What's the overall potential for the defense?

[r8rh8rmike]

Some questions were posed in a thread by Av regarding certain aspects of the defense, but I'd like to get an idea of what people think about how the unit will perform as a whole. I know it's very early, but what's your feel about the potential of the squad as a cohesive unit and their ability to be effective in Marmie's system?

With all the question marks, new personnel and unproven palyers, I don't know what to think, but I've got to believe we'll improve.

[RealRam]

Good question, r8rh8rmike. Good FOOTBALL question (glad to see we're back to actual football format in our forum). Thanks!

Yes, it may be too early to tell but 'nothing wrong in speculating with what we have and know at this stage. I'm normally optimistic on this and today is not the exception.

I believe that our DEFENSE will d-e-f-i-n-i-t-e-l-y be IMPROVING this season, perhaps even considerably. Our LB corps is already on the upgrade and we currently have an army of Ram DBs to carefully select from before the season starts.

I look forward to between 10 - 14 more INTs this year. Optimistically.

Lewis and Kennedy, our high hopes of a few years ago seem to be healthy and back on the promising pedestal. I think they themselves will be very eager to prove their draft worth as strong DL. In addition, Tyoka Jackson, Leonard Little, Ryan Pickett, Brian Howard, Jay Williams, Anthony Hargrove, and, hopefully, Brandon Green (I kind of like his potential) should all be READY TO RAM RUMBLE!

An improved, more effective D against the run, a higher turnover ratio and more aggresive pass rush ought to provide a much better chance of winning more games this year.

I'd like to see what TX, our ClanRam Defensive Coordinator, thinks of our 05 D.

[r8rh8rmike]

I'd like to see what TX, our ClanRam Defensive Coordinator, thinks of our 05 D.

Me too RealRam. Tx always has solid opinions of the defense as do many many others here.

[RAMMAN68]

I'm very optimistic about the D. As RealRam pointed out the LB's already look to be improved and with Thomas and Chiller as back ups, it looks like a promising corp.
Kennedy and Pickett looked to be coming on late last season, hopefully it will spill over to this year.
Hargrove willl be a question mark, and will have to prove himself. But with TJ, and Williams, (and maybe DLew) that should help keep the pressure on.
I don't think I have to mention LL; he'll do it on the field. :ramlogo:
Hopefully Fisher will be healthy this season, and help improve the turnover ratio.
I like the potential of the new guys in the secondary, but I hope the team can find a solid vet FS to help the younger players develop.
I really think this D can be a top ten D this season.

[maineram]

One thing that's for sure... no place to go but up. I too like the improvements made to shore up the defense, but that front four is the key. As they go, so go the rest of the D.

Maineram - :ramlogo:

[Nick]

My thoughts...

-Front Four: I think Hargrove has more potential than Bryce Fisher, but will he pile up the kind of numbers Fisher had after 2004? He's going to benefit from Little being focused on, and will probably be one of the keys to our pass rush in 2005. He's a question mark as of right now, but with a healthy Kennedy, an improving Pickett, and an off-the-field-issue-free Little on the line, I feel better about this unit than I did at this time last year.

-Linebackers: Pisa was the only real player on this unit last year, but now the Rams have added Claiborne and Coakley. Neither rank as elite at their position in the NFL, but that's not why they're here - they're here to be contributors, and even if they're not the best, they're huge upgrades over what the Rams had previously. Claiborne may never live up to his draft status and hype, but he doesn't have to. All he has to do is be the solid big guy the Rams have lacked in the middle. Coakley is aging, but he certainly still has some gas in the tank and probably will for the next 2-3 seasons.

-Cornerbacks: Butler had a solid year in 2004 but I believe Fisher and Butler are marginal starters, and don't think either is really capable of taking an opponents' primary receiver out of the game; Fisher would probably be better suited as second banana while Butler could handle the nickel role. But it is what it is, and if the D-line can get some more pressure, it should mask any weakness here. One of the reasons our pass defense was poor last season was because of injuries to Fisher that saw both Groce and Garrett get starts. While adding in Bartell and Hawthorne should give us solid depth, I don't see anyone in our ranks who could step up if one of our starters went down. Groce didn't show me much last year, so I'm a bit concerned here.

-Safeties: As for the safeties, I'm not convinced Archuleta is going to bounce back this season, and with the way Martz has been talking about taking away the traditional roles of FS and SS, it makes the announced move of Arch to FS somewhat pointless. Still, I think the Rams got a couple of potential starters in Atogwe and Carter, and I wouldn't be surprised to see one of them starting this season. I hope Michael Stone is nothing more than a ST guy, because I get this Rich Coady II feeling about him that I'd prefer not to experience this fall.

-Conclusion: Overall I think we've improved the front seven, and while I'm concerned about our secondary, I don't think we've taken any steps back. Aeneas didn't play well at FS last season, and his replacements were inconsistent at best. We've added depth to both positions, so overall I'm cautiously optimistic, especially since at the end of the regular season last year, this defense was only allowing an average of 269.8 yards and 18.6 points per game. Had we done that all year, we would have been ranked 4th in overall defense when sorted by yards allowed and 9th in points allowed. We were definitely on the up-swing before the playoff debacle, and I think we've improved our personnel, so I don't see why things shouldn't be better than last year's overall numbers and performances.

[psycho9985]

Last year when the Rams played the Cheapshot'triots;one of them hit Travis Fisher in the mouth and knocked his teeth out:I also heard that Travis was going to sue for that,but now thats all that I,ve heard.fftopic: a little bit