Where we at?

[Ram_Rally]

The young guys have had a year to learn and grow; our secondary should be better. I hope.

Well our corners are actually pretty well aged. Williams and Witherspoon are both 30 or older. And this is year 4 for Durant, but maybe there's some room for improvement there.

 

[AZRams]

I think we're a contender but our secondary is on the weak side among those teams. Might not matter if our offense is great and our defensive front eats opposing QBs though.

Great secondary play creates coverage sacks. Perhaps the opposite can be true if the front is relentlessly getting to/affecting the QB.

 

[Merlin]

Great secondary play creates coverage sacks. Perhaps the opposite can be true if the front is relentlessly getting to/affecting the QB.

Certainly true. The two are symbiotic in that way. And I think last season the front was so good in the latter half of the season that the secondary benefitted greatly. Not to take away from some great plays by them of course. But clearly the weakest part of this defense is the secondary.

Hopefully we win it all this year. But if not I'd imagine we go get a top corner with one of those two high picks. A corner who can erase top draws would put this defense into rare levels of dominance.

 

[Karate61]

And I think last season the front was so good in the latter half of the season that the secondary benefitted greatly.

That is a great point. We all noticed the dline coming together late in the season. We also noticed the secondary coming on late in the season and into the playoffs. I never put the two together, but the secondary must have been the beneficiary of the dline coming alive. If this is true, the defense should be improved this coming season all together as I would anticipate the dline maybe even getting better than this last year.

 

[RamFan503]

That is a great point. We all noticed the dline coming together late in the season. We also noticed the secondary coming on late in the season and into the playoffs. I never put the two together, but the secondary must have been the beneficiary of the dline coming alive. If this is true, the defense should be improved this coming season all together as I would anticipate the dline maybe even getting better than this last year.

I still think it’s a little column A and a little column B. A secondary that locks up the receivers can make a line look good and vice verse.

We can all hope that both were improving and that will continue.

A lot is said about an Oline jelling. But a secondary also has to get into a groove where they feel confident that their teammates will be where they think they’ll be.

This is part of why I’m not overly excited about getting Ramsey back. While I think he still has a lot of what it takes to be a great addition, he tends to point at other players when a big play happens around him.

And for the record, it should have been clear to all the refs that he was grabbed by the facemask in that big TD in the SB. There’s no way I put that play on him.

 

[Elmgrovegnome]

I think we adequately & directly addressed the significant holes in this team, enough so that I think we're definitely considered a playoff contender -- i.e., if we don't make the playoffs, it will be a downer.
Defense - The D-line is frightening; I have christened them "the Choir of Chaos". Adding Stewart & Poona is significant, as they provide the anchor in the middle & the speed on the fringes at OLB. If we kept it the same as '24, we'd be good, but adding these 2 makes us a complete nightmare for offenses.
ILB was a huge hole. Paul & Speights & Landman are great additions to what was a very lackluster room. Paul especially gives us that sideline-to-sideline LB that we've been missing.
I also thought we'd add more at CB. There's still time, though, and Kinchens, Witherspoon & Durant were coming along nicely towards the end of the season, so maybe we actually are OK there.
Offense - we really, really needed to add playmakers, especially with the decline & departure of Kupp. Adams, Ferg, & Hunter round out our complement of playmakers at all 3 levels nicely. Getting Higgs back for a full season would be terrific, we saw the difference he makes when he's in the lineup. Adams gives us a true downfield threat, and Ferg.... he's a sneaky TE. He's VERY good at getting open, seamlessly switching from blocking to getting open. Not dominantly athletic, but will make nice plays for us. When he is on the field, he *has* to be accounted for.
So yes, all in all I think we in a great position to go deep this year. (Achilles heel: LOT, as has been mentioned)

Agreed. This was Shula’s scheme. I’m sure there was a learning curve. Things got better as the season went on.