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I think Spags deserves a ton of credit. When he was hired, I did some research and discovered that that three times in his career he'd taken over a defense and by year two he had turned them all into top 5 defenses. Two of those defenses were lower mid-tier and the other was basically dead last.
But it took more than a full season to get all of those defenses turned around. So at the beginning of the 2019 season I said that we'd be lucky if the defense ended the season around 18th-20th, but next season we'd have a top 10 D.
Boy was I wrong. Gratefully so. Somehow, Spags turned this defense around in a little over half a season. In fact, if you take just the stats from Week 11 to Week 17, Spags fielded a top 5 defense. And they kept performing at a high level through the playoffs.
Now look around the league at all the DCs for the last 5-7 years and find one that did any kind of a similar job. Without bringing in a half a dozen All-Pros from Day 1. I can't find one.
And yet, even after the SB, you can't find many analysts or sports journalists giving him his due.
Steve Spagnuolo is definitely underrated and underappreciated around the league. I'm glad we got him, and that he's going to be our DC for a while to come. I think he's the best DC in the league, bar none.
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