NFL's best defensive lines

hawknation2014 · May 28, 2014

http://www.sbnation.com/nfl/2014/5/28/5 ... ts-broncos

NFC's Rams and Panthers are No. 1 and 2, according to this list. Hard to argue with that, though the Cardinals and Seahawks deserve more respect.

Seahawks and Panthers led the league with just four rushing TDs allowed last season. All of the NFC West defensive fronts are pretty amazing. It makes what Marshawn Lynch accomplished the last couple seasons even more impressive.

1. Rams
LDE Long
LDT Donald
RDT Brockers
RDE Quinn

2. Cardinals
LDE Campbell
NT Williams
RDT Docket
OLB Abraham

3. Seahawks
LDE Bennett
DT McDaniel
NT Mebane
RDE Avril

4. 49ers
LDT McDonald
NT Dorsey
RDT J. Smith
OLB A. Smith

Smelly McUgly · May 28, 2014

Danny Kelly was trying to be really unbiased, so he was harsher on the Seahawks than he otherwise might have been if this was a FG-only post, but he is fair in his assessment. Scruggs, Mayowa, Jeffcoat, Hill, etc. are wild cards. Even Irvin is something of a wild card on the D-Line since he'll be playing LEO on passing downs sometimes if I understood Dan Quinn right.

Who are our proven guys? Mebane, McDaniel, Bennett, and Avril? Lots of question marks behind them, though of course, I do think that our FO and coaches know how to target talent and coach them up in this area, so at least a couple of those guys will end up becoming stars this year.

RE: The list, there are enough good D-Lines that he forgot to add Cincinnati. I guess if Geno Atkins isn't up-to-speed because of his injury, you could leave them off.

Lords of Scythia · May 28, 2014

hawknation2014":1nkkmlo2 said:
http://www.sbnation.com/nfl/2014/5/28/5739748/2014-nfl-defensive-line-rankings-rams-panthers-saints-broncos

NFC's Rams and Panthers are No. 1 and 2, according to this list. Hard to argue with that, though the Cardinals and Seahawks deserve more respect.

Seahawks and Panthers led the league with just four rushing TDs allowed last season. All of the NFC West defensive fronts are pretty amazing. It makes what Marshawn Lynch accomplished the last couple seasons even more impressive.

1. Rams
LDE Long
LDT Donald
RDT Brockers
RDE Quinn

2. Cardinals
LDE Campbell
NT Williams
RDT Docket
OLB Abraham

3. Seahawks
LDE Bennett
DT McDaniel
NT Mebane
RDE Avril

4. 49ers
LDT McDonald
NT Dorsey
RDT J. Smith
OLB A. Smith

The Seahawks d-line was somewhat decimated this off-season. Last season we had one of the best.

MizzouHawkGal · May 28, 2014

I have no argument with the above rankings. But things change once the games start.

hawknation2014 · May 28, 2014

Lords of Scythia":2366mojn said:
The Seahawks d-line was somewhat decimated this off-season. Last season we had one of the best.

I'm excited to see Bennett/Avril attacking the offensive backfield from opposite ends of the field now that they've had a year to click. Although his raw numbers were down, Mebane is coming off his strongest year. I'm also anxious to see what Scruggs, Hill, Williams, Mayowa, Jeffcoat, etc. can bring to the rotation.

This has a chance to be one of the better defensive lines in the league, but they're going to have to stay hungry and work for it.

Hawkfan77 · May 29, 2014

Starters? Yeah I agree with that.

I still love our depth and think that next years DL could be better/more effective than last years.

RedAlice · Jun 3, 2014

From nfl.com, nice to see some football related positive writing about the Rams there.

http://www.nfl.com/news/story/0ap200000 ... g-williams

Games will tell, but I am feeling happy. I always do in June though.

MizzouHawkGal · Jun 3, 2014

RedAlice":1ae6upx8 said:
From nfl.com, nice to see some football related positive writing about the Rams there.

http://www.nfl.com/news/story/0ap200000 ... g-williams

Games will tell, but I am feeling happy. I always do in June though.

If Bradford remains healthy (not likely) you guys will be very dangerous. Too much for my liking in fact. I do look forward to your embarrassment of the Chiefs though. I have serious money to make this year so don't let me down!

RedAlice · Jun 3, 2014

I'm kind of convinced that Fisher wants to win in spite of his QB. All scarred from his VYoung days.

If B steps up: that would be wonderful amazing for us fans. If he doesn't, well, we are used to him failing.

Pretty excited for the rest of the team this year: especially watching GW with this D. As the article outlined.

RedAlice · Jun 3, 2014

MizzouHawkGal":1ykvxcxt said:
RedAlice":1ykvxcxt said:

From nfl.com, nice to see some football related positive writing about the Rams there.

http://www.nfl.com/news/story/0ap200000 ... g-williams

Games will tell, but I am feeling happy. I always do in June though.

Click to expand...

If Bradford remains healthy (not likely) you guys will be very dangerous. Too much for my liking in fact. I do look forward to your embarrassment of the Chiefs though. I have serious money to make this year so don't let me down!

October 26th.

Go Rams.

I don't have a feel for the Chiefs at this point, but they seemed to play above their skill last year with an easy schedule. They will have to earn it this year.

