[papabear]

I don't really have an opinion on him. He gets a mulligan on the transition year from a 3-4 to a 4-3. I think our defense should have been better last year....but with as much turnover as we had in our already shaky secondary he gets a little bit of a break.

We have invested a lot in our defense, not only in the draft but with guys like Will Demps, Jaque Reeves, and no Colvin. I think we need to see something from the d as a unit this year. I don't know if it's quite time to say it's his make or break year....but its getting close.

I see a lot of disdain for him as well. I hear the "vanilla" complaints, and understand them to some extent, but I have some thoughts on that as well.

One big complaint that I hear is that we didn't blitz enough. I would like to see more blitzing, but I think some of the complaints aren't based on realistic expectations....maybe it's because of Madden. I have seen some stuff where it sounds like we never blitzed at all. Losing Dunta probably hurt us in this department as well. As much as we all loved Bennet last year, Dunta was the one corner the coaches felt, and rightly so, that they could leave on an island....freeing up other guys to blitz.

I want to see this defense really take a step forward this year and carve out some type of identity. Like a draft pick I will wait until the end of his third season to pass judgement.