Tyler Dawgden looks at the transition from Grantham to Pruitt and sees this as nerve calming:
One other thing to be hopeful for about this season: Pruitt won’t likely do much different, alignment wise, than Grantham did with the front seven. Much of the heavy lifting will be done with the DEs and NG filling gaps, with the line performing nearly the same role of preventing easy inside yards, while pushing the pocket back into the QB on pass plays. The big difference will come from philosophy after the snap with the LBs, as Pruitt’s system is both simpler from an execution standpoint and more reliant on the LBs to blow up plays with speed. In that regard, I feel pretty good about our talent.
I don’t disagree, but I think I’d go one step further. I don’t think we’ll see Herrera and Wilson on the field in coverage together as much as we did last season. Opposing 2013 quarterbacks put up a 192.77 passer rating against Grantham’s defense on 3rd Down, 7-9 yards to go situations and a 141.45 passer rating on 3rd Down, 10+ yards to go situations. Pruitt’s gotta come up with something to deal with that. And I doubt that’s leaving those two out there handling receivers.
Get The Picture 
Agree.
It isn’t. Unless Herrera has picked up a bunch of speed, which isn’t really possible. I expect Herrera to move a little better, be a little quicker this year, but not enough to cover WR’s in space.
And I sure don’t expect him to be left on an island in the middle of the field on big 3rd down plays, allowing QB’s a hot read to a crossing pattern for big yards. We’d be better off just to give them the first down, than to do that (we can only wonder what in the world Grantham was thinking).
Wilson moves pretty well, so it’ll be interesting to see how much his speed and agility has improved this year. But I expect to see players like J.J.Green, who’s a solid tackler with some speed, roaming the middle in those situations.
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I imagine we won’t see Floyd trying to cover NFL ready receivers on 3rd and 19 anymore either. Thank Dawg.
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Exactly.
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Right about that. I can only imagine in 3rd and 6+ Jenkins or Floyd is off the field. I mean that’s just logical. But I also see Floyd being off the field more at that time. Jenkins plays a better mid lb in a dime. JJ green gets time with 3-4 dime. Rush 4 with Jenkins smarts…. Man. I haven’t commented lots this off season, but I think the basics out weigh smarts….. Quit over thinking. Be in shape and run fast. Be tough and care about your colors. Its the most complex simple ever. Def has to be simple in scheme. …. Wow. I have a day off tomorrow and ready to drunk rant. Haha
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I don’t know X’s and O’s, but those ratings are so awful that if we improve merely to average it will be a big step.
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Given the turnover in QB’s in the conference, improvement in this stat is almost a given.
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Agreed… Steele is right. Yards will go down for all sec teams this year. Hopefully gurley makes up for that.
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True, but I’d like to think some of the improvement is because we improve from yuck to meh.
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Just resting lbs in general would be a huge step. Herrerra and Wilson (Jenkins and Floyd too) played 99.9% of the defensive plays last year. That can’t happen. That’s like running 85 or so 40 yard sprints per game. How fresh are you gonna be in the fourth quarter if you are playing sideline to sideline the entire game. The only time I remember any lb (inside or out) getting rest was when a helmet came off during a play.
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Don’t be surprised if you see ILB Carter on the field in those sure passing situations. He did a good job last year and this year in spring and held his own in coverage in the few games that CTG played him. He moves really well and from what I hear is one of the faster LBs.
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