What are your three biggest concerns for next year?
1.) Sanders staying healthy - There is no safety net. Unless Rangel comes in miraculously like the second coming of Brandon Weeden, if Sanders goes down for 3 games or more, we are toast. Throw all of my predictions and hopes into the garbage. He has gotta get out of bounds, O-line has to protect him.
BIG GAP
2.) Secondary - They didn’t get enough credit last year, probably, for how disruptive the line was. There’s a unique symbiosis between pass rush and coverage. I think it was 70-30 in who made the other look good last year in favor of the line, but if that coverage falls off, we’ll have a lot of those sacks missed a half step away or a sack turns into a hurry and a hurry turns into giving up a better play. My hope is that the D-line is so disruptive, it boosts the secondary’s performance, gives them confidence, and helps them coalesce.
3.) Running game - I think the offensive line is going to be better. It’s almost certain we’re going to go up-tempo. Sanders is going to get some on his legs. All of these things ought to boost the run game. Warren was special, though. We need to find RB1 ASAP.
I’ve watched enough Maury Povich to know that hearing “You are the father!” can be either very good or very bad……so which type of “surprised” should we be?
I agree on the QB staying healthy. Im a little surprised at how little concern you guys have for the defense. Admittedly, im on the outside looking in…but it seems like thatd be a concern?
With what we lost, the D is going to take a step back. It’s a question of how much.
What helps is that Derek Mason is a good DC who’s not going to change much scheme wise and the rest of the D staff is intact so that helps. Also, the D-line is mostly intact and good D-line can make up for some deficiencies on the back end.
While we won’t be at that elite level, I think we’ll be one of the better Ds in the conference. Hopefully, the Offense can come to life and put some points on the board.
I loved the Mason hire. I also think its pretty cool to hear him speak and be humble enough to not think he needs to come in and change a bunch of stuff. I personally think it was less about scheme/Knowles and more about the players on the field last year. Rodriguez was an animal who id take any day on my club. I know that the Cowboys are definitely going to be pressure on the QB with those edge guys. Theyre bigtime
Everybody know you start in the trenches. We lost 2 back ups on a line that lead the nation in sack what 3 in tfl.
Ford if ready should be an upgrade at de. Dt we will find one.
Cb could be better. Unsure on back ups. But they arent freshman.
Safety have plenty of talent.
If the defense drops off, it would more likely be the offense are improved. All these new qb everbody thinks their offenses will be great.
I forgot lb. Yes big question mark. They still play off the dline. We have 3 lb that have a bit of experience so the speed of the game wont be an issue. Its how well they know the defense and execute.
However…
1.) Our pass rush is going to be ELITE. Ford’s back. Oliver was a surprise stud with another year of camp and conditioning. Martin is an experienced veteran who disrupted last year. Combine this with much of the league bringing in new offenses and new QBs? It should be a buffet out there.
2.) It seems Gundy’s aware that the defense will take a step back. All indication is that we’re going uptempo and going to get out there and score. If Sanders can’t do that, we have bigger problems than defense. I think we’ve seen him enough to know that he can do that, though. He’s put up points in some big spots when the pressure was on and we needed them.
3.) We’re reportedly not changing much and most of the guys projected to start aren’t brand new and we’ve put more schollies on defense. We’ve seen guys slotting in on this defense and not losing as much production as we thought we would (Brock Martin and Colin Oliver for example). I have more faith in the defense’s resiliency than I ever have at OSU.
That said. We lost three guys to the NFL draft. The whole starting secondary. Rodriguez was a bigtime leader and heart of the D not to mention Harper’s insane athleticism. We aren’t going to overcome all of that and be just as good. I think they will still be good and will look even better against diminished competition. The league is going to be way down. New coaches everywhere ought to let an experienced dual threat QB like Sanders feast out there as he runs over defenses adjusting to new defensive schemes.
I’m not clairvoyant. The wheels might fall off of this whole deal and we have a season as disappointing as last year’s was surprising, but the road ahead looks good if the guys put the work in.
Biggest concern for me is Spencer. Accuracy and decision making. So far he’s an above average quarterback but not even close to what we thought he’d be.
I think his growth was stunted a bit early on due to injuries, COVID, and shuffling OCs every year. He looked like he made a nice jump with consistency at OC and a full offseason. I think he might surprise you this year, and I suspect we’ll be playing to his strength with some faster tempo.
