It's just incredibly bizarre how the last two seasons have gone defensively when you consider Zimmer always has had his defense squared away and was renowned for his mind as a defensive specialist from Belichick on down to Parcells. These are the things I think were crushers for us on defense these last two seasons:
- No Danielle Hunter. He might be the best overall player on the team and is our closer on defense. Not having him around was a killer.
- No Michael Pierce. We signed this guy to be a bull on our interior and stop the run. He opted out in 2020 and only played in a handful of games last season due to injury
- No Jeff Gladney. This guy was drafted and was counted on to be a starter and play at a high level for us. Flashed as a rookie then the arrest, release, and all that. Forced us into starting Breeland who was beyond awful.
- They tried to get cute early on with different 3-4 looks and stopped doing what Zimmer did best with the double A gap blitzes.
Those were all huge and then you sprinkle in various injuries to guys like Kendricks, Barr and you have the shit show we've had the last two seasons. It really boils down to Zimmer not having the right personnel to run things how he had become accustomed to running things. Not an excuse, just fact.