CharVike wrote: ↑Fri Jun 30, 2023 4:18 pm
StumpHunter wrote: ↑Fri Jun 30, 2023 6:48 am
They lost a double digit sack guy and replaced him with a guy who had 2 more pressures and 1 fewer sack on the entire season than Smith had in the second half of the year when he was supposedly doing so little (12th in pressures from week 10-18). They also lost their best interior defensive lineman by far, and replaced him with Green Bay's worst player on the interior. PP was very good for the Vikings last season, playing at a level Murphy could only dream of. All three downgraded significantly, and downgrading 3 of your top 5 defensive players is not how you build a championship defense.
For the month of October, Smith was named the NFC Defensive Player of the month with 14 tackles, 6.5 sacks, eight tackles for loss, and a pass breakup. In Week 8, Smith had seven tackles, three sacks, four tackles for loss, and a pass breakup in a 34–26 win over the Arizona Cardinals, earning NFC Defensive Player of the Week. If he did more than a little he would have had many more sacks and been worth more in a trade. He had a monster month. Footballs Mr. October.
PP had a decent season but was roasted in the playoff game. I never claimed Murphy was that great. He was a FA for a reason. Davenport was a FA for a reason also. Both guys could be garbage just like Trae Waynes was for the Bengals. That's the FA market. Hopefully Flores can get more out of them. We certainly could drop on defense. It's not that far to the bottom.
I just don't think Smith made all that much of a difference in the bigger picture. If he had, he would have fetched far more in trade than KAM managed to get. PP was way past his prime. Yes, he was the best CB the Vikings had last year, but that isn't saying much and even if it did say much, PP isn't the future. The Vikings are going to have to find and develop some actual young CBs if they ever want to compete for a Superbowl. May as well get started this year. Tomlinson was good, and his loss will be felt, but as with the CBs, the Vikings need to find some interior DL production from guys they've drafted recently. They haven't drafted well at the position in recent years, and no number of free agent bandages are going to stem the bleeding on the interior unless they get that turned around.
Let's face it - the defense was a liability last year and if I were a betting man I'd guess it will be a liability again this year. However, the difference between the defense heading into last year and the defense heading into this year is that this year I think they have a better overall chance of substantial improvement. Last year's defense needed a lot of older vets to perform consistently throughout the season, and most of them failed to do so. To improve over that result, this year's defense needs a lot of younger guys to start well and improve with consistency as the season goes on. If there is a DC who is going to enable that to happen, Flores is the right guy. He'll be honest about what he has, and more importantly, what he doesn't have, and will design a scheme that fits that reality. It might not be enough, because in the end no scheme can overcome bad players, but if the players respond and do their part, and they have the athletic talent to do that, then this is a defense that I believe can not only improve over last year's unit, but will be playing it's best when it matters most.