Are Pac - 12 defenses trending up?

UW will be greatly improved in their second season under Wilcox. Shelton, Timu, Parker and Thompson give them a star at every level.

Oregon State needs to replace the middle of their defense but have Chrichton, Wynn, Doctor, Alexander and two returning safeties that should make them improved.

Oregon will be better except at linebacker. It's hard to argue that they could maintain at linebacker after losing Jordan (#3 overall pick) and Alonso (#46 overall pick) and the leading tackler from last year, Michael Clay. However, the overall defense should be better with last year's true freshman trifecta (Arik Armstead, DeForest Buckner, and Alex Balducci) gaining in experience to blend experience (Heimuli, Keliikipi and Hart) with top shelf talent on the DLINE. The secondary just gets deeper.

Stanford - I can't say enough about this defense, so I will stop.

USC - they should have a formidable front seven returning most of the front seven including stud Morgan Breslin. These guys were terriblely inexperienced last year but athletically gifted. It should come together.

UCLA - They have some nice pieces and a couple great recruiting classes under their belt. Barr is a freak.


I have seen Anthony Barr, Ifo Ekpre Olomu, Danny Shelton, Scott Chrichton, Trent Murphy, Morgan Breslin, Will Sutton, Ed Reynolds, DeAndre Coleman given 1st round or high second round draft grades. The Pac is setting up to have a banner year, especially when you add in the offensive side of the ball with Colt Lyerla, Austin Saferian Jenkins, Marquis Lee, De'Anthony Thomas, Ka'Deem Carey, David Yankey, and Marcus Mariota.