Interior D-linemen

[Willynowei]

If you follow what I've posted (and thats not much) here on these boards you could easily tell I really feel that football has 4 guys playing on defense and 5 on offense.

But here's a post on interior D-linemen and their Impact on the NFL.

The Eagles got blown out 33-10 and their defense doesnt look the same.

The Colts have held opponents to under 7 points a game.

The big difference? Corey Simon made a trip over to Indianapolis and now freeney gets 1 on 1 Blocking.

Sure the Eagles still have Darwin Walker but, Jim Johnson just can't get his penetration anymore.

As many double digit sack Dends as denver has had, Its obvious Gerard Warren finally proved to be the real deal unlike Ellis Johnson the (onegap wonder) or Darryl Gardener and the Ihop Debacle.

You could argue that was the biggest addition denver got from Free Agency.

What happened to the Pantherns? They've been struggling to get above .500 since they lost Kris Jenkins this year. Infact, they've lost him two seasons in a row now and if you took a look at the Pantherns Win-loss record w/ or w/o Kris Jenkins, you could probably make a case that the year he did play, he was the MVP of the league. A Pantherns team without Jenkins is just as badly affected as the Falcons without Vick, or the Colts without Manning.

When Greg Williams got to Washington perhaps before worrying about Arrington or Taylor or anything else, he first went and hunted down Cornelious Griffin and that was and still is the heart of that defense.

So we are 4-1 and its happened 7 times in the last 11 seasons. But this time we have 3 first round picks playing on the D-line. More importantly, two of them can play interior one gap positions.

[-Slap-]

If you follow what I've posted (and thats not much) here on these boards you could easily tell I really feel that football has 4 guys playing on defense and 5 on offense.

But here's a post on interior D-linemen and their Impact on the NFL.

The Eagles got blown out 33-10 and their defense doesnt look the same.

The Colts have held opponents to under 7 points a game.

The big difference? Corey Simon made a trip over to Indianapolis and now freeney gets 1 on 1 Blocking.

Sure the Eagles still have Darwin Walker but, Jim Johnson just can't get his penetration anymore.

As many double digit sack Dends as denver has had, Its obvious Gerard Warren finally proved to be the real deal unlike Ellis Johnson the (onegap wonder) or Darryl Gardener and the Ihop Debacle.

You could argue that was the biggest addition denver got from Free Agency.

What happened to the Pantherns? They've been struggling to get above .500 since they lost Kris Jenkins this year. Infact, they've lost him two seasons in a row now and if you took a look at the Pantherns Win-loss record w/ or w/o Kris Jenkins, you could probably make a case that the year he did play, he was the MVP of the league. A Pantherns team without Jenkins is just as badly affected as the Falcons without Vick, or the Colts without Manning.

When Greg Williams got to Washington perhaps before worrying about Arrington or Taylor or anything else, he first went and hunted down Cornelious Griffin and that was and still is the heart of that defense.

So we are 4-1 and its happened 7 times in the last 11 seasons. But this time we have 3 first round picks playing on the D-line. More importantly, two of them can play interior one gap positions.
Why don't the Jags just utterly dominate then? They have arguably the two best DTs in the League.

[Willynowei]

Why don't the Jags just utterly dominate then? They have arguably the two best DTs in the League.

It's a chain of events, starting with the D-tackles, but all starts there.

Dtackles free up the DEnds to make plays and the linebackers to blitz, that pressure makes life of the corners easier.

D-tackles pentrate and clog up gaps to make the life of a linebacker much easier.

You can cover up weaknesses in your linebackers with Safeties playing up, although the talent needs to be made up else where.

you can cover up corner back weaknesses like Tampa and their Cover 2 (although they do have good corners neways).

In any case, linebackers can help with the safeties who can help with your corners or vice versa.

But you can't cover up a bad interior D-line, I guess that's my point.

Of course, you can see my point is only on one side of the ball still. The Jags aren't exactly dominant on the other side.

[-Slap-]

Lots of people agree with you about the importance of strong DT play. I just hate dropping a lot of cash on those guys. Some players get complacent after they get a large signing bonus. I think that risk is elevated when you're talking about athletes that are already in excess of 300 pounds.

[Bronco LB 59]

Lots of people agree with you about the importance of strong DT play. I just hate dropping a lot of cash on those guys. Some players get complacent after they get a large signing bonus. I think that risk is elevated when you're talking about athletes that are already in excess of 300 pounds.

In the last twenty years, there hasn't been any surefire HOF caliber defensive tackles. There's going to be a huge void of HOF DTs after the Randy White-Dan Hampton-Lee Roy Selmon generation.

Cortez Kennedy is a perfect example of a DT that played like an all-time great at one point in his career and his play dropped off considerably by the mid-90s after he dominated in 1992.

Warren Sapp and John Randle are probably the best bets to get to Canton in the last 20, but neither one is surefire.

[Dr. Broncenstein]

In the last twenty years, there hasn't been any surefire HOF caliber defensive tackles. There's going to be a huge void of HOF DTs after the Randy White-Dan Hampton-Lee Roy Selmon generation.

Cortez Kennedy is a perfect example of a DT that played like an all-time great at one point in his career and his play dropped off considerably by the mid-90s after he dominated in 1992.

Warren Sapp and John Randle are probably the best bets to get to Canton in the last 20, but neither one is surefire.

If Sapp make the HOF, with Gradishar on the outside looking in, I'm burning that mf down...