, Saunders, Williams)



Last years rankings

Sacks= Joint 1st

Yards allowed= 31st

Scoring defense= 24th

Rush defense= 27th

Pass defense= 31st

Turnovers= 8th (26)

I'm gonna be brave and say we'll have a defense that ranks below 20th :D .

Hopes:

We don’t lose any games in which we score 50pts

i predict we move up to 21st over all

Rush defense 16th, pass defense 25th

Yards allowed 24th
Points allowed 20th

What I hope to see is roughly top half in scoring, ypc and ypa, assuming the offense continues to score at the pace we've become accustomed to. That is to say, they're going to give up total yardage, because they're going to be on the field a lot due to the clip at which the O scores, but if they can lower the per play averages allowed, and force more punts, it'll make a significant difference in the outcome of games. Even as little as one less possession for the opponent and one more for our offense, per game, would be big. Basically anything above 20 in those 3 areas, and we'll be very, very hard to keep up with, much less beat.

Sounds about right imo.

Fact is teams will be forced to shoot out with us. Teams will gamble and take chances against our D that they wouldn't against other teams because they know they'll need to score at least 26+ to win.

This will lead to our DB's having to play the deep ball more often than other D's, getting P.I more than other teams, thus extending drives.

The defense very well could be better, but i don't think it's going to show on a stat rankings list.

Wouldn't this likely be classed as still a poor defense though?

They can't possibly be worse than last year.

Right?

I'm begging for karmic retribution when I say this, but I don't see how they could possibly be worse than last year. They've upgraded the personnel at every level of the defense and they've purportedly gotten rid of the read and react anchor that was hung around the franchise's neck for most of the last 20 years.

Guess we'll see.

And that's why they play the games.

16th defense overall.

11th vs run

19th vs pass

8th in turnovers

1st points off turnovers

15-20th D and NO ONE, not even the Pat's refs can stop us from winning it all!

A few injuries can change everything.

But that's true for everyone. Just ask the Jags o-line.

That's going to color the game in some interesting ways. If our defense dominates them up front, it really isn't all that impressive, because they were hurt. But if we don't dominate them then the season's already in jeopardy. It's going to be difficult for there to be an overwhelmingly positive outcome unless we shut them out or something wacky. But even then...

Weirdly, my head's been stuck on a 42-3 score all week. I have no idea where it's coming from.

Come on James ROFL

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">There&#39;s a good chance Nick Foles could be spending some time with Frank Clark Sunday. The <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Jaguars?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Jaguars</a> are down to their 3rd string LT. Although Clark showed sympathy for Robinson, he also added to <a href="https://twitter.com/ArrowheadPride?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@ArrowheadPride</a> &quot;I don&#39;t push the brake for nobody. Everybody&#39;s a victim in my eyes.&quot; <a href="https://t.co/BbZ4YYA8Jt">pic.twitter.com/BbZ4YYA8Jt</a></p>&mdash; James Palmer (@JamesPalmerTV) <a href="https://twitter.com/JamesPalmerTV/status/1170123532380098562?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 6, 2019</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

We might be worse on pressuring the QB quite honestly, but Safety will be way better. DB probably about the same. LB hopefully is better just because of scheme.

But we did lose two great pass rushers, our best corner, a pro bow safety (even though he didn't play much).

Pass rush is going to be interesting to watch. I'm not sure the numbers are going to be that far off last year's, it just maybe isn't going to only come from two guys. It's just really hard to tell with what they didn't show in the preseason.

Based on the tiny bit of evidence we have from the preseason, I believe that we'll be better against the run than we were last year. Of course, that's not that hard to do, as we were almost the worst team in the league against the run in 2018.

And while we didn't make any big moves at CB, we did at least get rid of Nelson and Scandrick. When we picked up Scandrick last year I was almost physically ill. I think we'll be much better at safety, which should make our secondary better than last year, and might make us better against the run as well. If Matthieu can stay healthy.

I believe it's obvious that our defensive line is much improved over 2018. We may not get as many sacks at the end of the year, but we should be more consistent against the run, and we should be able to get pressure at those critical moments.

Honestly I don't like our LB corps. They didn't look that great in preseason. They might be our Achilles heel in 2019.

What I hope is that our defense makes some strides as a unit this year (some wishful thinking here if our LBs are really as ineffective as I think they are) and they become a middle tier unit. Ideally somewhere around 14th or 15th (I think the SB champion team with the worst defense was around 15th). Anything better than 17th in the league and I think we win the SB.

I fear this defense will prevent us from hoisting the Lombardi trophy.

Top 5 in run defense

Bottom 5 in Pass Defense

A Pro Bowl safety!? We're talking about a year-on-year comparison. Berry played in a grand total of 3 games last year and was limited in 2 of them. We lost a Pro Bowl safety in 2017. And if that's the argument, Matthieu was an All Pro in 2015 so we've replaced like with like.

In all seriousness, tackling. We need to tackle better. Our pass rush was outstanding last year and highly underappreciated on CP in my view. I worry about it too but I think we have a better all-around defensive unit. Dee Ford was a monster coming around the edge a la DT but Clark will be much more well-rounded and that's what this team needs.

I'm excited to see something new and don't blame the Chiefs for a second if it fails. They revamped the defense (and weren't meek in doing so) and that's we could realistically ask for after several years of becoming Suttoned.

19-0

If we can stop the damned run consistently, I'll be happy.

Just don't suck.

I think McCoy and Darwin will contribute to a very effective short passing game that will produce sustained scoring drives and keep opposing offenses off the field once the Chiefs get a 2 TD lead. The Chiefs defense will be a lot better statistically if they're watching the Chiefs offense from the sideline most of the game.

I honestly think the defense as a whole will be very good the second half of the year and will be able to have some very impressive outings to start the year against a few bad offenses.

Top 5 safeties
Top 7 DL
Average linebackers
Average but thin CBs

Pick 2 of these guys to have a breakout year and the defense could sneak into the top 12 by the time we go into the playoffs...and causing a lot of turnovers:

Breeland
Fuller
Hitchens
Lee
Thornhill

If 2 of those guys break out, this defense has a chance to be flat out nasty