(03-15-2012 08:41 PM)phocis850 Wrote:  That's the thing. How do we know it will be better with Nolan and Koetter?

(03-15-2012 08:41 PM)phocis850 Wrote:  That's the thing. How do we know it will be better with Nolan and Koetter?

(03-15-2012 09:04 PM)swanlee Wrote:  Just look at the 49ers for an example as to how a coaching change can make a team better. Nolan is one of the best Dc's in the game and at the very least Dirk will change things up and team will have no film on our new offense.

(03-15-2012 05:31 PM)Beef Wrote:  I don't think it's quite the "downgrade" to lose Abe and Lofton like you make it out to be.

Just like Turner made the offense predictable, Abe makes the defense predictable. BVG's defensive schemes were remedial at best. His attempts to be "unpredictable" included dropping Abraham into coverage and making Lofton chase receivers 40 yards down field into the back of the endzone. BVG's idea of a stunt was to move the 3rd string cornerback who's playing nickle up to the line outside the DE and telegraph his QB rush.

When was the last time you saw our DT's block open a hole for our LB's to run up the middle free and clear to the QB? Is that play even in BVG's book?

Abraham was good for 2 plays out of every 4, so when he was in there, the opposing offensive coordinator had an easy time "predicting" what was coming. Especially with the soft-zone shit that our secondary was always in. Offenses didn't have to worry about spreading us out, we were already spread out on our own.

Lofton is a GREAT tackler. But he is not a good pass rusher who finds his way through the line quickly and often gets to the QB. And he is very average at pass coverage, maybe even just bad at it at times when he has to do it outside the box or turn his hips and run with a receiver anywhere.

Mike Nolan is going to come in here with a real NFL caliber defensive scheme and not this BVG college level coservative prevent bullshit. We're going to have younger, faster, more agile players running REAL stunt and blitz packages that aren't predictable. We're going to put defensive backs closer to receivers and force QB's to hold on to that football that extra second that they didn't have to do before because they're receivers always appeared wide open.

And on top of all this, even if we end up still being an average at best defense, who cares. The Pats, Packers, and Saints are considered the 3 most elite teams in the NFL and each of them had a BOTTOM 5 defense last year. Hell even the Giants had a bottom 10 defense and won the SB after a 9-7 season.

We have elite talent all over this team. Roddy, Julio, Gonzo, Turner, Ryan, Spoon, Grimes, Moore.... And with new coordinators who have polar-opposite reputations from MM & BVG, who are known for being the opposite of predictable, conservative, and pedestrian, might just bring out the hidden gems in guys like Quizz, HD, Robinson, Sidbury, Dent, Nicholas, and Franks.

We made our big splash this year. It was Grimes, Keotter, and Nolan.

(03-15-2012 09:52 PM)Radical Wrote:  To be fair, Wade Phillips and Mike Nolan have had some atrocious defenses in their career as well. Having the right players always matters.

Quote:I was interested to see how the market would pan out at a couple of positions, and it’s kind of played out how I expected this year.

Every year since we’ve been here, we’ve taken a free agent. That’s helped us go into the draft. The first year, as you know, it was Michael Turner. The second year, we considered the Tony Gonzalez trade to be a free agent move. The year after that it was Dunta Robinson and the year after that, last year, it was Ray Edwards," he said. "Again, (the free agency period) really allows a team to be aggressive enough to get someone in place so that they don’t have to just use the draft to build, and for us, as you know, we do not have a first-round pick this year or a fourth-round (pick), so free agency is going to be important. Does it mean, Bucky, that we need to be very aggressive at the beginning of free agency? It means we have to have a really good feel of what free agency may offer us throughout weeks to come.