Breaking down the NFL (Part 2)

By Vikram Mohan Sports Central Columnist

Having already broken down the NFL's best and worst offensive units, I'm now turning my attention to the league's defensive units.

Secondary

We would be decent if pass interference and holding were legal: Pittsburgh Steelers.

After allowing Kelly Holcomb to throw for 429 yards and three touchdowns in their wildcard matchup last season, one would think that addressing problems in the secondary would be the main objective of this team in the offseason. Obviously, the front-office felt differently considering that it let Lee Flowers, the only legitimate player in the secondary, move on to the Denver Broncos.

Drafting USC safety Troy Polamalu may end up helping in the long-run, but he will probably not start this season. Furthermore, playing safety for the Steelers is a far more daunting task than playing safety anywhere else. Sure, Polamalu is a big-hitter. So was Flowers, but, besides protecting the middle of the field and blocking running gaps, he also had to correct mistakes made by starting corners Chad Scott and DeWayne Washington. He should have received a community service award for the amount of times he had to supplement broken coverage.

Will Polamalu or whoever wins the job be able to handle this? Apparently, the Steelers did not even try to re-sign Flowers because the defensive coaches felt that he had lost his speed and had become a liability coverage-wise.

First of all, a safety should never even have to cover anyone but a third- or fourth-receiver. In the modern game, where nickel packages are used so often on throwing downs, the safety should ideally just aid in rush defense and protect the middle.

Second, it is difficult to believe that Flowers, when asked to, cannot cover the likes of Ron Dugans, Marcus Robinson, or Andre' Davis (the stud third-receivers of the AFC North).

Third, as I mentioned earlier, if the Steelers had two decent corners, then Flowers would not have been forced to chase after open No. 1 receivers who were already 10 yards downfield. Maybe then he would not have seemed slow to his idiotic defensive coaches.

To put in perspective the woes of the Steelers' pass defense, just look at their competition. How can your pass defense rank 23rd in the league when you play six games against the Bengals, Browns, and Ravens? What other team would have its corners backup 10 yards on every play to give them enough cushion in case Jeff Blake beats them over the top? And, worse, what other team would constantly get beat over the top by Jeff Blake is spite of this? Blake threw for 336 yards and 2 touchdowns in his lone game versus the Steelers.

As if facing Jon Kitna, a Brian Billick passing "attack" (and I use the term loosely), and Tim Couch six times per year were not easy enough, each of those teams had a season-long QB battle, virtually killing any chance of finding offensive rhythm or stability.

Truthfully, calling the Steelers the 23rd-rated pass defense in the league last season is being too generous. If the sack yards amassed by all defenses throughout the entire season were added back to their respective team's passing yards allowed per game total, then the Steelers would be 28th.

What makes this realization even worse is taking into consideration that their rush defense was the best in the league last season and that the front-seven accounted for 46 of the team's 50 sacks. Basically, besides Flowers, the rest of the secondary never had to concern itself with stopping the run or blitzing. So, while having the easiest workload of any secondary in the entire league, they gave up almost 3,800 yards of passing and were torched by Jeff Blake and Jake Plummer look-alike Kelly Holcomb, among others. Way to go, guys. Good work.

Sleeper: St. Louis Rams.

It is hard to believe that a unit that adds Jason Sehorn can improve, but the Rams secondary looks much better going into next season. Aeneas Williams has recovered from his broken leg and will start at cornerback opposite Travis Fisher. If either Irishman Shane Walton or former Husker DeJuan Groce pans out, that would give the Rams three solid corners.

The Rams also have one of the league's best safeties in Adam Archuleta, who finished last season with the second-most tackles of any defensive backs. His 3 sacks put him among the leaders in that category for DBs, as well.

As bad as Sehorn played last season, the switch to safety and his improved health should allow him to contribute. His declining speed will not be as much of an issue since he will not be asked to cover man-to-man as often, and he does have good size for his new position. With Kim Herring and Steve Bellisari at safety, as well, the Rams seem to have solid depth.

Perhaps the most positive development in the Rams' secondary was the departure of Dexter McCleon and Dre' Bly. How can a secondary not improve when it drops off two sandbags like these guys? The Kansas City Chiefs picked up McCleon hoping to improve one of the league's worst pass defenses. I guess their scouts never watched this guy play. He is the only corner in the history of the league to get beat twice on the same play. What was that, you say? Can someone really be beaten twice on the same play? Is that really possible? Yes, it is.

It happened a few years ago against the 49ers. McCleon was covering Terrell Owens for some unknown reason. Garcia pump-faked once, and Owens blew by McCleon. Instead of trying to recover or chasing him down to prevent a touchdown, McCleon simply flapped his arms up and down and picked up Eric Johnson in coverage. Luckily for the Rams, unbeknownst to McCleon, one of their safeties somehow managed to catch up with Owens and cover him.

His first option having been defended, Garcia tried to find Johnson over the middle, which was not too difficult considering Johnson had run over McCleon and was wide-open. Garcia and Johnson connected for a 25-yard gain, while McCleon lay sprawling on the turf. After Johnson was brought down, McCleon got up and angrily flailed his arms again intimating that whoever brought down Johnson should have done a better job in coverage, even though Johnson was his man. Wow.

As for Dre' Bly, he is now a Detroit Lion. The Lions had trouble defending the pass last season and had only 10 interceptions. How will Bly help make them any better? He started every game last season for the Rams and still only had 2 interceptions. Adding two interceptions per season is not going to help.

By my calculations, that means Bly had a celebratory dance-to-interception ratio of 50-to-1. Wow, that's approaching Deion Sanders territory. Also, why did the Lions sign him to a five-year deal? Why not let this year serve as a trial? What has Bly done in his career to justify giving him that much job security?

