Mike MacDonald - New DC

[GOTA]

You still have old timers running NFL teams who think you need to invest in defense. My point is that you will never see again a team win the SB by relying on defense. This is just the nature of where the league is, for better or worse. Personally, I miss seeing dominating defenses.

There is a long way between not seeing the dominating defenses of the past and completely ignoring defense because it doesn't matter anymore. Cincinnati is 17th in points allowed. KC is 8th in points allowed. LA is 15th in points allowed. SF is 9th. None are dominant but none are bad either. Defense still matters even if the rules have been changed against it.

[Ravenswintitle]

"Injured Chiefs o-line" is an understatement.

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well we just had a year of it and it's 'fire roman'

[sailorsam]

You can no longer play defense in the NFL anyway, so who cares who the DC is? These are not the days of Marvin Lewis or Rex Ryan.

Defense counts most in the first twenty minutes of each half. if you can get enough shutdowns then you're okay.
last few minutes its pitch and catch.

[edromeo]

Late to the party:

Here's what I like:

(1) Continuity - don't need to start over and have a defensive rebuild

(2) Young energy, young mind could lead to innovation/evolution of the scheme and relate to the players

(3) Has coached Linebackers and Secondary in this scheme with some of these players

(4) Scheme has a goal/directive/mandate to evolve from last year or else Wink would still be here


Concerns: not saying this will happen but it could and hopefully doesn't

(1) Mac coached under Wink...so he could be a philosophical clone might improve the previous scheme but still maintain its philosophy (still might team that relies on the blitz and gets burned by the blitz)

[Shas]

MacDonald is okay but the Ravens could have went for Kevin Steele who shut down SEC offenses when he was the defensive coordinator at Auburn from 2016-2020. Michigan got hammered by SEC Georgia Bulldogs. Well Maryland hired him as DC.

Wow. Just saw that. As a Terps fan I am all in on this hire. They demoted Brian Stewart, which tells me that Stewart benefits from Steele being around, and if the team does well, Steele gets a HC gig and Stewart takes over.

[Iamjacks]

well we just had a year of it and it's 'fire roman'

It was fire Roman after last year.

Nothing has changed except Lamar has a better deep ball this year.

[GA_Baltimorean]

Late to the party:

Here's what I like:

(1) Continuity - don't need to start over and have a defensive rebuild

(2) Young energy, young mind could lead to innovation/evolution of the scheme and relate to the players

(3) Has coached Linebackers and Secondary in this scheme with some of these players

(4) Scheme has a goal/directive/mandate to evolve from last year or else Wink would still be here


Concerns: not saying this will happen but it could and hopefully doesn't

(1) Mac coached under Wink...so he could be a philosophical clone might improve the previous scheme but still maintain its philosophy (still might team that relies on the blitz and gets burned by the blitz)

Excellent points and you hit the mail on the head with the defense needing to evolve.

[Uli2001]

did you happen to watch last year's SB? Because that defense was lit

https://www.nfl.com/news/what-we-lea...-super-bowl-lv

Todd Bowles was the true MVP of Super Bowl LV. The Buccaneers defensive coordinator called a masterful game that had Patrick Mahomes scrambling for his life and holding the ball, and gave the Chiefs no deep shots. Bowles dropped safeties deep to negate Tyreek Hill's speed and funnel everything underneath. The Bucs were ready for Andy Reid's normal counter, sniffing out every screen K.C. tried. Devin White was a menace, discombobulating every snap. Lavonte David helped smother Travis Kelce. Blanketing the field deep, not allowing a completion of 20-plus air yards to an offense that feasts off such plays, the Bucs controlled the game. The most dominant aspect of the game came from Tampa's defensive front, which throttled an injured Chiefs O-line. The Bucs often were through the line a second after the snap, causing Mahomes to retreat on first step. Tampa destroyed backup Chiefs offensive tackles with Shaquil Barrett constantly in Mahomes' face. The Bucs pressured Mahomes on 32.7% of his snaps while only blitzing on five snaps, per Next Gen Stats. The Bucs held Mahomes to 114 yards through three quarters and kept the Chiefs out of the end zone, earning two INTs of the star QB. It was as thorough a beating as Mahomes has experienced, and the first double-digit loss of his NFL career.

As others have pointed out, that had much more to do with the KC injuries on offense than the TB defense. Plus TB featured probably the best QB in history, so I don't see how that disproves my argument...

[Uli2001]

There is a long way between not seeing the dominating defenses of the past and completely ignoring defense because it doesn't matter anymore. Cincinnati is 17th in points allowed. KC is 8th in points allowed. LA is 15th in points allowed. SF is 9th. None are dominant but none are bad either. Defense still matters even if the rules have been changed against it.

What does defensive ranking have to do with it? Somebody must be #1. Let's look at offensive stats given up by today's defenses as opposed to 20 years ago.

[Captain Silver]

If he dumps cover zero and doesn’t expect both corners to be Deion Sanders, it is a step in the right direction.

[Uli2001]

Of course, you still need to have defense. I am just saying that the NFL, rightly or not, has changed the rules so much that points will be scored regardless (unless it's in a monsoon or snowstorm). You can't win with defense anymore, it complements the offense.

[Ravenswintitle]

If you can't win with defense someone needs to tell the 49ers. They held Rodgers to 10 points in GB and they didn't do it with offense...