2026 Training Camp Thread...

Simpleton said:
Mostly agree with Smitty's screed, but I disagree that you need an ace edge rusher to be an elite defense. Seattle didn't have one last year, nor Philly last year or the year before when they won the SB.

Seattle last year in particular was very average on the edge.
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You seem to need to be in the high-40s, low 50s.

We did that with Parsons picking up 12 every year pretty consistently, and then getting 8 or so from someone else.

Last year it cratered with 34 with no Parsons. It was like, we just straight up subtracted his 12-14 sacks from our totals and got absolutely nothing added back in.

You'll have to have Gary get 7-8, Ezeiraku get 7-8, Quinnen Williams maybe get back to 5 or so, maybe 4-5 from Overshown. I dunno, that still seems light to me, and, it's counting on things we don't really know whether they are realistic or not (EZ, Overshown).

We will see what Malachi Lawrence can bring. If he's a 6-7 sack guy out of the gate that might be enough. But I feel like most 20th-something draft picks as pass rushers need time to develop into 8 sack guys.
 
1. No you don't need that one top-5 edge, don't we know that by now?

2. Can't we give MLaw a chance to be that? Does anyone think Bonitto would have as many sacks as he has playing for Eberflus?
 
Most winners seem to have a 10 sack guy.

Seattle had like 4 guys get 7. That would seemingly be a tall ask for us.

I don't know that I see Lawrence coming in and posting sack numbers like Bonitto's last two years, immediately.
 
Smitty said:
You seem to need to be in the high-40s, low 50s.

We did that with Parsons picking up 12 every year pretty consistently, and then getting 8 or so from someone else.

Last year it cratered with 34 with no Parsons. It was like, we just straight up subtracted his 12-14 sacks from our totals and got absolutely nothing added back in.

You'll have to have Gary get 7-8, Ezeiraku get 7-8, Quinnen Williams maybe get back to 5 or so, maybe 4-5 from Overshown. I dunno, that still seems light to me, and, it's counting on things we don't really know whether they are realistic or not (EZ, Overshown).

We will see what Malachi Lawrence can bring. If he's a 6-7 sack guy out of the gate that might be enough. But I feel like most 20th-something draft picks as pass rushers need time to develop into 8 sack guys.
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Seattle had 47 last year and Philly had 41 the year before, if we can get 14 between Gary/Ezeiruaku, 8 between Williams/Clark and 4 from Lawrence that puts us at 26.

I think you're underestimating the hodgepodge of sacks that come from LB's/DB's and backup DL.

I could easily see about 15 sacks coming from a combination of Houston, Williams, Overshown, Downs, Barham, Overton and Thompson. That'd be like 2-3 sacks from Williams, Houston and Overshown, and then 1-2 from Downs, Barham, Overton and Thompson.

And 8 from Quinnen/Clark is probably a little low, we could easily get 10-12 from them.
 
Simpleton said:
Seattle had 47 last year and Philly had 41 the year before, if we can get 14 between Gary/Ezeiruaku, 8 between Williams/Clark and 4 from Lawrence that puts us at 26.

I think you're underestimating the hodgepodge of sacks that come from LB's/DB's and backup DL.

I could easily see about 15 sacks coming from a combination of Houston, Williams, Overshown, Downs, Barham, Overton and Thompson. That'd be like 2-3 sacks from Williams, Houston and Overshown, and then 1-2 from Downs, Barham, Overton and Thompson.

And 8 from Quinnen/Clark is probably a little low, we could easily get 10-12 from them.
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I'll believe it when I see it, Clark and Quinnen Williams combined for 4.5 sacks for us last year.

Philly is an outlier. For the three years before that every SB winner had 50+.
 
Smitty said:
I'll believe it when I see it, Clark and Quinnen Williams combined for 4.5 sacks for us last year.

Philly is an outlier. For the three years before that every SB winner had 50+.
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Quinnen played half a season plus we also had a demented defense overall.

If I had to set an over/under it'd probably be about 42 for us, which is fine if we have the offense we should have.
 
