Gotta think so.

We're essentially playing a 5-2-4 on a lot of downs. I'm not even sure what you'd call that. I guess it's similar to a Bear front but that requires Cover 1 behind it and we're not doing that. We appear to usually be playing some sort of hybrid man-over.

And it's creating those massive gaps in the short/flat area.

A lot of the troubles appear schematic.

But then again, I'm kinda stupid so it's hard to say.
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They haven't seemed to be playing that 3 safety set as much this year.....any ideas on why?

Or atleast I guess it's Connor playing the nickel?
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Justin Reid basically did nothing the entire camp and preseason, he's pretty obviously rusty.

I'm honestly not sure why they are using that scheme either when Bolton isn't a cover guy.
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Bolton catches alot of shit, but again, don't think outside of that one bad play last week he's been the issue.
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Trying to have it both ways, I guess.

They're playing 3 safety looks but doing so with Conner as the 3rd safety in a Nickel look.

So Heavy Nickel (with Conner not really being conventionally 'heavy' in the way that Hicks would be)
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Am I the only one who has actually been maybe somewhat surprised by the D in a good way?

Really thought they were gonna get out to a very slow start. I'd argue this start has been better than any other year recently besides last year.

They'll only continue to ascend if they're healthy with the blue chips and don't have cluster injuries.
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I'm a little pleasantly surprised by the scoreboard, I guess.

But concerned about the repeatability.

They were some red zone stops away from getting their asses absolutely kicked on Sunday. Williams/Watson played well against Baltimore - not so well against Cincy. The holes in the short/flats are pretty rough. Karlaftis doesn't look to have taken a step forward beyond the pretty good player he was last year. Danna looks overmatched as a starter.

Bolton looks rusty as hell. Reid looks like Bolton's safety doppelganger. Tranquill looks bad.

Wharton has looked great. Jones hasn't let money impact him. Chenal is what we thought he was (intriguing but limited). Conner flashes but is inconsistent.

Ultimately I'm just seeing things that say we're maybe due for a pretty tough day defensively in fairly short order.

Scoreboard says what the scoreboard says. That's all that matters. But on an individual performance basis, I can't say I've been overly pleased by the defense, no.
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I don't think anything you said is wrong, but isn't that every year under Spags (expect '23)?

Always keeping the points down, while still showing warts that are concerning early in the season.

Of what you said, Tranquill is most concerning bc we just paid him some money and he needs to earn that at least the first couple years. Karlaftis seems to have maybe shown us his ceiling, and the bad news there is it means he isn't a dude, but the good news is we may know early enough to not overpay him.

Like I think we are gathering enough info to say that paying Trey Smith may be a better use of resources than paying Bolton and GK, at least to an extent, because Trey is the better player.
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Feels like the best use of resources may just be plowing cash into cloning efforts for Trent McDuffie.

That's the 2nd best player on this entire football team and is, IMO, one of the 10-20 best players in the NFL.

I'm floored by how good he is. If he stays healthy and gets some interception luck, he's going to the Hall of Fame. I can't remember seeing a kid start this good, and get this much better, every single season like he has.

I mean...apart from Mahomes.

This is a guy that hit the ground as a really good player and hasn't just gotten better every year, he's gotten a whole damn tier better. it just doesn't happen very often.
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Karlaftis is what he was always gonna be I'd say. Which....is great from where he as picked but physically, he just isn't likely to end up in that upper echelon of guys.
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I think one could argue without that pick we have at least one less Super Bowl win in the past two years, probably 58.

Ironically, I think this thread centers around a future Pro Bowl caliber counterpart for him in the secondary that makes Reid even more expendable this spring.
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Romo put it good Sunday, something about how high effort guy like that who is smart playing with Chris Jones is gonna motor his way to 6-7 sacks every year. Doesn't mean he is worth a big contract or that he is invaluable. Very nice complement to the real superstar out there.
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Physically I don't think Tamba had anything GK doesn't. He might have been a little bendier, but not by a ton. Not enough to use lean as his primary weapon.

And it took time for Hali to figure stuff out and ultimately it was technique that did it.

GK's technique took a step forward between his rookie season and last year. Thus far in the season, I haven't seen another leap. And between year 2 and 3 is when you'll see the last big jump a guy's likely to make most of the time.

Though I do think it's fair to say that it's only 2 games. And one was against the Ravens where he was probably told to just maintain edge discipline and contain.

He also got a half sack against the Bengals (and really got hosed out of the full sack; he had Burrow around both ankles - Joe wasn't going anywhere with or without Jones hitting him).

So maybe 2-3 weeks from now this will look really silly.
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If BV and Andy wanted to get stupid, they could model Miami and pay everyone top dollar and see how long it takes for the roster to crumble.

Instead, I think they'll try to keep all these guys - Bolton, Trey, GK, etc. - but it's apparent they aren't paying anyone a dollar more than they truly see their value as unless they are top five players at their positions. McDuffie is going to get what he wants.

It's a sustainable model that should have us in the final four conversation until 15 hangs it up.
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I'd bet the mortgage on GK getting Cousins down at least once.
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