Subjective poll on who really held the Defense together?

[NFSeahawks]

Just interested to see what .net thinks about the most important piece to the defense out of the four players.

Richard
Earl
Kam
Wagner

Obviously, they all play better as a group, but I'm interested to see who you guys think is the absolute number 1 most important piece out of those mentioned players.

Looking for discussion as well, bring your facts with you, records with/without certain players.

 

[original poster]

I voted Wagner.

Although, ultimately I think the pass rush is the most important. If the pass rush doesn't work, the DB's hold the impossible task.

I'd happily agree to draft pass rushers in the first round for the next 10 years straight. Without a pass rush, any defense will get shredded eventually.

 

[Steve2222]

Wagner
ET

Sherm




Chancellor


Wagner and ET are 1a and 1b. The defense has struggled mostly this year because QBs have all day to throw though.

 

[Bobblehead]

Gotta say it starts with Wags.
With Bobby, the front line didn't have to worry about missing a tackle, they knew Bobby was back there
With Bobby, the secondary, didn't have to worry about runners breaking free.. they knew Bobby was up there.,
With Bobby, the other LB's didn't have to worry about the middle of the field, they knew bobby was plugging the throat.

 

[Sgt. Largent]

On the field? Earl, we found that out last year when the defense went down the toilet once he was hurt. He single handedly cuts the other team's offensive playbook in half.

In the locker room? Kam, he is the voice of reason and someone the defense listens to, which is rare.

 

[Seymour]

Kam.
Not just due to play, but he was the leader and the calming voice of reason that helped to keep peace and lead with that huge variety of ego's all on the field together.

 

[NFSeahawks]

Gotta say it starts with Wags.
With Bobby, the front line didn't have to worry about missing a tackle, they knew Bobby was back there
With Bobby, the secondary, didn't have to worry about runners breaking free.. they knew Bobby was up there.,
With Bobby, the other LB's didn't have to worry about the middle of the field, they knew bobby was plugging the throat.

Good post, solid points.

 

[original poster]

On the field? Earl, we found that out last year when the defense went down the toilet once he was hurt. He single handedly cuts the other team's offensive playbook in half.

In the locker room? Kam, he is the voice of reason and someone the defense listens to, which is rare.

How about this season when Earl went down and McDougald stepped in? I didn't notice any drop off whatsoever.

 

[NFSeahawks]

I think this can also lead to the discussion on who is more important to keep Earl or Sherman.

 

[hawknation2017]

1. Bobby Wagner - makes the defensive calls & might be the best defensive player in the NFL (if not for Aaron Donald )

2. Earl Thomas - without him and a healthy Wagner, we might be one of the worst defenses in the NFL.

3. Kam Chancellor - he was our 2nd best defender this year until his "stinger" injury and now his career is in doubt.

I thought Sherman's play really dropped off this year, due to his injury. He was like our 6th best defender. Not to mention, a ruptured achilles is a hell of a thing to come back from and has a high likelihood of recurrence. Plus, Shaq Griffin (as a rookie) and DeShawn Shead (last year) have played well at boundary corner.

 

[Sgt. Largent]

On the field? Earl, we found that out last year when the defense went down the toilet once he was hurt. He single handedly cuts the other team's offensive playbook in half.

In the locker room? Kam, he is the voice of reason and someone the defense listens to, which is rare.

How about this season when Earl went down and McDougald stepped in? I didn't notice any drop off whatsoever.

That was what, two games?.............and even if there was no recognizable drop off, it changes the way we play defense.

With no Earl, we play far more traditional zone two high safety, and WAY more nickel to cover space without Earl. Earl allows us to drop a strong safety down to help stop the run.

 

[original poster]

On the field? Earl, we found that out last year when the defense went down the toilet once he was hurt. He single handedly cuts the other team's offensive playbook in half.

In the locker room? Kam, he is the voice of reason and someone the defense listens to, which is rare.

How about this season when Earl went down and McDougald stepped in? I didn't notice any drop off whatsoever.

That was what, two games?.............and even if there was no recognizable drop off, it changes the way we play defense.

With no Earl, we play far more traditional zone two high safety, and WAY more nickel to cover space without Earl. Earl allows us to drop a strong safety down to help stop the run.

Maybe that's not such a bad thing.

