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Topic: What's your team's best starting 11 on defense from 2000-2020?
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OrangeAfroMan · « **on:** April 01, 2021, 10:24:05 PM »

You can alter it to be a 4-3 or 3-4 or whatever. Maybe a Nickel if you're team is in the Big XII.
.
DE - Alex Brown
DE - Jarvis Moss...pick 17 in NFL Draft
DT - Gerard Warren...pick 3 in NFL Draft
DT - Sharrif Floyd...pick 23 in NFL Draft
LB - Brandon Spikes
LB - Channing Crowder...pick 70 in NFL Draft
LB - Jarrad Davis...pick 21 in NFL Draft
CB - Joe Haden
CB - Vernon Hargreaves III
S - Reggie Nelson
S - Matt Elam...pick 32 in NFL Draft
.
For Florida, I started with guys who were unanimous All-Americans.
Then, consensus All-Americans.
The rest merely got some AA notice or were just really good, and all but one was a 1st-round pick.
.
Guys that just missed the list: CB Lito Sheppard, S Ahmad Black, S Marcus Maye, CB CJ Henderson, DT Dominique Easley, DE Dante Fowler, DE Derrick Harvey, DE Carlos Dunlap

bayareabadger · « **Reply #1 on:** April 01, 2021, 10:58:55 PM »

It's weird for UW because they went 4-3 to 3-4.

DL - JJ Watt

DT - Nick Hayden (maybe Wendell Bryant?)

DE - Erasmus James (He had a great peak, and that might edge like 13 A- level linemen)

OLB - Joe Schobert

OLB - TJ Watt (there might be an OLB I'm short changing, Baun or another guy)

ILB - Chris Borland

ILB - T.J. Edwards (Someone good was left out here)

CB - Jamar Fletcher

CB -Jack Ikegwuonu

S - Jim Leonard

S - D'Cota Dixon (probably, I feel like Dez Southward was good and Joe Stellmacher was a guy I liked, but not an unreal group)

Mdot21 · « **Reply #2 on:** April 01, 2021, 11:51:22 PM »

this is a pretty nice exercise. Ohio State will crush this as far as B1G goes. Just on DL alone.

For Michigan, I'd go.

DE- Brandon Graham (1st rd)
DE- LaMarr Woodley (2nd rd- how wasn't he a 1st?)
DT- Rashan Gary (1st rd- he was more disruptive and mismatch in his snaps here than ever was at DE)
DT- Mo Hurst Jr. (5th round- astonishingly- that heart condition nuked his draft stock)
LB- David Harris (2nd rd - he was soooo underrated and sooooo good)
LB- Devin Bush Jr. (1st rd - best LB I've ever seen at M)
LB- Jake Ryan (4th rd) - smart, all-around, solid 'backer
CB- Marlin Jackson (1st rd)
CB- Leon Hall (1st rd)
NB- Jourdan Lewis (3rd rd- off-field issues pushed him out of the 2nd- didn't have the size to go 1st)
S- Jabrill Peppers (1st rd)
S- Dax Hill (will be 1st rd)

That's an athletic freakish combo at safety. Jabrill was wasted at CB in 2015 and then again in 2016 in that whole "linebacker experiment". Kid is a natural born strong safety- which he's actually becoming DAMN good at in the league.

Gary and Peppers played out of position at Michigan- and still made an impact and went 1st rd. They'd have been soooooo much better at DT and S from day one.

MaximumSam · « **Reply #3 on:** April 02, 2021, 08:10:34 AM »

Ohio State:

DL
Joey Bosa
Nick Bosa
Chase Young
Jonathan Hankins

Yes, technically three defensive ends but so what. If you are the coach who are we leaving on the bench?

LB

AJ Hawk
James Laurinaitis

This is interesting because linebacker has become maybe the most evolved position over the course of the past 20 years, and these guys are more throwback types. But they could play.

DB
Chris Gamble
Mike Doss
Malcolm Jenkins
Jeff Okudah
Marshon Lattimore

If you had to rank OSU's best defensive positions over the past 20 years, DE and corner are right at the top. Really no shortage of corners to pick from, but Malcolm Jenkins might be my all time favorite player and Gamble is close behind. Mike Doss was a tremendous safety, and take your pick of lockdown corners to fill out the team. Thought Okudah was the most locked down of the lockdowns, and picked Lattimore over a bevy of other first round corners.

847badgerfan · « **Reply #4 on:** April 02, 2021, 08:31:05 AM »

Quote from: bayareabadger on April 01, 2021, 10:58:55 PM

It's weird for UW because they went 4-3 to 3-4.

DL - JJ Watt

DT - Nick Hayden (maybe Wendell Bryant?)

DE - Erasmus James (He had a great peak, and that might edge like 13 A- level linemen)

OLB - Joe Schobert

OLB - TJ Watt (there might be an OLB I'm short changing, Baun or another guy)

ILB - Chris Borland

ILB - T.J. Edwards (Someone good was left out here)

CB - Jamar Fletcher

CB -Jack Ikegwuonu

S - Jim Leonard

S - D'Cota Dixon (probably, I feel like Dez Southward was good and Joe Stellmacher was a guy I liked, but not an unreal group)

Bryant for sure. Antaaj Hawthorne has to be in there. Beau Allen was really good.

