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The defensive tackle room is expected to be led by Houston, Walker, James Smith and Will Smith Jr., with all four seeing playing time in the rotation, while Moore has also drawn praise for his development this offseason.
Starting center Carson Hinzman said on Wednesday the defensive tackle group is "awesome" and making the offensive line better.
"I always tell them, 'If you guys wanna really be my buddy, go and thrash some centers for me. I'd really appreciate that.' It's important for us to build that iron sharpens iron mentality. Because they're getting me just as much better (as) I hope I'm getting them," Hinzman said.
Regardless of what the rotation shakes out to be, there's an expectation that the unit will make an impact. Patricia hit on that importance ahead of his second year as a defensive coordinator, mentioning the roles defensive tackles had when he was the defensive coordinator for the New England Patriots.
"It's really hard to replace really good players in the middle of the defense. I do believe that," Patricia said. "I believe it's important to be strong in the middle of the defense, and certainly coming from my background at New England and having guys, like, whether it was Keith Traylor or Vince Wilfork or any of those guys, Ted Washington back in the day. I mean, those are some big boys rolling through there."
While the defensive tackle unit consists of new faces for the most part, the mentality of the group is the same — cause fits on the interior.
"We got a bunch of guys that are hungry and willing to make plays and do whatever to cause havoc on the inside," Walker said Thursday.