Under-appreciated consideration concerning the D

[ghostOfHomer777]

If we're contrasting the 2017 and 2018 Ds, here are some things (that I find interesting) that are perhaps worth chewing on ....

• Given Snyder's injury - the '17 D only returned Taylor as an experienced safety. However, as we all recall, while I love Taylor for how he bled black-and-gold ... his play was often less than consistent. The offshoot being that while he could make big plays and big hits ... he'd also have missed assignments that would hurt the Hawks equally as much. Through the course of the '17 season, Gervase and Hooker saw extensive action ... and both developed favorably. Even Stone made noise ... and established some momentum for himself. Thus, heading into the '18 season, we're returning 3 safeties whom I would trust to start ... and a 4th guy whom I'm exceedingly excited about. The FS is the "QB of the secondary" ... and, in all honesty, despite a somewhat rough start to the season ... the Iowa passing D really developed favorably as the season progressed. Given that we return experience at FS ... that ought to translate to extra leadership to the secondary AND it ought to translate to improved communication too (which is huge).
• While the Hawks returned 3 starters on the DL in '17, we also took a blow to our depth entering the season because Matt Nelson had to learn a new position which took away from our experienced DE depth AND we lost Jaleel and Faith to graduation. That was some legit firepower! Thus, given how much the Hawks ended up rotating guys on the DL ... we saw Lattimore, Reiff, Epenesa, and Brincks all see a ton of reps ... despite all having very little prior experience. Furthermore, Matt Nelson was new to DT ... so he saw a lot of snaps where he was learning on the job and transitioning from being serviceable to being productive. For all of us who had eyes ... our bend-but-not-break D certainly did its job in '17 .... however, our run D was still a bit softer than any of us would have liked to have seen. Given our experience at LB ... a lot of that "softness" was likely due to both our "newness" at safety (in run support) ... and even more due to all the new and rotating bodies on the DL. Having all those fresh legs ultimately helped us a ton on pass D (or so I'd hypothesize) ... but without having the prior experience, it likely hurt us against the run. Thus, as we look to the '18 season, I'd primarily only look to Golston as being the only relatively inexperienced guy to see a lot of reps for us. All that returning experience ought to ultimately pay dividends for us ... and I suspect that it could help us against the run.
• Kind of a no-brainer ... but we obviously have to contend with having a new MIKE LB. Thus, despite all my bullishness concerning our DL ... the MIKE LB is still responsible for making sure the DL is lined up correctly. Newness at the MIKE spot could conceivably impact some of the productivity of our DL.
• It's easy to forget that we graduated 2 multi-year starters at CB following the '16 season. Neither Jackson or Rugamba had much prior starting experience before the '17 season. Thus, as we head into the '18 season, while we have no guarantee that we'll see somebody emerge like Josh did last year ... the fact remains that we essentially return the equivalent to 1 returning starter at CB. Furthermore, we return 2 other guys who saw a lot of quality snaps. On top of that, while a lot of our depth is still pretty young ... it still goes without saying that the Hawks arguably won't be lacking for hungry young talent at CB. Thus, as a collective, it may be possible that our CB group could be stronger than its '17 equivalent (at least at equivalent times of the season).

So the only tired point we're left to return to is the obvious .... were awfully green at LB. Nothing will change that until those guys see game reps. It will be exciting to see how the guys respond to the opportunities before them. Furthermore, it will be fascinating to see how Phil ends up scheming things - given the personnel he has.

 

[Pepperman]

Most important part of any D is the line. We should be good across the DL and plenty deep, although maybe ever so slightly undersized?

I’m not sure if I’d say LB or secondary is next most important. Maybe LB given Iowa plays such a standard 4-3 and relies on the LB to defend WR many times... dunno, have to think through this some more.

I’m happy that we should have a pretty solid secondary and a strong DL. Hard to complain too much about that D at this stage.

 

[Hawk94Mn]

Can’t ask for a better set of circumstance to break in a new batch of linebackers. I think the D line has the potential to give every team we play problems in pass pro. However I am worried about our ability to fit the run. As you mentioned, the rushing defense wasn’t stellar at points last season. This was likely due to some green DT’s and perhaps a couple missed tackles by inexperience safeties.

But, as you noted, we return TALENTED depth at the D-end and Safety positions. Hooker and Snyder will both be excellent C/D gap defenders. Hesse/Nelson have loads of experience and Epenesa might be the most talented player on the team.

That means our linebackers will hopefully receive some edge support, and be relied upon to stop familiar power and zone schemes that they fit all the time.

I like the athleticism of our projected LB’s. Let’s see if they can prepare. That’s the one thing I’m sure Josey left them with.

 

[grayhair81]

The pattern for most of the B1G season last year was to start Taylor at safety because he was a senior and had earned it and after he had whiffed on a couple of tackles quickly insert Hooker. Nothing out of the ordinary. Hooker looks like the most dynamic safety since Bob Sanders. I assume he will be on the field all the time this year unless he is hurt, but it wouldn't surprise me terribly if that isn't the case.
And I am more worried about CB than I am LB even though I agree it will take a while for them to gel.