Galian Beast
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The front office is going to need to dedicate the next 2-3 drafts towards building this defense.
The keys that help us
1. Getting lucky with free agents. Henry Melton and Rolando McClain probably bring the timetable up two whole years. Theyre basically first round quality players.
2. Hitting on Anthony Hitchens and Tyrone Crawford. I was skeptical that Crawford would find a role in this defense because they kept moving him around. With an entire offseason dedicated towards being a defensive tackle, I think he is going to flourish next year. Anthony Hitchens has been a pleasant surprise, and he will thrive as the strong side linebacker next year next to Lee and McClain.
3. Marinelli seems to be able to really develop people and get the best out of them.
The keys that hurt us
1. Sean Lee not being able to stay healthy. With Lee and McClain together, we'll have two of the best linebackers in the NFL on the field at once. That is going to take our defense to the next level, but that can only happen if Lee can stay healthy, something he hasn't been able to do at all. I hope the staff take things easy with him AND McClain next offseason.
2. Missing on draft picks. Missing on Claiborne and Carter really hurts this team. These two picks probably set us back as much as signing Melton and McClain brought us forward.
3. Overpaying Brandon Carr. This definitely sets us back, and will continue to set us back. The damage done by paying him so much might have been worse than the Claiborne pick.
4. Drafting Gavin Escobar, Joseph Randle, and Devin Street. These were picks that probably could have helped the defense a lot more than theyve helped the offense. The defense desperately needs better depth and better starters, and were still drafting guys who cant get playing time on the offense. I was excited about drafting Escobar, and still think he is a hell of a player, but if they cant commit to using these guys, help the defense instead.
The in between
1. Dead Money. We've got about 20 million dollars in dead money from the defense alone this year.
To put that into perspective, our defensive salary this year is about 35 million dollars....
Why didn't I put this in the bad category? Well it certainly is bad, but the silver lining here is that the dead money for next year is only 7.8 million dollars and thats pretty much all offense from Austin and Orton. I expect Carr to add towards that, but maybe something could be worked out. I think it would be best for him to drop down to 2 million in base salary for 2015 and 2016. This would get us back 13 million dollars, and Id rather have him at 2 million than to cut him and take the full impact of his dead money, and still have to upgrade and replace him. Id rather save the money, and demote him down one or two spots.
Glaring needs
Defensive End. Maybe Lawrence can be a full time starter (Within the rotation) next year, but if Mincey is starting, its not a good thing for us. Mincey should be a depth player, not our best defensive end. The goal here should be to push Mincey into a depth role or even better off the roster by adding players who are better than he is. Sevlie should definitely be gone, and so should Spencer. We need a first or second round draft pick here. Preferably a 1st. The problem is the deeper we go into the playoffs, the more difficult it will be to get an impact player here.
Which brings me to the next thing
Cornerback. I like Sterling Moore, but the guy is a 4th corner. Next year I would like to see this
CB1 - Draft/Free Agency
CB2 - Orlando Scandrick
CB3 - Brandon Carr
CB4 - Sterling Moore
CB5 - Morris Claiborne
In 2016
CB1 - Draft/Free Agency
CB2 - Draft/Free Agency
CB3 - Orlando Scandrick
CB4 - Brandon Carr
CB5 - Sterling Moore
Over the course of the next two drafts we'll have
Two first round draft picks, two second round draft picks, and two third round draft picks.
That is six "Day 1" picks.
We need to come away with two corners, two or three defensive linemen, a right tackle, and a WR if we only need two defensive linemen.
It'll be difficult to maneuver in free agency with the players we already need to sign. And focusing so much on our defense will make things very difficult for our offense soon, but we really have no choice.
I still hope this defense can improve this year, I was hoping with all these players coming back on the defensive line they'd get better, but our secondary seems to have regressed in the meantime. It'll be a challenge to balance resources towards the front end and the back end going forward, but that will be the key to turning this defense around. I have to have faith that Marinelli knows what this defense needs, and will be in position to get whatever he needs going forward. I am dismayed that more effort wasn't put in over the last two years to get this defense to improve.
