First, along the front seven, we do have talented and highly-recruited players. But most of them are young. Very young. Warner, for example, is likely to be a very good OLB before long. He's going to be a pass rusher and run-stopper in the mold of KVN. KVN was special, so I'm not saying Warner will get all the way there, but he could. He's that kind of recruit. But for now, he's really not good at all. He has moments in pass rush, but still lacks technique and strength enough to put consistent pressure on the QB. And in the run game, he's pretty bad at this point. Can't hold the edge to save his life. But, he shouldn't feel bad, because Kaufusi is just as bad right now in the run game. Constantly out of position. Anyway, point #1 is that much of our talent is young, and position mastery and assignment-soundness actually DO matter.

Second, Howell just isn't as good of a DC as Bronco is. He's not as good at game-planning, and he's not as good at motivating. Bronco is a great DC, so we automatically get worse on defense if he's not getting his hands dirty with the defense on a daily basis. I think Bronco is hurting his chances as a head coach by not keeping himself as DC. Bronco will never be as good a head coach as he is a defensive coordinator, where his is one of the very best in the business.

The good news is that the young talent will get better. We do actually have coaches that will teach them what they need to know, and they will work hard. Also good news is that Howell should improve, and Bronco is just too good of a defensive coach to just sit back and watch his team play bad defense. He'll get it fixed. I'm not claiming any miracles here, especially in the short run, but way too many people around here seem to think we'll never field a good defense ever again.