re: 2014 Linebackers

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That comes from a current player. Said Debo works hard, is a freak athlete, but things like not knowing where to line up or what his assignment is is what is limiting his snaps.

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That's odd. That goes against everything that was said about him coming out of high school. He supposedly had a high football IQ.

if welter isn't a backup MLB in 2014, the defense will struggle once again in the middle. Welter has made literally a handful of good plays but gets lost. He was a liability on the field and got pushed around. He was supposed to be out there to get the defense set, but they looked confused as well. chavis looks at film. he studies it. there is NO way he doesn't see the glaring weakness of welter at MLB.

Poor defensive line play really hurt the LBers early last season. I believe that's part of the reason why Welter struggled so much most of the season.

Kwon needs to be the star. He was my darkhorse pic for 1st team All-SEC last year and never got any momentum going. So here I am again saying that Kwon has a chance to be a top 5 linebacker in this league. If he performs the way he did at Florida in 2012, we'll be well on our way to a top 3 league defense.

Louis jones and Feist have also been disappointing so far. My expectations of these three were very high. They still have time, but these guys have to step up this year.

As many have mentioned, Welter is the guy until things get bad. Beckwith and Garrett know this and I am sure they will be ready if DJ struggles early again.

Debo, debo, and debo

Man, a lot of you guys are crapping on Welter like he was the sole reason the defense struggled. I can't honestly say any player on the D played consistently good last season. The secondary had broken assignments, the D line struggled to get consistent pressure and the DEs and OLBs did not contain well at all. Welter certainly had his struggles, but he was only part of a unit that was going through a transition. Remember last year was his first year starting. Upperclassman or not, it takes time. I'm sure also having to get everyone lined up and on the same page with the assignments made it more difficult for him to be a playmaker vs game manager. I would have liked to see better play out of the MLB spot too, but I also see the challenges Welter was facing.

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Man, a lot of you guys are crapping on Welter like he was the sole reason the defense struggled.

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This

Welterball 2014

Because a tackle is a tackle even if you're on your back 6 yards downfield holding on for dear life.

Who would you say was the worst defensive starter (by far) last season or for the past 20 years?

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Who would you say was the worst defensive starter (by far) last season or for the past 20 years?

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Honestly it was a team effort of badness. A better question would be how many games were lost due to poor DB play or lack of pressure on the QB.
Welter had 81 tckls, 4 TFL and 2 sacks. Barrow led the team with 91 tckls, 5.5 TFL and 1.5 sacks. Welter had 9 tckls against GA, 11 against Auburn, 6 vs A&M and Iowa. So he did perform in big games. Of the 3 losses we gave up 300yds and 4 TDs passing to GA, 350yds passing to Ole Miss and 180 yds and 3 passing TDs to Bama.
My point is that although Welter was far from great and maybe even marginal at best, he was not the main reason the D was poor. I think people don't get that up until last season he had 7 tackles as a Tiger. He was given the captains position on a D that was gutted the previous season with all of the defections to the draft.