I feel a need to pump the brakes a little here, because this D hasn't really proven much against good offenses with their first-string QBs playing. Detroit had the Hawks number, moved the ball and scored plenty, but gave us 14 points in turnovers and a couple 4th down failure turnovers. Yes, those "lucky breaks" were created by the D, but may be hard to replicate game-in and game-out.
Lamar and the Ravens--if the Hawks can shut down or even just limit that offense, in Baltimore, enough to get a W, THEN we can start talking about the potential greatness of this D. If we can hold that group under 20 points... major accomplishment. After all, the Ravens were up 35-0 on Detroit by halftime.
If it turns out the Hawks D can slow down the 49ers offense, and the Cowboys, and the Eagles... we will have something indeed.
Just because it "feels" like we have the horses on D, especially with the Leonard Williams signing, doesn't mean things will magically gel; I absolutely do hope this happens, kind of like a 2014 season where the D just became lights-out in the second half of the season. Can Clint Hurtt channel some Dan Quinn to help make this happen? Can the Hawks largely avoid season-ending injuries? Can the youngsters on the D continue to develop into legit NFL players? Can the D discover that playing-fast-and-together magic that powered the 2013 and 2014 Seahawk defenses?
I'd love to see it happen, just don't feel like anything is guaranteed, and things could even go backwards if a few bad things happen, e.g., injuries, other teams finding weaknesses to exploit, etc.