MizzouHawkGal · Jun 3, 2014

RedAlice":3s618qlw said:
MizzouHawkGal":3s618qlw said:

RedAlice":3s618qlw said:

From nfl.com, nice to see some football related positive writing about the Rams there.

http://www.nfl.com/news/story/0ap200000 ... g-williams

Games will tell, but I am feeling happy. I always do in June though.

Click to expand...

If Bradford remains healthy (not likely) you guys will be very dangerous. Too much for my liking in fact. I do look forward to your embarrassment of the Chiefs though. I have serious money to make this year so don't let me down!

Click to expand...

October 26th. Go Rams.

I don't have a feel for the Chiefs at this point, but they seemed to play above their skill last year with an easy schedule. They will have to earn it this year.

6-10 or 7-9 feels right. The OL is in total rebuild and when you're pinning your hopes on a 5'9" UFDA to fix your WR corps you have serious trouble.

NINEster · Jun 4, 2014

If the KC defense didn't disappear completely after week 9, I'd say they would have gone to AFC Championship maybe even SB.

Smith had that offense running high octane in the playoffs without Jamaal Charles on the road. I would say that was his best game as a pro.

Rams will beat some tough teams and lay down some real headscratchers like they do every year. So they defeat the Saints, Colts, but lose big to Dallas?

I look forward to seeing what KC does against NFC West since the QB is no stranger to the division. I see them going at least .500 against the West.

RedAlice · Jun 4, 2014

NINEster":1b3duz6l said:
If the KC defense didn't disappear completely after week 9, I'd say they would have gone to AFC Championship maybe even SB.

Smith had that offense running high octane in the playoffs without Jamaal Charles on the road. I would say that was his best game as a pro.

Rams will beat some tough teams and lay down some real headscratchers like they do every year. So they defeat the Saints, Colts, but lose big to Dallas?

I look forward to seeing what KC does against NFC West since the QB is no stranger to the division. I see them going at least .500 against the West.

Rams have been young and schizo for sure. The Dallas loss preceeded the Niner loss, and then the Saints and Colts wins were surprising at that point, after. I wouldn't really look to last year to make you feel better about the Rams this year, Niner fan. It's not the same team.

btw, i have to add: Rams lost big and humiliating games to both Dallas, as pointed out, and then to SF the same week. All in the first 4 games of the season. The Colts and Saints wins were without Bradford and were games 10 and 15. That is when the rest of the team started to show a glimpse of what they might become. But, go ahead and discount the Rams, Niner fan.

As to KC, they had a cake schedule. I honestly haven't looked at their team as it is this year, but I have looked at the Chargers. And even the Raiders may surprise. I think KC may finish last in their division.

Marvin49 · Jun 4, 2014

Yeah, really can't argue with the Rams being #1 on that list. That's a scary front 4.

Kinda hard to make comparisons though when you compare 3-4 teams to 4-3 teams. Yeah, you can just throw in an OLB to make it 4 guys, but the players have different roles so not apples to apples. The Rams for example have 2 DEs who are very good pass rushers. Niners in a 3-4 have DE's who rush a bit, but do a lot more eating up blockers for the LBs. That's going to be the case in most 3-4s.

That's kinda why I much prefer to compare front 7s, not D-Lines. If you are going to compare D-Lines, you really have to break them up into 4-3 lines and 3-4 lines.

NINEster · Jun 5, 2014

RedAlice":395wphzw said:
NINEster":395wphzw said:

If the KC defense didn't disappear completely after week 9, I'd say they would have gone to AFC Championship maybe even SB.

Smith had that offense running high octane in the playoffs without Jamaal Charles on the road. I would say that was his best game as a pro.

Rams will beat some tough teams and lay down some real headscratchers like they do every year. So they defeat the Saints, Colts, but lose big to Dallas?

I look forward to seeing what KC does against NFC West since the QB is no stranger to the division. I see them going at least .500 against the West.

Click to expand...

Rams have been young and schizo for sure. The Dallas loss preceeded the Niner loss, and then the Saints and Colts wins were surprising at that point, after. I wouldn't really look to last year to make you feel better about the Rams this year, Niner fan. It's not the same team.

btw, i have to add: Rams lost big and humiliating games to both Dallas, as pointed out, and then to SF the same week. All in the first 4 games of the season. The Colts and Saints wins were without Bradford and were games 10 and 15. That is when the rest of the team started to show a glimpse of what they might become. But, go ahead and discount the Rams, Niner fan.

As to KC, they had a cake schedule. I honestly haven't looked at their team as it is this year, but I have looked at the Chargers. And even the Raiders may surprise. I think KC may finish last in their division.

Two things:

a) I do not discount the Rams as much as you think
b) KC's schedule in the second half of the season wasn't exactly cake

The Rams schizo personality extended to 2012 as well, finishing a dominant 4-1-1 in the division and getting beaten by the Jets and getting killed by Patriots on neutral field when the rest of the division beat them.

Everybody in the NFC West gives the Rams their props, and a lot of Seahawk fans secretly think they will eventually be better than SF (and guess what, some of us might feel the same way about Rams vs. Seahawks).

The Rams are a mystery team, but one that is maybe a top 5 most dangerous team on any given sunday. Happy Niner hater?

Chiefs will be good this year. Maybe same or slightly worse record, but better team.

NFL's best defensive lines

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