I want to buy into this. But I keep going back to six frosh DBs in the incoming class. Five of them rated in the top 20 at their position. And yet 15 weeks and 12 games into the season not one of them is ready to take the field on D. I can't believe none of these pups can hunt. And if anything our secondary play is worse than at the start of the season. That has something to do with coaching.
Here's another way to look at it. Going into 2012... we didn't know if the Offensive line could block You, Me, and the Nacho Biznitch, never mind, Miami (Fredo) or UCF - OR anyone actually competent. Yet, we hear the words "Best Offensive Line in the Nation" (Fairly or not) with approximately the same group of guys the last 2 years. Meanwhile, a relatively OK unit (or 2, if DB's are broken up into S's, and CB's, or 3 if you want to include LB's in coverage) and save for a brief period of semi competence toward the end of last year (which might have been a mirage). Mostly the personnel is the same (or at least guys who've been around). LB is thin, no one is disputing that, but Shazier did and continues to play pretty well. And A couple of the others aren't terrible. The DL lost a PILE of talent, reloaded and continues to play well and mostly stop the run.
So, that leaves you with a number of Deltas. In the interest in not bashing, I'll start with a couple... Changes in Bold:
Same OL plus
Ed Warriner = _____
New DL plus Mike Vrabel = _____
Mostly same CB's plus
Kerry Coombs = _____
Mostly Veteran Safeties plus
Ev Withers = _____
Rate Fickell and the LB's how you want, I think it could go either way. And there's no need to get into the rest of the Offensive coaches, its a different discussion but, the point with Warriner is that in that particular case, night became day.