ringless":2ynrrwah said:
kearly":2ynrrwah said:
Lords of Scythia":2ynrrwah said:
Carson Palmer's having a great camp. What if he's healthy all year? Why do you see them getting crappy again?
Palmer can't stay healthy. Their run game is terrible. Their defense last year overachieved thanks to a very good DC who left during the offseason. They also lost some good players on defense.
The Cardinals defense isn't very good if you can punish the blitz. Teams figured that out late last year, and the Cardinals defense collapsed because of it.
The only real optimism I had for Arizona was their revamped run game, but now Iupati is injured and their RBs are struggling so much that they had to sign Chris Johnson.
Even when Palmer was healthy last year and the defense was overachieving, the Cardinals DVOA was right around zero. At one point they were on pace for a 14-2 season with the statistical performance of a 7-9 team. By the end of the year, the carriage turned into a pumpkin. Arians is a good coach, but getting a mediocre team to overachieve won't be enough to overtake the NFL's best team.
In saying all that Im not a complete homer. I think our Defense will likely take a step back. Because of Bowles departure, and Dan Williams who was very underrated but had a huge impact. We got Peters to replace him and now he is out for the season. The fact that it seems Daryl Washington will not be on the team is a blow. I think our issue this year again will be the same. Relying too much on a blitz, and even when blitzing not being able to apply pressure. The reason we blitzed so much last year was we just couldn't generate pressure. I think that issue will be the same this year.
I think the talk of demise for NFC West defenses not named Seattle is overrated.
The entire division has strong defense as their identity for the last several years. It's what they do. Plug and play whomever you want they'll still be good.
Look at the 49ers in the Nolan and Singletary years...they had good defenses. Maybe not top 5, but enough to give plenty of good offenses fits those years. They were a 6-8 win team year in and year out because of average offense. I look back at the 2009 and 2010 49ers stifling the Colts in Indy, Vikings in Minnesota, Saints at home, Falcons in Atlanta....they lost every game but were within a field goal of winning/tying in every game (and gave up a miracle to the Vikings).
Who was on those defense besides Willis and Justin Smith? Ahmad Brooks not quite in his own, Ray McDonald not yet a strong player, Dashon Goldson was decent but not great.....it wasn't exactly the 2011-2013 squads.
Rams and Cardinals will field good defenses too this year. I don't know the ins and outs of their rosters but have seen how they play against the league the last few years to know they'll be ok.
I will be SHOCKED if these 3 defenses fall very far, and even more shocked if they don't show up in division games.
You look at the Saints, Packers, Giants, Patriots, Cowboys.......those teams year in and year out just field good offenses. It really doesn't matter who is there.
Now let's talk Seattle....
Here's a defense that might regress a bit. This is year #3 about to start of everybody knowing that this defense is legit. Fielding a suffocating defense doesn't last forever, not when you're dealing with the cap, long seasons, luck of the draw. You have 3 defensive players unhappy.....two vocal and one holding out.
I can't picture a scenario where Seattle has a crap defense of course, but having this defense bail the team out like it did so valiantly in the NFC Championship game, I'm not so sure will last forever.
If you want to bank on the demise of the NFC West foes, bank on offenses that don't perform up to par. Don't rely on defenses sucking, you'll be disappointed.