You can’t lose 2 DEs in the first 2 rounds of the draft and go into the next season saying this will be the best defense ever fielded. Sure Mathis and Blackshear are highly touted but we aren’t exactly Clemson and Bama yet that churn out top 2 round draft picks every year on the DL
you can say whatever you want, the key is does the play of the defense reflect those words.
big key here is to remember that playing football involves 11 on a side and rarely is dominated by an individuals efforts as in basketball.
no one expects mathis, blackshear and the other defensive ends to provide the level of production that frogs got individually from lj and ben.
what gary expects is the 11 on the field at any given time do their jobs and what history has taught us is that if the frog defenders do that things work out well for tcu.
finally, the frogs are getting a few pieces back that they didn't have last year for all or part of the season which i think can have as equally as big an impact on this year's defense as ben and lj last year.
big ross might provide tcu the first true inside pass rush they have had in quite some time and when i saw that i mean extending past joining the big 12. outside pressure is nice, but consistent interior pressure absolutely destroys offenses and ross' return allows bethley to slide back to the spot he played in 2017 where he flashed some disruptive potential inside.
if that happens it makes things tougher to double outside which means a better matchup for the ends.
gaines was having a monster year when he went down and i think his loss really gets lost to some people, but he might have been the frogs best defender when he went down with the injury. his game against ohio state was text book for an impactful safety in a gary patterson defense and i think he will benefit from having a deep safety who can cover some ground behind him in trevon.
words are nice and production is what matters, but i keep recall the scene in the movie money ball where pitt keeps asking the table of scouts what they are actually trying to do with their roster decisions.