Well, according to Rob Staton….
“5. For all the talk of needing more talent on defense, here’s a quick reminder. Jordyn Brooks and LJ Collier were first round picks. Darrell Taylor and Boye Mafe were second round picks. Cody Barton is a third round pick. They paid to retain Poona Ford and Bryan Mone and Ford has the biggest cap-hit on the team this year. Uchenna Nwosu is the most expensive outside free agent they’ve ever signed. They re-signed Al Woods and brought back Quinton Jefferson. Next year, Jamal Adams and Quandre Diggs are set to account for $36m of Seattle’s cap space. Nwosu and Shelby Harris combine for $25m. This is a defense that has been built and frankly, resources have been squandered. That should be remembered as we discuss whether this is just a situation that can be fixed by these decision makers simply adding more players. They need to do a much better job than they have been doing.”
seahawksdraftblog.com
Ppl don’t like Staton but is he really wrong here?
How does that compare to other defenses though (asking honestly)? We haven't selected a defensive player in the top 16 of the draft in over 10 years (Bruce Irvin), and 2 first round picks on the defensive side doesn't sound like a lot to me. Granted we gave up 2 to get Adams whose injuries have been costly and that's unfortunate especially given he's the type of player you build a team around, how would the Rams defense look if Donald was out for the entire season or 49ers if they were missing Bosa?
Among the D-Line, Nwosu and Woods have been excellent, Ford is struggling with a new position and that's unfortunate but for years he's been one of our better players and its his first year in a new scheme. Harris has been a strong pickup, and Taylor blows hot and cold but he also has 11.5 sacks in his first 2 years starting. Outside of that our D-Line has no true playmakers (Mafe is athletic enough and will develop but he's a first year player who we all knew had high upside but would need time to grow into the position). Hell we had to bring in Bruce Irvin off the street for his 3rd stint as a Seahawks just to make up bodies.
In reality we need more like 7 or 8 high quality players on the D-Line and that takes time and trial and error to get there - it took 3 years after Carroll took over to build a line that included Bryant, Clemons, Avril, Bennett, Mebane, McDaniel and McDonald. Those guys would be part of the rotation at any NFL team right now, and aside from all being excellent players on their own, having 7 starter quality players on the D-line means rotation and no tired bodies (which was the struggle on Sunday given TOP).
This defense is in no way comparable to the 2012 defense (which incidentally shat the bed against the Falcons in the playoffs when we needed them to step up in the final 20 seconds), but the only material additions to that team in 2013 were Avril and Bennett, and the defense went from one that was "very good" to an all-time great. Who is to say that without 2 or 3 key additions next year and the return of Adams, that we can't improve immeasurably - we knew this year was going to be rebuilding, and anybody who thought that we were going to have a top 10 defense when we knew we were going to have to start 2 rookies at corner (even before Adams went down for the season) is kidding themselves.
We have the core pieces there - I think with the addition of a top quality LBer, DL and DE will be the missing pieces that bring the defense together, particular as our rookies develop and Adams (*hopefully*) comes back as strong as ever.