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Leoram
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Staley failed to find answers to how offenses would attack his system.
Perhaps.
But I'm wondering if we're overlooking other aspects to the defense's great performance under Staley for that one year?
1) McVay hired him because he was enamored with how Fangio was able to shut down his offense the prior season. That clearly resonated with him and he wanted to get out in front of the curve by employing a defense that wasn't widely utilized at the time. Well, teams are using that style of defense more and more today and we have to see if Staley can adjust.
2) In that 2020 season, Aaron Donald recorded 13.5 regular season stats and added another 2 in the Wild Card match-up against the Seahags before he got injured. Now, both Joey Bosa and Khalil Mack are monsters out on the edges and Derwin James is a very good player as well. But you can't convince me that not having an in-his-prime game-wrecker in the middle of the DL didn't impact performance.
3) Can't overlook the defensive assistant coaches on the staff during that 2020 season. The Rams had Henderson on the DL and Evero/Pleasant coaching the secondary. If either Pleasant or Henderson is overlooked for potential DC promotion should Morris leaves, I highly doubt that either stays on staff. Could Staley assemble another staff that'd work just as well?
