Boardregeln » Last season the Seattle Seahawks struggled at defending runs

to the outside. PDTShareTweetShareShareThe Drive: On the Seahawks building a better run defenseSteven Bisig-USA TODAY SportsLast season the Seattle Seahawks struggled at defending runs to the outside. season to season. It’s not a group which inspires visions of its upside Kam Chancellor Color Rush Jersey , and, should injury or decline sap Ansah and/or Reed, its downside is worrying.Which may force Seattle into alternative means of stopping the pass. Those 2010-2012 base defensive lines did two things very well: smother rushing lanes and harass throwing lanes. If we subtract a foot to account for head and neck, and measure from a player’s shoulder to the tip of their fingers, we can compare the 2011 Seahawks and the prospective 2019 Seahawks ability to harass throwing lanes. I picked 2011 because, the run defense had improved and was resembling the dominant unit it would become, and the starters now included Red Bryant and Alan Branch. Both of whom better fit the idea Seattle pioneered in 2010. I am going to assume a starting lineup for 2019 of Ansah, Al Woods, Reed and L.J. Collier. 2011Chris Clemons: 95.25” maximum reachAlan Branch: 99.25”Brandon Mebane: 94.01”Bryant: 99.51”2019Ansah: 100.13”Woods: 100”Reed: 96.38”Collier: 96”Just for comparison, here’s Seattle’s smallish line of 2018.Clark: 97.26”Stephen: 98.13”Reed: 96.38”Quinton Jefferson: 97.26”Reach does not tell us exactly how good a player is at defending passing lanes, of course. But no one stat does, and I’ve never seen the ability charted or even deeply analyzed. Tips are too infrequent, and tend to emphasize a pass which was thrown into a perceived throwing lane. A perceived throwing lane which closed. For lack of better measure, it is sufficient to say the Seahawks will be naturally gifted at confronting opposing quarterbacks with a tall thicket of arms. They should also do a better job of controlling the line of scrimmage and, especially Shaquem Griffin Color Rush Jersey , the edges. Will it matter? Of course it will matter! How much? I haven’t a clue. But it’s a worthy experiment, and if nothing else, Seattle will finally field the kind of personnel which should excel at stopping the run. Historically that’s Pete Carroll’s first step in building a dominant defense. And the Seahawks are building, all good and bad connotations implied. Many of last year’s starters may not start or even be with the team in 2020. The secondary, in particular, could be completely replaced. The Seahawks are building a defense because in many ways they simply do not have one. It’ll be painful at times, we know this, but after years of slow crumbling, I’m all for building. About a month after firing Mike McCarthy, the Green Bay Packers have reportedly found a new head coach to run the ship and try to right the offense with Aaron Rodgers: former LA Rams and Tennessee Titans offensive coordinator Matt LaFleur. At 39, LaFleur joins former boss Sean McVay as one of the few under-40 head coaches in the league and he’s the first new hire of 2019.LaFleur’s first NFL job came in 2008 as an offensive assistant with the Houston Texans where he worked under head coach Gary Kubiak and offensive coordinator Kyle Shanahan. He then followed Shanahan to Washington in 2010 where he worked as quarterbacks coach, which is when he first worked with McVay, the tight ends coach. He spent four years at that position, which meant he was a key part of the development of 2012 offensive rookie of the year Robert Griffin III, but when the Shanahan’s were fired after the 2013 season Bradley McDougald Color Rush Jersey , he took a job under Brian Kelly at Notre Dame. In 2015, Shanahan became offensive coordinator for the Atlanta Falcons and again LaFleur was his QB coach, next helping Matt Ryan win MVP in 2016.After McVay became head coach for the Rams in 2017, LaFleur was his OC hire and he helped develop Jared Goff and the rest of the offense into viable scoring weapons one year after they finished last in points. The same could not be said about Marcus Mariota and the Titans in 2018, where LaFleur was coaching last season, as they were 27th in points and had just 16 passing touchdowns, but clearly there is a talent drop-off from LA to Tennessee.LaFleur should have a lot to work with in Green Bay, including Rodgers, Davante Adams, Jimmy Graham, Aaron Jones, and a fair bit of young talent recently invested in at the receiver position. The Seahawks beat the Packers 27-24 in 2018, essentially killing their playoff hopes at the time and McCarthy was fired sooner after. The two teams will not meet in the 2019 regular season, but Green Bay is obviously a foe of note and the NFC could see the Packers return to competitive play very soon if LaFleur turns out to be anything like his mentor in McVay.