Quote:
Originally Posted by Flaming Mo
I think the long term plan with Coples is pretty clear as it goes hand in hand with other moves we have made in recent years regarding the defense. The NFL becomes more and more of a passing league and the top teams will always look to attack you with the wrong personnel on the field. It has been extremely apparent when we played NE the last couple of times. Brady will pick our heavy packages apart and when we try to bring our nickel package in they run it a ton. The days where you can just mix and match from down to down are over, you can't play to many one dimensional players. DeVito was and is strictly a run defender and even in that regard he hasn't been great this year.
Now enter Coples who as of now might be a little light and inexperienced and put him at one DE spot and Wilkerson on the other side of the nose tackle. Than you have two big guys who can defend the run AND can rush the passer. If Coples develops according to plan then we have two big time players for the next decade at the end spots and it would give us a big advantage when we match up with different offenses.
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+1
Over the summer, I wrote an article outlaying that very point. Wilkerson and Coples are versatile three down defenders.
Remember in 2011 when the Patriots ran out the clock on us? It's because we had smaller guys like Dixon and Westerman stuck in the game.
All this defense needs is an edge rusher who can win one on one battles.