Our D line will surprise people

Little more depth and I'll be happy. I'm hoping Tom Johnson breaks out

If Romeus is healthy and Jordan and Gallette continues to improve, our Dline will be much improved.

Well be hurting as long as Smith is out however. Bunkley is an upgrade at DT though.

We know what we have in Ellis.

I think that we're going to have to wait on Hicks, however. He's never had the training he needs.

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Spags is proven that he can create a nasty line and packages

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the giants GM proved he can draft the frick out of pass rushing DEs

Yes the Dline should be improved, but we still have no pass rushers. GW has become the scapegoat for ALL the defense's problems and thats just not fair to him.

Yes, he called too many blitzes. But he wouldnt have had to if Will Smith actually did his job.

When its 3 and 13, GW decides not to blitz, and NOBODY on the Dline gets off the ball, thats on Will Smith, Ellis, etc. Not GW.

Hoppefully Romeus is decent. But im not counting on a RS rookie coming off of multiple MAJOR injuries to make a huge impact. Gallette is Gallette. He basically runs up the field and gives the QB a lane to step up into on every play. Ellis is just a solid player. Not very impactful. And I like Jordan a lot, but he's not a pass rusher. Wasnt a pass rusher in college either. He'll probably always be a 5 sack guy that plays really well against the run.

And Martez Wilson is a great athlete but he's still in the middle of a major transition. The guy was a college MLB. Now he's trying to transition into some Clay Matthews type pass rushing hybrid OLB/DE

So I think we'll be better on defense. More fundamental, but I still dont see where the pass rush is gonna come from

During the draft day pressers Spags was mentioning that they're gonna be a press coverage team. Said they liked long armed, strong CBs to get into the WRs on the line.

With less manufacturing of a pass rush and our CBs pressing WRs, our secondary is toast if we can't get a 4 man pass rush

Really hope that Romeus and Junior play well this year. If Hicks/Ellis/Jordan can get a good rush up the middle on passing downs, it will help our DEs out a ton. I think Ellis is going to continue to suck, though...

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I think Ellis is going to continue to suck, though...

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hopefully Ellis busts arse this year...if not he's never going to get a decent contract again

I'm hopeful but not assured by any means

The difference between avearge/okay and dominate/great can be very small though.

Last year Saints had 33 sacks, NFL avg 37, Only 6 teams had 10 or more sacks than the Saints. Only 2 teams (Phi & Minn) reached 50 sacks (50 exactly). Here's some modest expectations-

Smith, stay at 6.5 hopefully with age and possible suspension
Cameron Jordan from 1 to 4, reasonable expectation
Galette from 4.5 to 5.5, modest improvement
Ellis from .5 to 2.5, had 6 in '10,
McBride from 2 to 3, injured much of '11
Johnson 1 to 3, injured a lot too
that's every DL that had a sack last year except Charleston (1) which we dunno if he'll be back

LBs had 7 sacks, let's reduce that to 5
DBs had 9.5 sacks (Harper 7.5), let's reduce that to 5

Modest hope for newcomers-
Romeus 2
Hicks 2
Bunkley 1

That's pretty conservative hoping and gets you to right at 40 sacks. That's an improvement into mid-tier sack range. Between all of those guys it will take 8-10 more to get to elite level. Can it happen? Sure, but there's always injuries and we have to see what the suspensions might bring. It won't be easy.

How about the optimistic hope range?
Smith could have more than 6.5 even with suspension
5-6 would be my high hope for Jordan
I haven't quit hoping in Galette. It's a long development path for him. 10+ still a possibility
Ellis back to '10 standard would be a +5.5, it's a contract year for him
McBride & Johnson will add a few just by being healthy
We have no real clue for Hicks and Romeus but just one of them turning into a force could be the missing piece

Fundamental tackling would improve this defense. By a lot