2023 Defense: Ahead of the curve?

[FaithInIrish Forever 4,738]

I know its spring but the analysts are heaping a lot of praise on the defense.

DL

Mills and Onye(Ford)- there's a whole group of DT's over 290 lbs now.

JR showing up on lists too,

LB- Bertrand and Kiser getting a whole lot of praise. Zeigler and Ausberry as well.

CB. Depth, Depth Depth- They were saying Lewis is the 4th best cornerback. Morrison, Hart, Mickey Lewis

S.- As @jbrown_9999 said Xavier Watts continues to show up on the impressive players list.

 

Lorenzo Styles was in some drills with Corners today in 1-1(not team) still taking WR reps too.

Mickens getting praise for a drill with oven mitts to stop corners from grabbing.

 

The  defense might not struggle as much as I feared they might

[tneun89 979]

DL is my biggest worry, but great to hear that Mills and Onye are getting high praise. We know what Cross can do, and I think Rubio takes a big step up his sophomore season. If Botelho plays like he did in the Gator Bowl and Osafo-Mensah takes a step up, I think ND would be in great shape - the LBs have experience and young talent, and we know the CBs will be very good. Safety is a concern, but I think Watts will be great this year after a full offseason of dedicating himself to safety instead of cross training at WR.

I saw that about Styles too. Don't know what to make of it. Not sure if they were just thin at CB (Hart is out, maybe some others banged up?), or if its a move they're considering. Everything I'd read about Styles up until today made it seem like he put last year behind him and was ready to be the WR everyone thought he would be in '22 based on his freshman season. Hope he gets it figured out - lot of talent there.

[NYGoldenDomer 2,046]

On 4/12/2023 at 6:00 PM, tneun89 said:

DL is my biggest worry, but great to hear that Mills and Onye are getting high praise. We know what Cross can do, and I think Rubio takes a big step up his sophomore season. If Botelho plays like he did in the Gator Bowl and Osafo-Mensah takes a step up, I think ND would be in great shape - the LBs have experience and young talent, and we know the CBs will be very good. Safety is a concern, but I think Watts will be great this year after a full offseason of dedicating himself to safety instead of cross training at WR.

I saw that about Styles too. Don't know what to make of it. Not sure if they were just thin at CB (Hart is out, maybe some others banged up?), or if its a move they're considering. Everything I'd read about Styles up until today made it seem like he put last year behind him and was ready to be the WR everyone thought he would be in '22 based on his freshman season. Hope he gets it figured out - lot of talent there.

So much for that.  I guess he sure figured it out alright.

[JeffV 332]

I like the way this D is shaping up.  Some depth concerns @ DL and Safety, perhaps, but some young guys on the way to help across all position groups.  Young guys are going to have to play this year with more rotation than last year, b/c there are about 9 senior starters that will be gone in '24 - that's a bit scary, but I suppose '25 is more the playoff target year in my mind.