Smitty said:
Most winners seem to have a 10 sack guy.

Seattle had like 4 guys get 7. That would seemingly be a tall ask for us.
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Of course we aren't going to be anything close to Seattle this year, that's a given. This year is just about competence.

If we make solid progress this year, next year maybe we can talk about being actually good.
 
Chocolate Lab said:
Of course we aren't going to be anything close to Seattle this year, that's a given. This year is just about competence.

If we make solid progress this year, next year maybe we can talk about being actually good.
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Yeah, but next year we will lose Pickens to free agency and Javonte will be banged up or some other bad karma shit. This is the year where it’s come together. Would love to see 48 sacks out of this defense.
 
Simpleton said:
Quinnen played half a season plus we also had a demented defense overall.

If I had to set an over/under it'd probably be about 42 for us, which is fine if we have the offense we should have.
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I mean, I’m talking about if we want to be one of the final four teams, you’d probably want to see the defense get to more like 48.

Other than that you’re probably saying, the offense was great, defense was mediocre at crunch time, we lost in the divisional round again, type of thing.

That might be all we can reasonably expect this year until someone like M Lawrence really develops.
 
Smitty said:
Yeah, but next year we will lose Pickens to free agency and Javonte will be banged up or some other bad karma shit. This is the year where it’s come together. Would love to see 48 sacks out of this defense.
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They could easily bring back Pickens to be fair, and I'm hoping we take a RB next year in the top 3-4 rounds since it's looking like a pretty strong class. If they're smart they won't put everything on Williams over the next 2-3 years.
 
Smitty said:
Yeah, but next year we will lose Pickens to free agency and Javonte will be banged up or some other bad karma shit. This is the year where it’s come together. Would love to see 48 sacks out of this defense.
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That's what scares me. We can maybe stagnate one side of the ball for maybe a year and get away with it. Anything longer than that and entropy starts to set in.

We really want to strike while the iron is hot.
 
Genghis Khan said:
That's what scares me. We can maybe stagnate one side of the ball for maybe a year and get away with it. Anything longer than that and entropy starts to set in.

We really want to strike while the iron is hot.
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If Pickens has another strong year and our offense is top tier and Jerry (at age 84, and Dak going on 34) let's Stephen cry poor and let's him walk, nothing more really needs to be said about their lack of commitment to winning.
 
I'm a little behind, but thoughts on the ongoing presser...

Jerry looks old, man. Really old. I know we can't stand him, but I hope his health hasn't taken another turn for the worse.

He also said he likes the quiet offseason, he refused to take any bait when asked about Super Bowl or even playoff aspirations, and when asked about Dak's Superbowl XXX shirt said that's good Dak thinks that because unlike me, he can actually make a tangible difference in inspiring the team to play better. :o

Just when I was thinking how good this was going, I saw Goof Son's sunglasses. :angry

Asked about adding any players, Stephen says 24/7/365 and Jerry volunteers that he'd give up future assets if he could improve the team now. Also says we never did walk away from Crosby talks.
 
Chocolate Lab said:
I'm a little behind, but thoughts on the ongoing presser...

Jerry looks old, man. Really old. I know we can't stand him, but I hope his health hasn't taken another turn for the worse.

He also said he likes the quiet offseason, he refused to take any bait when asked about Super Bowl or even playoff aspirations, and when asked about Dak's Superbowl XXX shirt said that's good Dak thinks that because unlike me, he can actually make a tangible difference in inspiring the team to play better. :o

Just when I was thinking how good this was going, I saw Goof Son's sunglasses. :angry

Asked about adding any players, Stephen says 24/7/365 and Jerry volunteers that he'd give up future assets if he could improve the team now. Also says we never did walk away from Crosby talks.
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Please add a pic of the sunglasses when you see one out here for the rest of us to enjoy.
 
Asked about Quinnen's contract (and reference to Jalen Carter just getting paid), Goof says we do want to address that now, says a lot of contracts get done around camp. Yay?
 
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