re: How does the loss of Perkins affect your outlook on the rest of the season?

Agree but Suggs has been playing a lot all year. McKinley helping in the middle vs run and pass would be a huge upgrade if he can play like he did on Saturday. Thats where we’re hurting most.

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Doesnt affect it at all.

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Really. Losing a future 1st rounder makes 0 impact?

Agreed. Guys like McKinley, Suggs, Womack, Toviano, Singleton and others are poised to contribute and help this DEF reach its potential.
I trust Baker and his staff to get the right guys on the field, and in the right scheme to be successful. Players need to put in the work - practice and film - to be ready AND execute on game day. GT!

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and he’s shown that he doesn’t really have a spot on the field anyway. He’s a tweener.

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NFL will make a spot for him if he recovers. It'll be situational at best and ST play.

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They rarely used Perkins correctly

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Not sure that’s a fair assessment. At some point you have stop blaming the coaches and accept that his freshman year was the outlier and maybe he just wasn’t as good as we all thought.

Not a 1st round draft pick

This isn't the 80s, a torn ACL isn't considered a career threatening injury.

You don't pay much attention to the draft, do you? He'll still be drafted, and probably day 2 at the latest just based on potential.

I think the defensive coaches can settle into more of a routine that can be more easily learned. Having to constantly do trial and error with Perkins cause supposedly “he needs to be on the field every play” has probably hampered scheme and preparation more than we know.

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I rewatched the UCLA game and it easily could have been the blowout we wanted. Our defense stepped up and played way better as the game progressed. Perkins was honestly a non factor in most of the game. (Wishing him a speedy recovery)

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He really has not lived up to the hype the last two seasons. And I am a big fan of Perk.

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Do you think his injury loses us a game or two we wouldn’t have?

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It limits our spy options for QBs like Milroe but his open-field tackling and tendency to bite on misdirection may have limited his effectiveness anyway. If it does, it is likely to be more about depth than specifically him.

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Do you think Baker can still field a good defense against Ole Miss and Bama?

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Probably but I am not certain the specifics of how.

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If so, how should we replace Perk?

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That is the rub, isn't it? I think it's just a swap in terms of total personnel with West Weeks coming off injury and getting more snaps now. The only real question is who fills his duties when we need that spy. I would guess Whit but not sure.

Here is a list of LBs on the roster. The guys in bold are pretty much assured of being part of the LB rotation since they already have games played this season, as I stated I think Weeks the elder just fills a rotation slot that Perk was in before.

Greg Penn III - 6'-2 234 lbs,Senior - 4 games

Xavier Atkins - 6'-0 210 lbs,Freshman - 3 games

West Weeks - 6'-3 234 lbs,Senior - 2 games

Whit Weeks - 6'-2 228 lbs,Sophomore - 4 games

Davhon Keys - 6'-0 230 lbs,Freshman - 3 games

Tylen Singleton - 6'-1 212 lbs,Freshman

Kenzel Kelly - 5'-11 235 lbs,Graduate Student transfer from Grand Valley State - 1 game

Jake Ibieta - 6'-1 230 lbs,Redshirt Freshman

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Not sure that’s a fair assessment. At some point you have stop blaming the coaches and accept that his freshman year was the outlier and maybe he just wasn’t as good as we all thought.

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I mean he lined up a bunch off the edge his freshman year and rushed the passer in those situations. He killed it doing that.

We havent really done that with him much since then. It's been a lot of "trying to get him to play his NFL position" which simply hasnt seen near the same type of production.

He's just a weird player in the sense his best attribute is clearly pass rush off the edge but his size dictates he plays a different position long term for his career which is what they've tried to do over the last 2 seasons since his freshmen year. Not many 220-225lb pure edge rushers in the NFL and his camp knows that. The unfortunate thing is he hasnt shown he can do anything else at really even just an above average level consistently. He isnt a good tackler, so inside linebacker hasnt been a good move for him. He can spy a mobile QB, but that's a very limited need skillset based on who we play.

On the other hand, why line him up off the edge to rush the passer when you have Swinson absolutely dominating there. I dont want him off the field pretty much ever if we can. I guess in OBVIOUS 3rd/long type plays you can put both out there on the edge but thats a pretty limited package type.

Perkins was great in coverage last season but they've decided to shift his position kind of away from that this year. I always though at STAR he made some sense because he can cover those players typically and you can use him creatively off the edge blitzing easily.