 

[Sgt. Largent]

On the field? Earl, we found that out last year when the defense went down the toilet once he was hurt. He single handedly cuts the other team's offensive playbook in half.

In the locker room? Kam, he is the voice of reason and someone the defense listens to, which is rare.

How about this season when Earl went down and McDougald stepped in? I didn't notice any drop off whatsoever.

That was what, two games?.............and even if there was no recognizable drop off, it changes the way we play defense.

With no Earl, we play far more traditional zone two high safety, and WAY more nickel to cover space without Earl. Earl allows us to drop a strong safety down to help stop the run.

Maybe that's not such a bad thing.

Are you advocating getting rid of Earl?

If there are problems with the defense, he ain't it. Wentz even commented on it, he said what I said before the Eagle's played here, Earl cuts our playbook in half because he allows the Hawk's to play one high safety instead a traditional two deep safety system.

This allows us to drop the strong safety down and make it hard to not only run the ball, but complete all the short crossing routes in most teams passing game.

Earl's a once in a decade free safety. He'd be the last player on the defense I'd want gone.

 

[original poster]

No not at all. Well, unless a team offered a trade with good value.

But if the team parted ways I wouldn't be crying myself to sleep, on the basis that they resign McDouglad. If they let McDouglad walk this off season, play Earl for the year then let him walk, I'd be more concerned.

Not sure I see an extension coming his way, though. I think he will play out the season and be gone in free agency 2019.

 

[hawknation2017]

Earl takes a defense from being good to great, but you still need to be sound up front to be good.

Bennett (knee injury and painful foot injury) played the worst game of his career last week. Ditto for Wagner, due to his hamstring tear that he said hurt for the whole game. And Wright was out, in addition to Chancellor. Our defensive front was horrible, except for Bradley McDougald, Sheldon Richardson, Dion Jordan (on limited snaps), and Frank Clark.

 

[Sgt. Largent]

Earl takes a defense from being good to great, but you still need to be sound up front to be good. .

Of course.

But the question is who really holds our defense together, and a case can certainly be made for Wagner, or even Kam. But IMO it's Earl.

That's the complexity of the sport, it takes good players at all levels to have a great defense. A good team is going to expose you at any of those layers if you're weak.

 

[JimmyG]

Wagner
ET

Sherm




Chancellor


Wagner and ET are 1a and 1b. The defense has struggled mostly this year because QBs have all day to throw though.

Yeah, I'd agree with this list.

Last year when ET went down, we were absolutely shredded by opposing passers.

Last week with Wagner gimpy, Gurley ran wild on us.

It's hard for me to choose between those two. Sherman is a lock-down corner. The only thing about Sherman is that sometimes teams just flat-out won't throw in his direction, so it's sort of possible to scheme him out of a game. That's not really a knock on him, just saying it's really not possible to do that with Thomas/Wagner.

 

[rossob]

I think "Who really was the most important piece to success on defense?" and "who really held the Defense together?" is not necessarily the same question.

The most important piece is either Wagner or Thomas, currently, it seems to be Bobby.
The player who held our defense together is Kam imo. There is a reason why he is the captain of the secondary and our secondary was the part of our team that we most prided ourselves on.

 

[Scorpion05]

It's like having a backup QB. Your team will look much worse with a QB injury if you don't have someone adequate to step in

That's what happened with Earl last year. We didn't have anyone adequate to step in. A solid B+ type safety like McDougald would have made our defense much better last year. I simply don't buy that the drop off would have been that drastic with McDougald.

Wagner's position takes unusual intelligence and instincts. He's the QB of our defense and will go down as one of the best if he keeps it up. It's also worth noting that when you can't stop the run, defenses WILL abuse you. Nothing is more demoralizing than not being able to stop a running game

BWagz is the most important guy on our defense. You simply don't just replace an elite MLB given all the intelligence that goes into it. I wouldn't trade him for any other MLB in the league. None of those players can be replaced but Earl, Sherm, and Kam are the only ones I can see being decently replaced with B+ to A- players at their position

 

[Sox-n-Hawks]

I don't know about holding it together, but I do think Gus Bradley built one hell of a defense that was put to great use by Dan Quinn and now it's needing some fresh talent. I would say overall Pete's defensive mind and background held it together.