Will we have a better pass rush this year?

[Bengalstripes9]

The secondary has never been extremely talented under Lou.
Safety we had a couple years of borderline elite play from Vonn and Bates.
At corner our players were mostly above average at best.

Last year the entire secondary sucked.
A lot of that had to do with losing Vonn and Bates, and going to a youth movement at both corner and safety.

Last year was basically rock bottom for the secondary.
They have addressed corner through the draft and safety through FA and the draft.
The young secondary players they drafted recently should be learning and improving.
Last year's experience is extremely valuable for those players.

At this point the secondary is very much wait and see when projecting how good they can be.
I'm optimistic.
I like the players they drafted.
I like the safeties they added in FA.

On paper they should be better than last year:
They added Vonn and Stone.
The young secondary players should be better with another year of experience.
They were terrible last year--so it's much more likely they are better.

How much better is anyone's guess.
In my opinion, the secondary has the potential to be as good as they were on their two deep playoff runs recently.

Up front on defense, they certainly have more depth in the pass rush and run defense.
They should be as good as last year.
Whether they are better will come down to how much the young players develop like Murphy, Ossai and the DTs.
If they are worse I think it will be due to injury or starters falling off a cliff.

My predictions?

I could see Murphy taking a step forward this year and building off of last year.
I think we'll see a much better rotation up front on defense.
A deeper and more talented rotation (what I'm expecting) should lead to a more successful front 7 in stopping the run and rushing the passer.
I'm expecting the pass rush and run D to stay fresh and effective late in games (not wear down).
I'm expecting the front 7 and secondary to improve as the year goes on.