This doesn’t tell the whole story though. Players don’t just magically get better every year. Once there is tape on your game in the league, teams adjust. Just like a QB. You can’t really say it’s all coaching or all the players just sucked.
Also, I think there’s a HUGE misconception from our playoff run 2 years ago that our defense was stout. It wasn’t. We were below average in a lot of areas. It was going to be hard to maintain the 3rd down stop percentage and red zone percentage we had that year. There is some luck involved with those situations. Teams had tape on that playoff run in 2020 as well. They saw what our weaknesses were in the KC game. They exploited it.
I don’t necessarily agree that promoting Shane Bowen was the right call. Clearly something was off last year and it’s almost never one sided. It was probably both, coaching and players not performing.
It’s very clear what JRob and Vrabel felt the issue was last season. They’ve addressed it and we will have to see how much of last years issues were players/talent related.
But we have to stop this misconception that players will automatically improve year over year. That only happens in Madden lol. Careers usually have some peaks and valleys. Players are constantly having to adjust to new things being thrown at them because every year teams have more and more tape on a player. They know his tendencies and more importantly they know his weaknesses.
Brady Brees has similar workout numbers and size as Hooker. Neither Hooker or Brees are going to be able to play single high S very well but they can certainly fit in as a SS or other coverages.
40 yard dash: 4.52
Vertical jump: 38"
Bench Press: 20
Broad jump: 10'
3 cone drill: 7.03
40 yard dash: 4.52
Vertical jump: 38"
Bench Press: 20
Broad jump: 10'
3 cone drill: 7.03
Hmmm, maybe it isn't "magic" but players typically do get better unless they are simply duds. The jump from the 1st to 2nd year is normally pretty good. Even the early draft picks at position like CB can struggle early in their career before becoming real good players. Fulton and Chris Jackson should obviously be better this year. Evans should obviously be better prepared for contributing as Henry's backup.
The biggest obstacle on offense isn't just losing Smith and Davis but the fact a QB GETS BETTER when he has the same group of player to work with. So in that case players can get better. Now Tannehill will need to gain experience with a few new faces.
None of what I said above has anything to do with the opposition watching tape either.
When the entire defense took a step back, I dont know how much I would put it on each individual player. I am willing to give them some of the blame, but come on, the entire defense sucked.
Not the "Entire" defense.
They were one of the top teams in takeaways. Overall they sucked, but they at least were leaders in a very important area.
No, I agree that our defense wasn’t upper echelon two seasons ago. But, there is NO denying the defense crashed and burned last year under Bowen and players who were previously good were not. The players like Byard were too young for a traditional drop off. Coaching was poor on D last year.
So the part about having injuries didn't make any difference? No pass rush and 4th string guys playing CB, best cover LB hurt. Naaaaaa, that never makes a coach look bad.
Yeah players typically get better over the course of their careers but they doesn’t mean it’s year over year better and better. Plenty of players have sophomore slumps and then rebound later on or fizzle out entirely.
But a player who has a bad year can’t instantly be accredited to bad coaching that year. Byard for example.
I think our fans overrate how good some of our players on defense were before this past season. The lack of production was amplified by our lack of pass rush and/or injuries. Vaccaro, Evans, Brown, all played about par for the course on what they’ve done for us as Titans so far. Again, their limitations were exposed by a lack of pressure. Which also contributed to a lack of 3rd down stops. Our defense was not good in 2019. They stepped up in the playoffs but that unit was not a good unit. That’s my point.
You don’t think Byard’s play dipped at all because of the injuries we had at DB and lack of pass rush?
Very possible. Only time will tell.
All the points we thought were solid (including Byard), have been exposed under anything related to Shane Bowen --- and I hope Schwartz was the adding to plug the gap. Our OLB's jacked up our secondary
And I’m trying to tell you that what you probably thought was solid, wasn’t actually solid if you look at the stats. Statistically this defense hasnt been good in years.
We had Chris Jackson starting games for us last in the secondary last year. Don’t forget Johnathon Joseph. The pass rush was horrendous but our DB depth chart was maxed out last year because of injuries and COVID.
You're right, neither of those position groups had anything going for them at either end of the spectrum.
With no Free Agent moves, and a depth guy picked in the 5th (Breeze) -- it looks like we're banking on Amani Hooker to start the year at SS... which I'm not certain I trust, especially seeing how we're (hopefully) just getting out of a 2 year bad relationship with the EDGES.
Hooker is very fine depth -- but as a starter he's a glorified Bernard Pollard..
Hooker is legit, better than Vacarro.
Switching to man coverage is gonna be exciting. That 3rd down zone garbage last year was absurd.
I saw a stat that we played more man coverage than any other team in the league. I also saw a stat that the 3 worst pass defenses in the league were the 3 teams that played the most man.
yup, we put zone corners in man and didn't help them at all with just simmons and landry
just seen his 40 yard dash score, which was 4.55 -- which isn't bad at all for a SS, and even better for a special teams specialist.
Not sure if Brees will live up to it but I really think JRob saw him as the Hooker of this draft and ultimately Hooker and Brees can be upgrades to Vaccaro. And getting Benard Pollard level SSs in the 4th or later is not a bad deal. IMO Hooker is going to better in coverage.
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