Which Free Agent departure has been the most costly?

[Aven8]

Church was good against the run but not against the pass. I think Heath might actually be a little better against the pass as sad as that sounds.

With Lee and Hitchens missing games and the starting 1-tech having a bad knee, Church as a run defender has been missed. If not for those issues, I don't think we would notice his absense.

Yeah we don't miss the 100+ tackles X. Come on now.....please.

 

[RoyTheHammer]

Leary and Mo.

 

[Sydla]

Leary.

Next question.

 

[dagreat1_87]

offense- leary

defense- mccain

 

[xwalker]

Yeah we don't miss the 100+ tackles X. Come on now.....please.

We've seen with Jalen that tackle stats can be misleading.

They're playing a different defense this season. They primarily played single-high Safety in the past which had Church in the box. This season they're playing mostly 2-deep.

They decided it's more important to play the pass than the run. It was a good strategy against Rodgers and almost worked but it was odd againt the Rams with Gurley at RB and Goff at QB.

 

[NextGenBoys]

Church, McAClain, Leary in that order. We have scored 1.3 less points per game this year. Our defense has allowed 7.1 more points per game.

One could argue that is due to the the offense not being able to protect the defense like last year.

 

[NextGenBoys]

We've seen with Jalen that tackle stats can be misleading.

They're playing a different defense this season. They primarily played single-high Safety in the past which had Church in the box. This season they're playing mostly 2-deep.

They decided it's more important to play the pass than the run. It was a good strategy against Rodgers and almost worked but it was odd againt the Rams with Gurley at RB and Goff at QB.

Not being sarcastic here at all, but I wonder if it's due to the amount of rookies we have and being forced to keep everything incredibly simple on the backend.

 

[xwalker]

Not being sarcastic here at all, but I wonder if it's due to the amount of rookies we have and being forced to keep everything incredibly simple on the backend.

That makes sense but there was a lot of rumors this offseason that they were going back to zone as their base.

Some fans and media claim that they only played man because Claiborne and Carr were not good in zone. Claiborne because he is too dumb and Carr because he used a physical style to offset his lack of quickness.

They have switched it up. It's not 100% 2-deep zone. Gruden did a good job of showing their multiple coverages in that Monday night game.

Personally I like man-under. It makes it difficult to complete short or long passes. It's perfect for Lewis because he prefers the trail technique. It is vulernable to outside runs or QB outside runs so the DEs have to maintain outside contain.

 

[Section446]

Leary, not even close. He was the emotional leader on the OL and helped get a bunch of softies going.

 

[ak47kaehu]

If he had his head screwed on straight, it would be RoMc.

 

[calicowboy54]

It's close between Barry Church and Ron Leary, but I would say Leary. The continuity of the offensive line has been an issue thus far, and the formula that masked a suspect defense last season has been altered.

I think its in this order
1. Ron Leary
2a. Terrel McClain
2b. Barry Church
3 Carr

you could switch 2a and b... McClain hurt us in run defense and pushing double teams to free up Collins in running game and passing... Church hurts on the backend with lining up DB's and moving them in coverage audibles. Carr was just solid number 2 on right side.

 

[Satchel89]

Ron Leary. I know the secondary has been bad but the Left Guard position has been so bad it's screwed up the rest of the Line and it's affected the whole offense. They've been scoring points but they haven't been able to take over games like last year.

 

[NextGenBoys]

That makes sense but there was a lot of rumors this offseason that they were going back to zone as their base.

Some fans and media claim that they only played man because Claiborne and Carr were not good in zone. Claiborne because he is too dumb and Carr because he used a physical style to offset his lack of quickness.

They have switched it up. It's not 100% 2-deep zone. Gruden did a good job of showing their multiple coverages in that Monday night game.

Personally I like man-under. It makes it difficult to complete short or long passes. It's perfect for Lewis because he prefers the trail technique. It is vulernable to outside runs or QB outside runs so the DEs have to maintain outside contain.

Yeah I remember hearing when we got rid of Carr and Mo that we would play more zone. But we are awful in running it. They also said that we would create more turnovers with zone since the defenders wouldn't have their back to the QB as much. What a bunch of hogwash.

 

[mardwin]

Leary and Church, both running games have suffered since their departure.

 

[gimmesix]

It's Barry Church. He was our leading tackler last year folks. I love Leary, but the tackling is pathetic right now!

This was my main concern with Heath. He was being praised because he had made some plays in coverage as a reserve safety, but how would he play the run? So far, not all that well ... but he's not the only culprit there. This was always an Alan Ball move to me. Take a player who has shown some ability as a backup and make him a starter without any real competition.

I had hoped Blanton would at least be able to provide competition because that was our main move at the position other than grabbing a safety in the sixth round. Frankly, unless Woods is given a chance to prove himself as a starter this year, I hope our plan isn't going to be just stick him in the starter's role and hope like it has been with Heath.

 

[ConceptCoop]

Yeah I remember hearing when we got rid of Carr and Mo that we would play more zone. But we are awful in running it. They also said that we would create more turnovers with zone since the defenders wouldn't have their back to the QB as much. What a bunch of hogwash.

And so much for the passrush leading to turnovers as well. We've got the premier passrusher in the league through 6 weeks and still aren't getting enough TOs.

 

[DallasDomination]

Church and it's not even close. Byron and heath are completely lost back there.

 

[bayeslife]

None as far as I can tell. Defense was equally bad last year

 

[NextGenBoys]

And so much for the passrush leading to turnovers as well. We've got the premier passrusher in the league through 6 weeks and still aren't getting enough TOs.

I don't understand it. Maranelli's scheme dominated forcing teams into turnovers when he was with Chicago.

We've been one of the worst in the league at forcing turnovers for the better half of 10 years.

 

[KingintheNorth]

I don't understand it. Maranelli's scheme dominated forcing teams into turnovers when he was with Chicago.

We've been one of the worst in the league at forcing turnovers for the better half of 10 years.

Lack of talent on defense + outdated scheme + country club atmosphere