My pick: Miami Dolphins.

Not too much separates the secondaries of the Patriots, Eagles, and Dolphins. The key difference is that the Dolphins will probably have the best rush defense in the league next season, while Philadelphia's will likely worsen, and New England's already suffered a decline last season. The Dolphin secondary, for the most part, will be able to neglect its run-stopping duties and can focus its full attention to pass defense.

With the addition of corner Terrell Buckley, the Dolphins have three legitimate cover men, two of which are All-Pro-caliber. Sam Madison and Patrick Surtain will enjoy even better seasons this year because Peerless Price and Laveranues Coles, two of the AFC East's premier receivers, are gone.

Even more important than the addition of Buckley was the signing of former New Orleans safety Sammy Knight, who will join Brock Marion. Knight was basically the only defensive player on the Saints who worked hard, and he rarely missed a game. He had 107 tackles last season and was responsible for 8 takeaways.

His knack for making big plays will help the Dolphins tremendously, especially since an offense with Jay Fiedler at the helm can use all of the extra possessions it can get.

Linebackers

We're too small to be on the defensive line and too slow to be in the secondary, so they just stuck all of us at linebacker: Seattle Seahawks.

Marcus Bell? Orlando Huff? D.D. Lewis? Keith Miller? Anthony Simmons? Tim Terry? (Wasn't he on the 76ers?) The only decent linebacker on their roster is Chad Scott. How is he going to stop Marshall Faulk alone? How is he going to stop the Garrison Hearst/Kevon Barlow combination alone? How is he going to stop Emmitt Smith alone? Wait, scratch that last one. A breeze could stop Smith.

The Seahawks had the worst rush defense in the NFL last season, yet made no adjustments at linebacker. Bringing in Chike Okeafor at defensive end will help the team's pass-rush, but no team will even pass more than 10 times in a game when they see Marcus Huff and D.D. Simmons standing clueless in the middle of the field. Those were their names, right? Oh well, I guess it doesn't matter, since they will all be in NFL Europe by Week 7.

Near the top: Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

Derrick Brooks, Shelton Quarles, and Dwayne Rudd provide the Bucs with one of the best linebacker trios in the league. Tampa Bay may actually improve on last season's mark of 97 rushing yards allowed per game, which is impressive in itself.

There are a couple of problems with their linebacker corps, though. First, there is a lack of depth. If one of the starting LBs were to be injured for an extended period, the Bucs would not be able to survive. No other linebacker on their roster has ever started a game.

Second, Brooks and Quarles combined for a grand total of 2 sacks last season. Obviously, generating a pass-rush from the linebacker position is not a necessity for the Bucs due to their exceptional defensive line. But, maybe, if they did provide some sort of pass-rush from time to time, Warren Sapp would actually be able to breathe on the sidelines without the aid of a gas mask for once.

My pick: Baltimore Ravens.

With Ray Lewis and Peter Boulware, the Ravens have arguably the two best linebackers in the game. Lewis makes it virtually impossible to run on the Ravens, and Boulware is one of the best pass-rushers in the league. Youngster Edgerton Hartwell, who enjoyed a breakout season last year with 144 tackles, is the other starting linebacker.

Besides these three great talents, the Ravens also have two very capable reserves at linebacker. Cornell Brown and Bernardo Harris saw big minutes last season since the Ravens were hampered by injuries at the linebacker spot and they were both productive.

The Ravens actually almost made the playoffs last season, and the only reason that their defensive ranking drastically declined last season was the offensive's inability to move the ball. Offensively, the Ravens only had 261 first-downs last season, putting them at 27th overall. The defense was basically on the field 40 minutes per game. So, if disaster strikes the defense again this season via injury, the team knows that they will be able to remain competitive and will not give up.

Defensive Lines

Worst unit in the history of professional football: Houston Texans.

I really wanted to say that the Lions had the worst defensive line in football, but the Texans made it impossible for me to do so. As of today, the Texans only have one defensive end on their roster. I do not understand how this is possible. Why was upgrading their offensive line their main objective in the offseason when they do not even have a complete D-line?

I suppose that if a team had three exceptional defensive tackles and one exceptional defensive end, it would be possible to field a line with only one end. But, the Texans do not have any quality DTs and Corey Sears, their lone DE, sucks. Maybe the Texans feel that their defense is so good that they only need 10 players on the field at once. Perhaps the Texan brain trust invented a 3-3-4 scheme without telling anyone else.

But what would happen if an opposing team decided to double-team someone on the Texans' D-line? Would everyone on the Texans' sideline and in their luxury box physically implode?

Near the top: St. Louis Rams.

Grant Wistrom had an off-year by his standards in 2002. However, he and Leonard Little are one of the top DE combinations in the league. If asked to choose between the two, I would have to choose Little due to the following stat: 14.5 sacks with zero starts in 2001. I cannot even imagine how that is possible.

Rookie Jimmy Kennedy out of Penn State is my pre pre-season pick for Rookie of the Year and should help shore up a run defense that slipped to some extent last season. Also, any defensive line that has two DTs out of Penn State, one from Miami, and one from Ohio State has to be good.

My pick: Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

There really is not too much to say here. Defensive end Simeon Rice is basically better than the Texan's defensive line by himself. Greg Spires and Ellis Wyms provide depth at the end position that most teams do not have.

If Anthony McFarland is healthy this season, the Bucs will be even stronger at defensive tackle than last year. And reports out of Tampa Bay say that Warren Sapp has been working out vigorously in the offseason and is in excellent shape. Okay, I'll admit it. I made that last one up.

Article courtesy of Sports Central.