With the acquisition of Autrey and Dupree the Titan's DL might be one of the best in the NFL.
Not only did we bring in Autrey, who had 7.5 sacks last year, and is a guy we can use as a 3 tech or SDE, but Dupree at almost 270 pounds gives us a ridiculous combination of physicality and pass rush on the edge as a DE or OLB.
We shouldn't forget Simmons who is one of the best interior defensive players in the NFL and Landry, who is heading into a contract year, could be the biggest beneficiary freeing him up for a big season.
Then we have a promising player in Larrel Murchison who has been somewhat forgotten. Murchison is versatile and athletic at 300 pounds. An off season in the weight room and a full pre-season should really benefit him. I see a much improved pass rush this season.
Breaking Down the Tape of Titans DT Larrell Murchison | Stadium - YouTube
Not only did we bring in Autrey, who had 7.5 sacks last year, and is a guy we can use as a 3 tech or SDE, but Dupree at almost 270 pounds gives us a ridiculous combination of physicality and pass rush on the edge as a DE or OLB.
We shouldn't forget Simmons who is one of the best interior defensive players in the NFL and Landry, who is heading into a contract year, could be the biggest beneficiary freeing him up for a big season.
Then we have a promising player in Larrel Murchison who has been somewhat forgotten. Murchison is versatile and athletic at 300 pounds. An off season in the weight room and a full pre-season should really benefit him. I see a much improved pass rush this season.
Breaking Down the Tape of Titans DT Larrell Murchison | Stadium - YouTube
i hope so, hopefully having Jim Schwartz on staff helps too! Hoping you’re right and we have the pass rush we’ve been missing for 15 years
Not true.. a good DL makes the secondary. Cornerbacks can only cover for so long. You HAVE to have a pass rush. It’s not the other way around.
Yes, a great pass rush can make up for a weak secondary. But a weak secondary can neutralize a good pass rush if teams are able to get rid of the ball quickly on either short routes or blown coverages. Both can mutually benefit from each other. It is not an either/or but a both/and.
With that said if I had to pick one to be great at and the other below average at, I would pick pass rush to be great at.
A good pass rush can make a mediocre secondary look good. Doesn’t ever happen the other way around.
That might not be the first time I've heard that logic but most insist pressure is first in importance because average guys can cover for a short time. But in truth it take both to have a real real good defense where we can both get the QB to throw before he wants to and cover well enough he holds the ball long enough to get bent in half.
We also improved the secondary. Sure I would love a healthy Adoree (not sure about that) and Butler back but I'd RATHER have Farley, Molden, Jenkins with Dupree and Autry. That was the choice.
Quick throws, and RPOs shut down a pass rush.
Correct. A lot of our “star” players on our “elite” defense in 08 got exposed after Haynesworth left.
I would argue our 2018 and 2019 secondary's made our dreadful pass rush look mediocre.
We just need a solid secondary across the board this year though, because I think our front 7 could be quite good. I think we have the guys in the secondary on paper, but there are a lot of unknowns with that group with them being so young. We've seen what can happen if you have even one Jonathan Joseph in the secondary. Offenses can continue to exploit that over and over.
It's just like if you have one bad OL, defenses can choose to attack that one bad player.
I do believe that our young corners should benefit from having experienced safety's behind them. I just hope they go back to letting Byard play center field more.
I would counter your argument with, the 2018 and 2019 dreadful pass rush was only the level of dreadful and never reached mediocre.
The 2018 secondary was really good partly due to staying healthy. 2019 started getting that injury bug.
Ultimately a team can't be real bad at either component of the defense to have success. A great pass rush with a poor secondary won't work nor will a good back end with a poor pass rush.
Thing is we sucked at both components last year mostly do to injury. Adoree, Brown and Clowney primarily. Thus it is insane to argue which hurt us more since the whole thing was a cluster along with coaching.
JRob looked at his options in FA, and the strength of the draft, and concluded his best use of CAP money was to bolster the pass rush and go younger in the secondary. So it wasn't an either or. We have taken a CB in the 2nd and 1st round in each of the last two drafts. We also took one in the 3rd round to play NB. Jenkins wasn't a bad signing for the money and style we want to play as he is a decent man cover CB. The guy we took in the 1st is potentially a generational talent and the guy we took in the 3rd is smart, instinctive.
This idea King was a great player was debunked (we didn't try to re-sign him despite being cheap and drafted his replacement) and the potential of Molden is far greater. Fulton was ranked 22nd by CBS going into the 2020 draft but people forget he is even on the roster. Breon Borders was the 22nd ranked CB by PFF last year starting 5 games for us before getting hurt.
Thing is we sucked at both components last year mostly do to injury. Adoree, Brown and Clowney primarily. Thus it is insane to argue which hurt us more since the whole thing was a cluster along with coaching.
JRob looked at his options in FA, and the strength of the draft, and concluded his best use of CAP money was to bolster the pass rush and go younger in the secondary. So it wasn't an either or. We have taken a CB in the 2nd and 1st round in each of the last two drafts. We also took one in the 3rd round to play NB. Jenkins wasn't a bad signing for the money and style we want to play as he is a decent man cover CB. The guy we took in the 1st is potentially a generational talent and the guy we took in the 3rd is smart, instinctive.
This idea King was a great player was debunked (we didn't try to re-sign him despite being cheap and drafted his replacement) and the potential of Molden is far greater. Fulton was ranked 22nd by CBS going into the 2020 draft but people forget he is even on the roster. Breon Borders was the 22nd ranked CB by PFF last year starting 5 games for us before getting hurt.
If you get pressure only outside, yes. Interior pressure blocks passing lanes and gets into the face of the QB. Autry is a bigger addition than most realize.
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One of the reasons we signed Jenkins and drafted Farley was so we can play more tight man instead of 10 yards off the ball. Fulton can play tight man as well. So that helps negate the quick easy throws and if they want to run longer developing plays we now have a pass rush to get to the QB. Before, with no pass rush, we risked getting beat deep so we opted to play off more.
It wouldn't surprise me to see Fulton starting opposite Farley at some point with Molden in the slot. That is the plan for the future and I think a pretty good one. Jenkins is a stop gap until the young guys are ready.
It wouldn't surprise me to see Fulton starting opposite Farley at some point with Molden in the slot. That is the plan for the future and I think a pretty good one. Jenkins is a stop gap until the young guys are ready.
Still a lot of unknowns with Fulton and the draftees. I do agree our additiona are designed to be more aggressive in alignment. If Farley is/stays healthy, he will be really really good.
I remember we started out 2019 with Wake having a big game against the Browns and we thought we had something. Many thought we had one of the better secondary in the league at that time (Ryan, Butler, Adoree, Vaccaro and Byard).
There is always an unknown when it comes to young players. But at the same time we tend to be overly critical of our own team in that regard. If the Colts took two CBs in the first two rounds the last two years the same fans would be scared to death of their defense. The way I see it is we have enough bodies with potential we should be able to field a pretty decent group. The floor is decent and the upside is fantastic. I also have to believe Farley will get on the field this year and is an instant player. Fulton's injury and insane use of Joseph early last year hurt him.
I was guilty of buying into that browns game too.
Unfortunately that game was all Wake had.
Before the injury gets brought up, he had 6-7 weeks before the injury to do anything, which he didn’t and the overall pass rush was trash.
There was another level of suck, and we saw that last year. I don't think the 2018 and 2019 pass rushes were any better than 2020 in terms of talent. They just didn't suck as bad because the secondary was good those years.
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