DL - Could be special

Ultimately a team can't be real bad at either component of the defense to have success. A great pass rush with a poor secondary won't work nor will a good back end with a poor pass rush.

Thing is we sucked at both components last year mostly do to injury. Adoree, Brown and Clowney primarily. Thus it is insane to argue which hurt us more since the whole thing was a cluster along with coaching.

JRob looked at his options in FA, and the strength of the draft, and concluded his best use of CAP money was to bolster the pass rush and go younger in the secondary. So it wasn't an either or. We have taken a CB in the 2nd and 1st round in each of the last two drafts. We also took one in the 3rd round to play NB. Jenkins wasn't a bad signing for the money and style we want to play as he is a decent man cover CB. The guy we took in the 1st is potentially a generational talent and the guy we took in the 3rd is smart, instinctive.

This idea King was a great player was debunked (we didn't try to re-sign him despite being cheap and drafted his replacement) and the potential of Molden is far greater. Fulton was ranked 22nd by CBS going into the 2020 draft but people forget he is even on the roster. Breon Borders was the 22nd ranked CB by PFF last year starting 5 games for us before getting hurt.

 

One of the reasons we signed Jenkins and drafted Farley was so we can play more tight man instead of 10 yards off the ball. Fulton can play tight man as well. So that helps negate the quick easy throws and if they want to run longer developing plays we now have a pass rush to get to the QB. Before, with no pass rush, we risked getting beat deep so we opted to play off more.

It wouldn't surprise me to see Fulton starting opposite Farley at some point with Molden in the slot. That is the plan for the future and I think a pretty good one. Jenkins is a stop gap until the young guys are ready.

 

I remember we started out 2019 with Wake having a big game against the Browns and we thought we had something. Many thought we had one of the better secondary in the league at that time (Ryan, Butler, Adoree, Vaccaro and Byard).

 

There is always an unknown when it comes to young players. But at the same time we tend to be overly critical of our own team in that regard. If the Colts took two CBs in the first two rounds the last two years the same fans would be scared to death of their defense. The way I see it is we have enough bodies with potential we should be able to field a pretty decent group. The floor is decent and the upside is fantastic. I also have to believe Farley will get on the field this year and is an instant player. Fulton's injury and insane use of Joseph early last year hurt him.