Defensive Personnel changes coming?

[*Wyche'sWarrior*]

(11-01-2016, 04:16 PM)wolfkaosaun Wrote: Shaw should stay in the nickel CB position. No need to put him elsewhere, he excels there.

Sims and Clarke are good rotational payers, but don't believe they'd be good starters.

We need better play calling. Heck. 7 times against the Redskins Guenther put MJ or Dunlap drop into coverage. Some happened on 3rd down.

The hard thing is, are there really any better players on the bench? Sure. We talk about Vigil because of how he looked in preseason, but I'm pretty sure Erickson has shown us to take the preseason with a grain of salt.

There needs to be changes, but they also need to draft better. We may see a huge overhaul on the defense in 2017. And we need one. Including DC.

In 2014, we had the 22nd best defense. Years before? 3rd. 6th. And 7th.
Points per game? 5th. 8th. And 9th.
In 2014 with him as DC, 12th in points scored. But also had the least sacks in the league. Something the Bengals were once known for.

This year? Rank 24th in defense. Tied for 19th in scoring defense. Given up 16 passing TDs. Ranked 28th in the league, tied with Carolina.

Guenther did well in 2015. I will give him that. But our defense has not been consistent. We used to be a defense teams feared, even on 3rd down. Now? 40.6% 3rd down percentage against us.

I think our position coach changes may be the least talked about thing. We've taken steps back on that, especially on defense. New DB coach. New LB coach. New DL coach. And almost everyone on defense has taken a step back.

All good points, but with Peko and MJ getting a little bit up in years, I wonder if they wouldn't be more effective rested coming off the bench. Sims is solid against the run, and Clarke has generated some pressure in somewhat limited action.