Bleacher Bums Forum

Thats not the point. The point was had we drafted quality players and developed them we wouldnt have needed Peppers because we could have had somebody close enough to Peppers to not have needed him.

My point is that the reason we had to pay top dollar for Peppers is because pretty much every other player on our DL was average at best to downright terrible.  He was basically brought in as a last-ditch effort to salvage a unit that is the key to Lovie's whole defensive scheme and was floundering badly.

If we had already had three or four good to really good players on that DL, the whole would have been greater than the sum of its parts and a DE of equivalent caliber to that group would have been plenty. Peppers is a phenomenal player, but for all his talent the best he has been able to do is get this DL back to barely average. This is still not a Bears front four that scares anyone, either in pass or run defense. If the rest of the DL had already been up to snuff, such a drastic measure would not have been needed to give as good (if not better) results than we have gotten from adding Peppers.

whatever. And why hasnt Peppers had double didgit sacks?

Probably because the rest of our DL has been so sub-par that teams can double and even triple-team Peppers with impunity.

I think a lot of people have forgotten (or never knew in the first place) that those Carolina D-Lines that Peppers played on were man-for-man quite a bit more talented than what the Bears have put on the field in recent years. 

If Melton, Toeiana, Izzy and/or Okoye can turn into players that not only can beat their blockers one-on-one but can also demand a double team, opposing OCs are going to have to reduce the blocking assigned to Peppers accordingly and I think you'll see sack numbers more in line with his exceptional ability.

I think Yapper has the answer. The DLine needs an overhaul which is why we spent a 2nd round pick on it. It also pinpoints the problem on Angelo's draft record. You cant continually, year after year, invest 3rd round picks on worthless players and expect to have a killer defense.

yeah, Paea has shown nothing, zero, zip.

Like I said, if the veteran DTs come through for us this year it doesn't become so critical that Paea plays great right out of the gate.

However, if it gets 2, 3 years down the road and Paea still isn't a factor then you really have to wonder whether that 2nd round draft pick wouldn't have been better spent on an OG or even a big WR.

Barring injury this line should be better than last year's.  They just need to find that 3rd DE.  Peppers and Idonijie can't play as much as they did last year.

Agreed, especially on the last part.  Wootten's injury was a huge blow. I think they were really counting on him stepping into that 3rd DE role this year and now they're kind of limbo till they see how quickly he heals and whether he can get back to where he was before. We may wind up seeing Melton moving outside unless and until they're comfortable Wootten is ready to get back into the mix.

An offense that can sustain long drives and put points on the board would be a tremendous help to our D as well.

At this point I have much more confidence in our DL rounding into form, than our offense.

Other than the OL, the offense doesn't look any better than last year... and our WRs look noticeably worse.