They are always solid, and last year they were great. Last year they literally won us 2-3 games. I think many of you are under appreciating what JC meant to the team and what it would take to replace him.
I stand by my comment. It will take winning the turnover battles and a few breaks to get to 10 or more wins. A great OL won’t be enough.
You know what ... losing Campbell will leave a mark. Certainly, we cannot play the same exact way we did last year ... because he's no longer on the roster.
However, that begs the question ... can Phil pivot and scheme things to the strengths of his given personnel? To that end ... I believe he can.
As good as the D was last year ... impressively, it could have been even better. Some may not have noticed ... but dual injuries to Jacobs and Roberts really put some strong constraints on what we could do ... or rather, we had to move away from some of the things that the coaches were hoping to do.
In facing that adversity, Seth and Phil did a great job of moving Seth over to the OLB spot ... that way Jay Higgins could continue to develop and play to his strengths at ILB.
Ideally, when going Cash, Phil initially wanted Coop at Cash. However, with all the injuries at CB ... our limited depth forced Phil's hand there, and Coop had to remain at CB for rest of the season.
Of course, when there is adversity ... that supplies opportunity for the development of depth ... if guys rise up to meet the challenge. I think that it's fair to say that guys like DeJean, Higgins, Castro, and many others rose up through the season ... and helped the defense to maintain such a high-level of performance.
When thinking about how the Hawks might pivot defensively, as they enter 2023 ... it's also useful to reflect upon what the unit returns, as much as what it loses.
If folks recall, the Iowa DL was really quite young/inexperienced back in '21. However, the '22 DL leveraged their experience gained from '21 and played at a significantly higher level. Given that Iowa rotates a lot of guys on the DL ... the implication is that a lot of guys have gotten experience over the past several years. It stands to reason that guys like Craig, Hurkett, Black, etc ... they all should be continuing to improve and play at a higher level. At this stage, Lee and Evans (and Shannon) are extremely veteran guys. Who isn't excited to see Graves continue to develop?
When Iowa transitioned at LB from '17 to '18 ... after having lost all their starting LBs ... we NOBODY who had much returning experience. The closest thing to an experienced guy was Hockaday ... who was a career backup. To Hockaday's credit ... his leadership and consistent play was a huge asset to the LB room. When you look to the '23 LBs ... sure they have big shoes to fill. However, the guys stepping up are a lot more experienced than the guys were in '18. Interestingly, Iowa's ability to lean on the Cash-based D also played a significant role in mitigating the effect of losing guys like Jewell and Niemann. It helps when you can schematically worry only about reloading at the 2 ILB spots ... rather than needing to worry about re-filling 3 primary spots.
Anyhow, I think that there is a lot of value in all the games that Jackson has played. Hopefully he doesn't have any troubles learning Iowa's D. Certainly, the importance of getting our DL lined up will still be of great significance. Also, Kirk spoke quite highly of Higgins last season ... remarking on how he would have been a starter (earlier) for other teams ... but that he's been a great team-guy and playing well within his role. I'm excited to see Jay continue to grow as a player.
Part of the genius of Phil Parker has been his ability to defend the run game with surprisingly few hats in the box. With the secondary then maintaining their zone eyes ... it opens up a lot more opportunity to get picks.
And this leads to the secondary. Even with the loss of Moss and Merriweather ... I think that most (sane) folks realize that the secondary should be quite a strength for the Iowa D in '23. There's a surprising amount of starting experience in the group ... with DeJean, Harris, Castro, and Schulte all being perceived as regular starters. The only "new" guy to the unit is Nwankpa ... and who isn't excited about him? Also, we seem to be developing some depth in the DB room ... so maybe Phil will be able to exploit a hand that is dealt from having a wealth of riches.
