Fuck, I miss Bob Sutton.
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Yep. And typically when you blow up a defense, you go young -- you don't trade draft picks away for cap-draining vets. Nobody could have anticipated just how bad Frank Clark is, but you don't go after guys like that for a rebuild.
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Not defending Veach at all, but most people around here were unanimously defending the idea of going all in for the SuperBowl this year. Which means picking up free agents and not waiting for draft picks to develop. Unfortunately that hasn't panned out so far. It looks like we'll be going for a longer term rebuild after this year.
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At this point I'm not convinced.

We were one play away from the Super Bowl. Last year's defense clearly wasn't good enough, but you don't blow up a near-Super Bowl roster. We needed a retooling, not a full on rebuild.

How much better does this defense look if we keep Houston, trade Ford, never trade for Clark, go after Clowney and burn that 1st rounder we traded for Clark on a CB or LB?
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I miss Justin Houston
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I thought that until we made mostly lateral moves and hired a DC with a history of finishing in the bottom 5.

i was worried this would happen. It wasn't a popular opinion 3 months ago, but it sure as shit was right.

I was right. Spags IS a worse coach than Sutton. Which is why he finished in the bottom 5 more often.

The problem is we're going to have to deal with 3-4 years of excuses while the defense continues to suck.
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At least we had a pass rush with last year's shit show.
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I cringe every time I read on CP when a poster says "well, it can't get any worse".
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I don't know if that's the answer, but it's kind of why I was lukewarm on the Ramsey thing. You just can't keep trading 1st round draft picks away.
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No, because Trent Richardson was never a good player in the NFL. Clark was.
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Our defense missed him in big games, too.
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Eh, that was always overblown by Chiefs fans. The majority of the criticism at Houston was that he missed games in each of the past two years. With that said, he was always a difference maker when he was on the field - and we need that right now.

Does Frank Clark get the strip-sack against Baltimore that ended up locking us in for home-field advantage last year?

What about the 2 sacks, fumble recovery, and knockdown against the Colts in the playoffs?

He also had game-changing plays against the Cardinals, a crucial sack against Denver in Denver last year, 2 sacks against the Chargers in Arrowhead (another big game, despite the loss), and averaged almost a sack a game last year.

I miss him. Sure, he cost a lot of money - but we took someone who was giving us production and took a gamble that someone could, at best, replicate that production.

It's been a disaster. Great work by R&V.
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sometimes we have to take a step backwards before we can take a step forwards
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Not if you fall off a cliff.
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Blowing up last year's defense and not committing to Ford long term was the right move.

Not paying Houston $22 million to play this year was also the right move.

Unfortunately, replacing talent does not seem to have gone well.

The largest problem is DT. Jones is a disruptor in the pass rush, but is still undisciplined in run defense. Nobody else seems good at either. Nnadi is about the best we've got, and he's real average.

The second biggest problem is LB. ALL are terrible tacklers and don't shed blocks AT ALL.

Clark is not the worst player on this defense, but he's paid to be the best and thus far is not even close to earning that paycheck. He's been Ogbah, basically.

Safety play has been generally pretty good; Honey Badger is his usual self. Thornhill makes some rookie mistakes, but also makes some nice plays and is a pretty good tackler. I can see Thornhill becoming a really good player.

CB play has been uneven; I would say overall they're better there than last year.

I don't think the sky has fallen exactly, but it's clear to me what the glaring weaknesses are. Defensively, we need a couple of big, nasty, run stuffing Defensive tackles. We need a couple of hard nosed, fly-to-the-ball linebackers.

Offensively, we mostly need to get healthy. We can put up numbers with either Hill or Watkins but not without both, not with this offensive line.

Which is the glaring weakness of this offense: The offensive line when healthy is barely good enough. Any injuries, and it's ****ed. They really, really miss Fisher. Erving is terrible. LG is a black hole. Reiter is < Morse, although I understand why they let Morse go after so many concussions.I'd say he's slightly below average. Doc is average, and Shwartz is a plus player.

This offseason needs to be the year of the fatty. We desperately need to rebuild the trenches.

We don't control the line of scrimmage, even on the days when we hang 40 on people. That problem has come home to roost.
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