That's the one hope that you can point to. I'm not optimistic overall, but I do think it's pretty logical to think the defense will improve as the season goes on. How much is the million dollar question.
The defense still looked mostly like shit today but I think based on the eye test there's definitely more reason for optimism than last year. The main reason is that they seem to be flying around and playing with more aggression than last year, even if they're still busting coverages.
Most of what the Shitskins did today were basically just Daniels scrambles on broken plays, many of which we actually got good pressure on. Compare that to week 2 last year where a completely cooked Russell Wilson was dropping 400+ yards on 50 yard bombs to Nabers and a bunch of nobody's.
My biggest cause for concern is that Ezeiruaku and especially Revel are disappointing and look to be sort of flatlining and not ascending. I don't think Ezeiruaku will be a bust, he just looks like an average starter, but Revel looks like he could be a straight up bust. I'm not declaring that or completely writing him off, but he doesn't look good. I also think Clark might just be a JAG, average type starter now.
Optimistically, Downs is as good as advertised, Barham had the best game I've seen out of an LB since Overshown in 2024 before the ACL, Quinnen gets disruption pretty consistently and I think there's some upside with Lawrence if he can improve as the year goes on. The roleplayer interior DL in Ogbonnia and Bullard seem capable enough too.
The biggest question as you say, is how much do they improve? Right now I think they're a bottom 10ish defense, can they improve to "average" (14-17ish) or will they only marginally improve and kind of hover around the 20-24 range?
