Colts 'hopeful and optimistic' Shaquille Leonard will play in opener

[Ironshaft]

Originally Posted by apballin

Hard to say who is the “leader“ of the defense is.

I am glad that we can actually have a conversation about who the "leader" of the defense is. We have a number of great players this season:

Buckner
Ngakoue
Leonard
Kenny Moore II
Gilmore

With, hopefully, a few younger guys who by the end of the season are seen as "up and comers"

Paye
Odeyingbo
Okereke
Blackmon
Cross ???

I love what Ballard has done with the defense this year. Adding both Ngakoue and Gilmore to an already solid unit will, hopefully, lead to it being a true strength this year.

[apballin]

Originally Posted by Ironshaft

I am glad that we can actually have a conversation about who the "leader" of the defense is. We have a number of great players this season:

Buckner
Ngakoue
Leonard
Kenny Moore II
Gilmore

With, hopefully, a few younger guys who by the end of the season are seen as "up and comers"

Paye
Odeyingbo
Okereke
Blackmon
Cross ???

I love what Ballard has done with the defense this year. Adding both Ngakoue and Gilmore to an already solid unit will, hopefully, lead to it being a true strength this year.

Don’t forget about Rodgers

[ChaosTheory]

Originally Posted by YDFL Commish

I would say that the 2005 & 2007 defenses were pretty damn good, giving up 15.4 & 16.4 pts per game respectively.

I think today we would kill for a defense that gives up less than 21 pts per game.

Speaking of the impact of one guy/leader on the field. Bob Sanders plays 14 games in '05 and 15 games in '07. Sandwiched in between was the Super Bowl season where the defense was shit all year until he returned for the playoffs and made them almost unrecognizable.

Originally Posted by Hoopsdoc

Can’t stop the run for shit in preseason. These things have a way of lasting into the season.

I’m not as optimistic.

I've been so caught up in the secondary's role in the new defense that I hadn't stopped to think of this. The Lions game brought back some memories from the Freeney/Mathis days when the pass rush was deadly but teams would absolutely grind on us in the run game. I know it's preseason and backups and all that.

Eberflus' D allowed a lot of pitch-and-catch but was always top-10 against the run. I expect our pass-rush/coverage to be better under Bradley... I just hope it's not at the expense of the run game eating us alive.

I'm curious how Okereke and Leonard will be affected by the new D-line philosophy as opposed to always being freed up under Eberflus.