Edit, Mod can you fix the title for me
The keys that help us
1. Getting lucky with free agents. Henry Melton and Rolando McClain probably bring the timetable up two whole years. Theyre basically first round quality players.
2. Hitting on Anthony Hitchens and Tyrone Crawford. I was skeptical that Crawford would find a role in this defense because they kept moving him around. With an entire offseason dedicated towards being a defensive tackle, I think he is going to flourish next year. Anthony Hitchens has been a pleasant surprise, and he will thrive as the strong side linebacker next year next to Lee and McClain.
3. Marinelli seems to be able to really develop people and get the best out of them.
The keys that hurt us
1. Sean Lee not being able to stay healthy. With Lee and McClain together, we'll have two of the best linebackers in the NFL on the field at once. That is going to take our defense to the next level, but that can only happen if Lee can stay healthy, something he hasn't been able to do at all. I hope the staff take things easy with him AND McClain next offseason.
2. Missing on draft picks. Missing on Claiborne and Carter really hurts this team. These two picks probably set us back as much as signing Melton and McClain brought us forward.
3. Overpaying Brandon Carr. This definitely sets us back, and will continue to set us back. The damage done by paying him so much might have been worse than the Claiborne pick.
4. Drafting Gavin Escobar, Joseph Randle, and Devin Street. These were picks that probably could have helped the defense a lot more than theyve helped the offense. The defense desperately needs better depth and better starters, and were still drafting guys who cant get playing time on the offense. I was excited about drafting Escobar, and still think he is a hell of a player, but if they cant commit to using these guys, help the defense instead.
The in between
1. Dead Money. We've got about 20 million dollars in dead money from the defense alone this year.
To put that into perspective, our defensive salary this year is about 35 million dollars....
Why didn't I put this in the bad category? Well it certainly is bad, but the silver lining here is that the dead money for next year is only 7.8 million dollars and thats pretty much all offense from Austin and Orton. I expect Carr to add towards that, but maybe something could be worked out. I think it would be best for him to drop down to 2 million in base salary for 2015 and 2016. This would get us back 13 million dollars, and Id rather have him at 2 million than to cut him and take the full impact of his dead money, and still have to upgrade and replace him. Id rather save the money, and demote him down one or two spots.
Glaring needs
Defensive End. Maybe Lawrence can be a full time starter (Within the rotation) next year, but if Mincey is starting, its not a good thing for us. Mincey should be a depth player, not our best defensive end. The goal here should be to push Mincey into a depth role or even better off the roster by adding players who are better than he is. Sevlie should definitely be gone, and so should Spencer. We need a first or second round draft pick here. Preferably a 1st. The problem is the deeper we go into the playoffs, the more difficult it will be to get an impact player here.
Which brings me to the next thing
Cornerback. I like Sterling Moore, but the guy is a 4th corner. Next year I would like to see this
CB1 - Draft/Free Agency
CB2 - Orlando Scandrick
CB3 - Brandon Carr
CB4 - Sterling Moore
CB5 - Morris Claiborne
In 2016
CB1 - Draft/Free Agency
CB2 - Draft/Free Agency
CB3 - Orlando Scandrick
CB4 - Brandon Carr
CB5 - Sterling Moore
Over the course of the next two drafts we'll have
Two first round draft picks, two second round draft picks, and two third round draft picks.
That is six "Day 1" picks.
We need to come away with two corners, two or three defensive linemen, a right tackle, and a WR if we only need two defensive linemen.
It'll be difficult to maneuver in free agency with the players we already need to sign. And focusing so much on our defense will make things very difficult for our offense soon, but we really have no choice.
I still hope this defense can improve this year, I was hoping with all these players coming back on the defensive line they'd get better, but our secondary seems to have regressed in the meantime. It'll be a challenge to balance resources towards the front end and the back end going forward, but that will be the key to turning this defense around. I have to have faith that Marinelli knows what this defense needs, and will be in position to get whatever he needs going forward. I am dismayed that more effort wasn't put in over the last two years to get this defense to improve.
Edit, Mod can you fix the title for me
