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Current review of existing Defensive groups and draft prospects:

Coaching

Defensive Coordinator- (Clint Hurtt) Experience: 7 years
Associate Head Coach - Defense (Sean Desai) Experience: 9 years
Assistants DL/DE Aaron Curry Experience : 2 yrs and DL/DT Damione Lewis Experience: 1yr


Defensive Line: All four returning starters Al Woods/Poona Ford/Bryan Mone/LJ Collier are joined by replacement FAs Shelby Harris and Quinton Jefferson (for loss of Rasheem Green/Carl Dunlap)...and 2022 draftee Tyreke Smith. These returning D-Linemen (supported by our LB corps) helped shut down the run which really showed up in a low Points Against finish for 2021.

When in 4-3 alignment your Edge/OLB pairing of Darryl Taylor and Uchenna Nwosu will be slotted on either side of DT Shelby Harris and DT Poona Ford. Back-up DT rotation would be Quinton Jefferson/LJ Collier and Al Woods/Bryan Mone with 2022 draftees Boye Mafe and Tyreke Smith backing up the DE/EDge slots.

When in 3-4 alignment your line would be DT (3-tech) Shelby Harris/ NT Al Woods/ DT (3 Tech) Quintin Jefferson with DT backup LJ Collier and NT backups Poona Ford and Bryan Mone.


Projected Starters

Three scouting superlatives with one detraction:


Shelby Harris (DT 6'2" 288 age 30)

Very long arms -- can extend, tug and rip off blocks
Good athleticism, feet and balance
Nice closing burst
One Detraction
Lacks ideal height


Al Woods (NT 6'4" 330 age 35)

Tall and bulky with a wide base and good balance
Uses big strong hands to get inside and stifle blockers
He is difficult to move, eats up blockers, and clogs up running lanes
One detraction:
—Lacks initial quickness and is not fast enough to track down ball carriers

Quinton Jefferson (DT 6'4" 291 age 29)

He comes out of his stance low and with enough initial quickness to get offensive linemen to panic.
Flashes a nice spin move and an above-average swim to get free as a pass-rusher.
He has the closing speed and toughness to be effective in pass-rushing situations.
One detraction:
small hands (8 ⅞”) in relation to the rest of his frame

Is this all your work, Tarl? If it is, you've done an excellent job.

RiverDog wrote:Is this all your work, Tarl? If it is, you've done an excellent job.

The opinions are mine...the scouting superlatives/detraction are from scouting reports from the time period the player was drafted.

RiverDog wrote:Is this all your work, Tarl? If it is, you've done an excellent job.

tarlhawk wrote:The opinions are mine...the scouting superlatives/detraction are from scouting reports from the time period the player was drafted.

Thanks for posting it. They're sort of a one stop shop for intelligence on our team. Please don't interpret a lack of comment as disinterest in the subject. Too bad that we don't have a 'like' feature that would allow us to acknowledge our having read and appreciated the work.

Thank you

I’m interested to see if Shelby Harris can get some pressure from the inside.
That’s one thing we’ve been missing for a few years.

I want to see who are three down linemen are out of that group. See how it sets up.

Aseahawkfan wrote:I want to see who are three down linemen are out of that group. See how it sets up.

Yes, that will be interesting along with how often the 3-4 will be used - what ratio of 3-4 to 4-3 we will end up with.
I suspect it will be decided in part by injuries and who makes the team.