BillyCarpenter1

One of my biggest concerns about this year's defense was the defensive line. More specificially the defensive tackle position. While I'm not ready to say these positions are going to be dominate, I do feel much better. Not only do I think this is going to be a strong unit, but if someone goes down with an injury, we have enough depth that we won't lose much production.

Linebacker was also a big area for concern going into this season. Looking at the 2-preseson games, this is still a major concerns in my mind. I do believe we have ugraded the position over last year with Derick Rodgers but Orlando Ruff hasn't shown me much. Darrin Smith looked good against the Jets, but I still have major questions on his abilty to be the answer for 16-games.

Cornerback was another major area of concern and the corners so far have not been able to stop anything. Ambrose has answered one question though, he's not the answer to our cornerback worries. We have yet to see Dale Carter and I only hope he's as good as advertised. I will say this about the play of our cornerbacks. In both preseason games they have played without the benefit of any pass rush because of the vanilla defense that we have used and I think they will be better once the regular season starts.

Mel Mitchell and Tebucky Jones may not have answered many questions so far, but I like both players very much and I think this is the least area of concern.

Preseason doesn't mean much but this is how I see it so far. Once the game starts in Seattle all the speculation will be over and we will see, but right now I think the defense is much improved over last year.