I keep hearing about defensive line

[Galian Beast]

I know a lot of people convinced themselves that defensive line was a position of dire need for this draft. Personally I wouldn't have minded if we came away with Carrandine, Okafar, or Moore.

That being said we've put a lot into this defensive line already.

We drafted Tyrone Crawford in the 3rd round last year, and we drafted Kyle Wilber in the 4th round last year. Crawford will move inside, and perhaps also work outside at the left end position. Wilber will be asked to increase his weight and work on that right side behind Ware.

People also seem to forget about Hatcher and Lissemore. The team is really high on Lissemore, and he is a player who's role will continue to expand. Hatcher combined with Ratliff should be a great interior match. When both are healthy they play really well.

We're running a tampa 2. The focus on the line isn't to stuff the run, rather it's to get after the quarterback. You want 4 pass rushing linemen there. And there aren't many defensive tackles who can do that. The majority of complainers here wanted us to spend a high pick on a guy who would end up just being a space eater and not much of a pass rusher. Might as well have kept Spears if you wanted that.

This is what we're looking at, and it certainly will be a strength given the emphasis on pass rushing, rather than dropping back into coverage, or focusing on the run.

Left Defensive End - Anthony Spencer > Tyrone Crawford
Left Defensive Tackle - Jay Ratliff > Sean Lissemore > Rob Calloway
Right Defensive Tackle - Jason Hatcher > Tyrone Crawford > Brian Price > Ben Bass
Right Defensive End - DeMarcus Ware > Kyle Wilber > Alex Albright

You might ask about replacing Anthony Spencer and DeMarcus Ware. At 18 was there a player you think that could have done this? Was there someone at 31?

The reality is that finding a quality defensive end was going to prove more difficult, and the idea that we needed to take someone who was just going to be a back up, doesn't really cut mustard when we just drafted Crawford and Wilber.

 

[SHAMSzy]

Agreed, the cries for DL are way too teary than they should be. Let Wilber and Crawford show us what they can do before we drown ourselves in a river. Kiffin himself said the DL is more than fine and we need LBs.

 

[Eskimo]

You also have to manage according to cap space and right now we have too much tied up in two DEs who take up about $23M of cap space per year right now and that is probably too much with the new Romo conract.

In reality we probably need to replace both very soon. I think we need Spencer's replacement next year because we can't continue to overpay him year after year. I would have preferred taking one this year and liked the pick of Carradine at the bottom of the first. I would have preferred Sylvester Williams but when we dropped down he was out of the picture by the time 31 came up.

I actually think we should have used a 4th or 5th round pick to jump back up a couple of spots at the bottom of the first to try and get Sly but we didnt.

If the OL looks great and Frederick plays lights out then the decision was fine and would have more immediate impact on the team than a backup DL. However, in long-term cap management we have problems on the DL.

 

[Galian Beast]

You also have to manage according to cap space and right now we have too much tied up in two DEs who take up about $23M of cap space per year right now and that is probably too much with the new Romo conract.

In reality we probably need to replace both very soon. I think we need Spencer's replacement next year because we can't continue to overpay him year after year. I would have preferred taking one this year and liked the pick of Carradine at the bottom of the first. I would have preferred Sylvester Williams but when we dropped down he was out of the picture by the time 31 came up.

I actually think we should have used a 4th or 5th round pick to jump back up a couple of spots at the bottom of the first to try and get Sly but we didnt.

If the OL looks great and Frederick plays lights out then the decision was fine and would have more immediate impact on the team than a backup DL. However, in long-term cap management we have problems on the DL.

We have 25,392,950 dollars tied to the starting offensive line this year. That's quite a bit for 4 players.

What would you have given up to trade up for Williams?

 

[Angus]

The defensive staff knows what it has to work with. Fans don't, not even the media informed fans on this board, most of whom couldn't name all the people on the roster or guess what hidden talents they possess (all of whom are talented to some degree or they wouldn't be there).

Maybe things on the defensive line are a lot better than it appears to us.

 

[151]

Great post! As long as we are healthy we have a nice group of DLineman. It is actually our deepest position. I can see Hatch, Ratt, Lissemore doing better in the 4-3 especially with Ware and Spencer off the edge.

TE, WR, RB, CB, S. all were very thin behind the immediate starters. For example, look at TE- Witten>Hanna and RB Murray>Tanner>Dunbar. Great draft. Can't wait for training camp and the season to start.

 

[morasp]

I know a lot of people convinced themselves that defensive line was a position of dire need for this draft. Personally I wouldn't have minded if we came away with Carrandine, Okafar, or Moore.

That being said we've put a lot into this defensive line already.

We drafted Tyrone Crawford in the 3rd round last year, and we drafted Kyle Wilber in the 4th round last year. Crawford will move inside, and perhaps also work outside at the left end position. Wilber will be asked to increase his weight and work on that right side behind Ware.

People also seem to forget about Hatcher and Lissemore. The team is really high on Lissemore, and he is a player who's role will continue to expand. Hatcher combined with Ratliff should be a great interior match. When both are healthy they play really well.

We're running a tampa 2. The focus on the line isn't to stuff the run, rather it's to get after the quarterback. You want 4 pass rushing linemen there. And there aren't many defensive tackles who can do that. The majority of complainers here wanted us to spend a high pick on a guy who would end up just being a space eater and not much of a pass rusher. Might as well have kept Spears if you wanted that.

This is what we're looking at, and it certainly will be a strength given the emphasis on pass rushing, rather than dropping back into coverage, or focusing on the run.

Left Defensive End - Anthony Spencer > Tyrone Crawford
Left Defensive Tackle - Jay Ratliff > Sean Lissemore > Rob Calloway
Right Defensive Tackle - Jason Hatcher > Tyrone Crawford > Brian Price > Ben Bass
Right Defensive End - DeMarcus Ware > Kyle Wilber > Alex Albright

You might ask about replacing Anthony Spencer and DeMarcus Ware. At 18 was there a player you think that could have done this? Was there someone at 31?

The reality is that finding a quality defensive end was going to prove more difficult, and the idea that we needed to take someone who was just going to be a back up, doesn't really cut mustard when we just drafted Crawford and Wilber.

They weren't just going to draft a body. If someone was there that fit the system I think they would have given it serious consideration. Richardson and Logan were rumored as targets. Good pass rushing DEs are hard to find and so are high motor DTs. Until proven otherwise I have a lot of respect for the defensive coaching staff and they spent a lot of time spent preparing for the draft. It looked like to me the needs they identified were physical playmaking DBs and OLBs that were good in pass coverage.