The safeties

[*Nate (formerly eliminate08)*]

(11-29-2023, 03:17 PM)Garrus Wrote: I was upset when they let Bell walk, I understood letting Bates go. The secondary is pretty young now except for Hilton, so it is understandable they are not as good as the last few years. The hope is they will be much improved next year as they continue to get game experience.

My big issue/fear with the future of the defense is the DL/pass rush. Murphy showed something last game, but we cannot yet depend on him developing enough to be a large contributor next year. We can hope he does become that guy, but he has not showed enough yet for him to be counted on.

Reader is a FA and will be another year older. There are already whispers that he has lost a step this year. I cannot confirm or deny that, but regardless that means NT needs filled next year, and I don't think we have anyone on the roster to replace him. Hill is a decent 3-tech, so I am fine with him, but Carter hasn't shown much to be good depth. I think they need another 3-tech to help with the pass rush like when we had Ogunjobi.

I'm not sure how much money there will be this offseason to find players Reader's caliber to replace him, so they may try to just resign him to a 1-year deal if he is willing.  Basically I worry about the depth and future of our DL. Outside Trey we have no pass rush and that makes the young secondaries job even harder.

This is why I hope we extend Reader for a year and add OL in Free Agency at both RT and LG.

Then we can add a top pass rusher and a 3-tech somewhat early if there are some special ones around like there should be.

I trust our DL coach in Hobby and Duke to draft DL more so than OL. Hopefully we bring in a good OL coach that knows OL 
and what he wants to do with the guys we have. Just make it fit, something is going on with the OL with their basics, this is 
on the OL coach IMO.

Back to the point though, we are good at Safety for the future on Defense it looks like, pass rushers are what we need and a
future NT and 3-tech. DL needs addressed. If we let Reader go, that is even a bigger hole.