New defensive weapons, new coaching. What do you expect?

What's the deal with Tony Brown?
NFL.com lists him as a DE he would be perfect for a 4-3 under, but the Titans wibsite doesn't list him anywhere on the depth chart.

 

It also shows Jason Jones at DE too. Doesn't mean anything right now.

 

Your probably right, but if you guys are running the 4-3 Under it makes sense that they would be listed as DE now if they weren't last year.

 

That depth chart was from the end of the season and is meaningless for this year. Brown wasn't playing and neither was Amano due to injury so they are not on there. It lists Velasco as starter at center.

http://www.titansonline.com/team/depth-chart.html

Lists the starting Dts as Marks and Jones. Note that it lists Jacob ford as a starter because Ball was out.

 

Assuming we go with the above alignment Morgan would be a nice fit as the strong side DE. Jones or Brown could both fit the weak side DT playing a 3 technique and we have a smaller pass rushing DE like Babin as the weak side DE. If they want to go with a bigger alignment Jones or Brown could also play strong side DE using a 3 technique as well (in the 3 technique the player blow through the gap and tries to get up field).

I think the NT DT whose primary job is to hold his gap and take up a OG and OC is going to be Casey or a vet DT they have openly talked about signing. They know they don't have anyone except maybe Casey who can play that role although Haye will probably be given a shot at that spot in camp. Essentially the weak side DT and strong side DE are somewhat interchangable and we have guys who are already a good fit.

I also think the Sam LB, Ayers, is going to be coming after the QB pretty frequently and for the most part will play the role Babin played on passing downs last year. I really think they want to get 5 guys going after the QB every play and will only drop the Sam and maybe off side DE occasionally to throw the QB off.

 

I hope we don't waste our money or time on Jason Babin.

 

Good post, Sox

I wrote this long reply that I didn't save, which got sucked into the internet ether.
http://www.pro-football-reference.com/teams/buf/2003.htm
^^Using the link above (awesome football reference btw) it showed that Gray's LDE as the Bills DC were right around the same size as Morgan and Jones. But, judging by that team's OLB sack totals I don't think that defense featured an OLB as a primary pass rusher.

If Gray is going to cater his defense to suit Akeem Ayers pass rushing skillset I still think Morgan and Jones could fit as the LDE if they can play stout against the run and can maybe bulk up a little. Their ability to pass rush from the LDE would be a benefit that might be worth the 10 lbs trade off, imo. Using Gray's experience coaching under Gregg Williams and Greg Blache as a porjection for a 43 under LDE ours averaged around 290 lbs (Daniels, Wynn, Demetric Evans). And an OLB was a primary pass rusher Marcus Washington and Brian Orakpo.

Now that I think about it the Redskins have been running a 43 under even before Gregg Williams got there when Arrington was our primary pass rusher and was protected by Wynn (292 lbs).

It will be interesting to watch how the defensive front will shake out, if and when there is a training camp

RDE-Babin (Ball or Ford if Babin is gone)
DT-Brown
NT-Casey
LDE-Jones/Morgan
SAM-Ayers

RDE-Morgan
DT-Jones
NT-Casey
LDE-Brown
SAM-Ayers

So many possibilities

Casey was a steal imo, very underrated NT prospect, I wouldn't be surprised if he challenges for a strating spot. Again, looking at the roster I can't believe how small and similar
your front is/was with so many DL players that are sub 300lbs around 275ish.

BTW-I see Sean Marks on the roster his height/weight looks the part, but being an outsider I don't know anything about him as a player but maybe he'll be in the fight too.

I think the defense is gonna be geared towards making Ayers a featured pass rusher too.

 

Seems like we are relying too much on Ayers being a strong point of attack player in this defense. What if he struggles? He is not a super physical type despite his size.

Maybe McCarthey is an option on that strong side also. In that scheme you need a Sam who can engage blockers not just run well.

 

One of the big problems with our D-line last year is that some younger players got the chance to play a lot and frankly didn't deliver. We all have been patient with Hayes given that he came from a small school but we expect a lot based on his size speed combination and he just has not delivered as a pass rusher.

Marks a late 2nd rd pick played a lot last year and started some games and was a non impact player. A 300 lb guy who supposed to be athletic and ideally suited to that one gap scheme yet no impact plays.

Ford just seems to be going down hill after a great 2008 which really was his rookie year after missing 07 with the injury.

Then there's Haye who makes $4M a year and has just been a decent run stopping backup guy and nothing more.



That's half our D-line right there and had Babin and Ball not played so well we would have had a non impact line last year.

 

Jones isn't going to bulk up any more. He has had 3 years to do that and has not added much weight despite playing inside. If we ask Morgan to add much more weight he will no longer be the type of player we drafted him for. We drafted him for his outside pass rushing abilities. He already has to rehab from a knee injury i wouldn't want to slow him down any.

Jones speed inside was a huge asset and Morgan is supposed to be a big pass rusher from the outside. I hope we are not going to play against their strengths just to fit a scheme. Grey had Kelsey and Schobel as his ends with the Bills and they were the 2 most talented guys he had. I hope we don't take Jones who is an impact player at DT and turn him into an ordinary player at DE.