I figured we'd eventually evolve into a dominant defense too once all the young 1st day draft picks got some experience, but that obviously hasn't happened. Always knew the raw talent was there and it still is there. The D is physically gifted outside of a scrub here and there like Hamlin, but it remains to be seen if they can get the mental side of the game to go along with it.
The D needs to get more exotic and the back 6 (MLBs + secondary) of the defense needs to get smarter if it ever wants to be top 5 quality. It doesn't take 11 pro bowlers to have a top 5 defense, we have enough "talent".
The D has been underachieving and much like the team did with T.O., has had nothing but scapegoats to try and use as an excuse for overall poor play. Keep blaming Roy Williams, Nate Jones, Bobby Carpenter, whoever the ****, it's probably Hamlin's turn next to explain why the secondary is sucking ****. Although Hamlin definitely deserves it, we got enough freakin talent. It's all in the coaching, scheme, and smart play by the coverage guys. They need to not have many mental errors and the coaches need to put them in positions to not be set up for mental errors.
Right now the defense focuses way too much on winning their battles cause they're "oh so much more talented" than the opposition. Offenses on basically any NFL caliber team are going to have their share of raw physical specimens as well. Even a player like Ware isn't going to win every single battle against elite LTs in the league or even our own division with Diel, Samuels, and now Peters I guess instead of Tra Thomas. If he doesn't win his battle a few times the secondary is likely getting exposed more often than not in our system. 3-4 defenses are built around trickery and getting into the opposing team's head and we never really do that. I've been waiting for the defense to get out of vanilla mode but it doesn't seem to be changing at all. We run a few stunts and other dumb quirks here and there and that's about it. No major pre-snap movement, fakes, or disguises really.
Simple way to put it is this defense needs to be more like Jason Witten and less like Vernon Davis. People have said time and time about Witten that they aren't even sure how he's always so open when he isn't overly fast. He's smart, knows the game and knows his opponents. On the other hand you have Vernon Davis who runs a 4.4, big tough dude but dumb as rocks. That's what our defense is right now and what it has been for the past half decade. If it's fixable through coaching or scheme I dunno, we'll see I guess.
