Wilson is unpredictable, and there is that to fear if you are a defense.
But Lynch was predictable.
You knew he was doing to take 3-4 guys each time to finally go down. You knew eventually he would break one or two loose, no matter how tightly you welded yourself to the LOS.
And if you were a defense, you knew you would be exhausted and sore by the 4th quarter, whether you were head by then or not.
It is just a different type of a game with that kind of guy playing and it probably isn't a coincidence that the year we didn't have Marshawn Lynch to rely on, is the year we almost missed the playoffs and barely did anything in the playoffs.
It should also be pointed out that Kam wasn't the enforcer he once was, but our secondary (thanks CJ) was handing out free passes all year anyway - at least on the opposite side of Sherman. Browner was no longer there either, so the enforcer type of hits were only going to come from Earl - who I am convinced played hurt last year.
Combine that with the utter lack of interior pass rush unless the guy doing the rushing was A) named Bennet and B) not getting held - and yes, not even close to the same kind of dominant team.
Since the leadership will come from Wilson, we are clearly going to be switching to an offensive weaponry type of team. I think that make the team better for longer, since that is the engine for the future, but it probably means this is a team that is going to be more like the Packers or Steelers - does a lot of damage in the reg season but if the offense has a bad day or faces a great defense it ends up in trouble.
I am hoping we can fix the defense but since the problems with the D are pieces that every other team in the league puts a premium on (CBs and DTs), we have to be thankful for what we have. We still have a pretty good LB group, though I think Wagner didn't shine as much this year.
Just like this team used to go like Lynch and the Defense would go, I think now the team goes as Wilson goes. So we need him healthy + productive.