On the surface it seems we actually have some good players in the secondary, but almost all of them have a fatal flaw that gets exposed. For one, it seems none of them can catch a football. That is almost a deal-breaker because if your DBs can't generate interceptions then, as Haslett (yes I threw up in my mouth) used to say, "You're on borrowed time".

In addition to generating next to zero turnovers in the secondary, we have guys like Harper who are great against the run, but who can't cover. We've got guys who can cover (sorta), but can't tackle. We play 10 yards off the ball, but give up huge swaths of YAC because of our poor tackling.

I just don't see how we're going to improve significantly on defense without improving our secondary. The inability to generate interceptions is a problem too big to ignore in my book. Unfortunately if you can't catch the ball at the pro-level, then IMO it's not something that can be taught; it's just too late. We have to get some new, ball-hawking personnel in the secondary who can catch and are sound tacklers.

Our secondary does have some potential. Greer has 9 picks in his 8 year career, 5 years of which he was a back-up. He has 3 picks as a Saint.
Robinson has 4 picks is basically 1-1/2 years of playing CB
Porter has 7 picks since he's been here
Jenkins had 3 picks his 1st two seasons, 1/2 of which as a back-up.
Patrick had 5 picks his senior year so he looks like he might be hawkish.

I think 2011 was more the exception than the rule. We certainly don't have 4 Sharpers back there, but I don't think we're as bad as 2011 looked.