biggest help for the defense.

[love them hogs]

It seems to me that the biggest help for our defense this year came when we picked up Tupa.I know that he is the punter but how many times last year did our punter leave our D in bad field position.The second thing that will help our D will be the offense.I dont believe our defense was as bad as they were ranked last year.What do you guys think?

[SKINSnCANES]

The offense definitly has left the D in some bad situations these last few years, but the problem was that our defense didnt lack any fire. Under Lewis our D would get stuck in a bad situation then put up a goal line stand. Last year youd see Lavar just walk off the field and not even stay for the extra point because he would be upset, people were always out of place. There was no discipline covering their man, remember when we played tampa and they scored or got first downs with that damn tight end play four or five times and no one ever covered. I think the biggest upgrade this year will be the coaching, but it is a new staff and might take some time to get everyone to learn the system

[Daseal]

I think the biggest improvement will be Greg Williams. However, Tupa can really help us by kicking the ball more than 10 yards. Tupa is a great punter who should have a few years still going for us. Watch for him on trick plays, I hear he's quite a QB. He is also holding for John Hall!

[skinsfanthru&thru]

Originally Posted by Daseal

I think the biggest improvement will be Greg Williams. However, Tupa can really help us by kicking the ball more than 10 yards. Tupa is a great punter who should have a few years still going for us. Watch for him on trick plays, I hear he's quite a QB. He is also holding for John Hall!

i gotta agree, williams is going to bring back discipline and he is gonna confuse the heck out of some offenses. it's also good to have a solid punter again, especially one who was the holder for our kicker a couple of years ago. but the thing that's gonna help our defense the most is mr. portis and occasionally betts and rock getting carry after carry resulting in 5-7 minute drives.

[JWsleep]

I agree, skinsfan.

Clinton Portis. The running game will allow us to control clock and field position. The D won't be playing on the short field like they were all the time last year, and they won't wilt in the 4th quarter, because we wont have all those 3 and out all passing series.

Williams, of course, is a massive improvment as well!

[Gmanc711]

I gotta go with Williams as well. He's gonna have some crazy schemes to really free up our LB's so they can make tackles and get a good rush on the QB. I think the offense as a whole should help our defense too. Our offense should put up much better numbers this year, and that alone will relive our defense of having to keep us in the game. Belive it or not, our D actually kept us in alot of games last year when our offense was garbage, but ALWAYS fell apart in the fourth quarter. Williams should put a stop to that.

[That Guy]

Gibbs has done a good job of depth too, which should help later on in the season... nfl.com even did a report on that, but overall the backups and the backups' backups are better than last year (RB, Q, WR, LB, S, etc... a bunch of last years starters are backups or 2nd options now). Losing Bailey sucks, but even though CBs are harder to come by, i think Portis is MUCH more important for Gibbs system (though keeping Davis, of course, would have worked too)...

[Redskins_P]

Our D-line still remains a question mark. Granted we did have some good acquisitions in Griffin, and Daniels. But I still think we need a massive body in the middle to clog up the line of schrimage and free up our ends and lb's.

Greg Williams is a proven defensive coordinator, and his defenses have always been at least top 10. Our LB's I think will be the key to our defense.

[memphisskin]

We got killed on field position last year, having a solid punter will help but Gibbs will place more of an emphasis on special teams so our coverage units should be better too. Having a run based offense will help too because the defense will get more rest. We should have longer, more productive possessions and give the defense more rest and a lead to work with. And playing with a lead makes a HUGE difference.

Our defensive line is ok, I like Griffin and if we can add a pass rusher (Ogunleye?) then Griffin should be able to make some plays. Noble is a big strong guy, great motor and he does the dirty work that makes other players look good.

But the biggest help for our defense is Williams. I think Edwards was a little overwhelmed last year because the head coach didn't set much of a tone. I think Williams will find a way to get pressure on the qb and get some stops on third downs.

[MTK]

Tupa is definitely a much needed upgrade to the special teams unit.

Hopefully the blocking will improve as well so we can get guys like Morton and Thrash into the open field more often.

[SKINSnCANES]

Better field position off of kickoffs will be nice, but hopefully it wont matter because our offense will acutally be able to move the ball.

[NFLNetwork]

its definately greg williams...he's one of the top 5 d-coordinators...question is...will he be our next head coach

[Big C]

i hope he will be our next coach when gibbs thinks its time for him to retire once again, after 3 more super bowls of course. that would be ideal, to have some consistency and stability.

[SKINSnCANES]

hmm. Well, he did ok with the Bills I guess. The reason I would want him to take over coaching, in no less than five years hopefully, is because hes already with the team and we wont have to make huge transitions again. I assume Bugel is gone whenever GIbbs retires.