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Suh-weet!
First, "far fewer blitzes" would seem to play into arguably the biggest potential weakness of this D: its lack of (proven) pass rushers. I believe the season-high for NFL sacks by anyone not named Aaron Donald is Brocker's 5.5 in 2013. Course, that has a lot of do w/the D's youth/lack of playing time, but point is that they lack proven pass rushers. In that context, the promise of few blitzes, if true, isn't encouraging to me.
Second, if a major point of the defense is to make the opposing QB confused and anxious, I'd think a fair bit of blitzing would be an important part of the mix. I think most starting NFL QB's will work thru any initial confusion the defense causes if they're able to put back there all day. My guess is that Staley will adjust quickly if my fears are realized, but... there're my two cents.
Blitzing more doesn't correlate to a better defense.
The worst defense in NFL last year(AZ) blitzed more than every team in the league except one last year.
One of the best defenses in NFL last year (SF) blitzed 3rd less in NFL
Rams didn't blitz much last year (17th iirc), but we were top 5 in pressures and sacks.
What I like about Staley is that his defense doesn't need to blitz much to confuse or rattle a QB. It is a very well disguised defense that doesn't have many tells for a QB to read pre-snap the way Wade's defenses did. I am very excited to see this defense come to life in 2020 and what these young guys and the new guys can do.
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