Really tough to leave Nick Nelson out of here.

Maragos and Caputo?

bayareabadger · « **Reply #5 on:** April 02, 2021, 08:40:21 AM »

Quote from: 847badgerfan on April 02, 2021, 08:31:05 AM

Bryant for sure. Antaaj Hawthorne has to be in there. Beau Allen was really good.

Really tough to leave Nick Nelson out of here.

Maragos and Caputo?

I'll always have a soft spot for Nick Hayden, but if you had one spot (I was leaning 4-3), Bryant would make sense. I remember discussing with a friend in like 2014 about Allen, and we were thinking "Huh, If I built an all-since 2005 team, Beau and Nick kinda have to the be tackles, right?"

Nelson was super, but that top twosome. Jamar was one of the best college DBs of his era, period. Jack was just a force. I think you're right Nelson was the highest A in a group with a decent set of A-/B+ guys, but the other two were A+ quality.

I liked Chris and Michael as leaders, but each left me feeling lacking as a player. Maragos was a hard working centerfielder, but he was mostly just a last line of defense, and not an earth shattering one (he also gave up like 2 extra yards a tackle because he was so small). Caputo was the opposite. Just a thumper who rolled down into the box presnap when they went cover three. He hit harder than Joe, but seemed a little less steady with the angles (as I said, Joe is a soft spot guy for me). Outside Dixon and Southward, who I think were really well-rounded, next up might be Aaron Henry. He wasn't super fast after that knee, but he was smart and made the most of his more limited ability. (He's also part of the MASSIVE UW coaching mafia)

ELA · « **Reply #6 on:** April 02, 2021, 08:50:03 AM »

DE - Shilique Calhoun (11-15) - 3x All-American, 3x 1st Team All-Big Ten, 2013 Big Ten DL of the Year

DT - Jerel Worthy (09-11) - 2011 Consensus All-American, 2011 1st Team All-Big Ten

DT - Malik McDowell (14-16) - 2015 All-American

DE - Kenny Willekes (16-19) - 2x All-American, 2x 1st Team All-Big Ten, 2018 Big Ten DL of the Year, 2019 Burlsworth Trophy winner (given to best player in nation who began as a walk on)

LB - Greg Jones (07-10) - 2x Consensus All-American, 3x 1st Team All-Big Ten, 2009 Big Ten Defensive POTY

LB - Denicos Allen (10-13) - 2013 All-American

LB - Max Bullough (10-13) - 2013 All-American, 2x 1st Team All-Big Ten

CB - Darqueze Dennard (10-13) - 2013 Thorpe Award, 2013 unanimous All-American, 2x 1st Team All-Big Ten

CB - Trae Waynes (11-14) - 2014 All-American, 2014 1st Team All-Big Ten

S - Kurtis Drummond (10-14) - 2x 1st Team All-Big Ten, 2014 Big Ten DB of the Year

S - Trenton Robinson (07-11) - 2x All-Big Ten

FearlessF · « **Reply #7 on:** April 02, 2021, 09:36:58 AM »

Quote from: OrangeAfroMan on April 01, 2021, 10:24:05 PM

..pick 17 in NFL Draft
...pick 3 in NFL Draft
...pick 23 in NFL Draft
..pick 70 in NFL Draft
..pick 21 in NFL Draft
.pick 32 in NFL Draft
.
all but one was a 1st-round pick.
.
Guys that just missed the list: guys that weren't NFL guys

rolltidefan · « **Reply #8 on:** April 02, 2021, 10:04:18 AM »

3-4 of yesteryear, probably the "best talent" overall on field for bama during that time.

de - marcel dareus
dt - daron payne
de - jonathan allen
jack lb - donta hightower
will lb - demeco ryans
mike lb - rolando mcclain
sam lb - cj mosley
cb - dee milliner
fs - minkah fitspatrick
ss - mark barron
cb - patrick surtain

nickle d for modern times

same, except take out jack lb - hightower, slide minkah fitspatrick to nickle in his place, and put eddie jackson as fs.

rolltidefan · « **Reply #9 on:** April 02, 2021, 10:07:33 AM »

Quote from: ELA on April 02, 2021, 08:50:03 AM

DE - Shilique Calhoun (11-15) - 3x All-American, 3x 1st Team All-Big Ten, 2013 Big Ten DL of the Year

DT - Jerel Worthy (09-11) - 2011 Consensus All-American, 2011 1st Team All-Big Ten

DT - Malik McDowell (14-16) - 2015 All-American

DE - Kenny Willekes (16-19) - 2x All-American, 2x 1st Team All-Big Ten, 2018 Big Ten DL of the Year, 2019 Burlsworth Trophy winner (given to best player in nation who began as a walk on)

LB - Greg Jones (07-10) - 2x Consensus All-American, 3x 1st Team All-Big Ten, 2009 Big Ten Defensive POTY

LB - Denicos Allen (10-13) - 2013 All-American

LB - Max Bullough (10-13) - 2013 All-American, 2x 1st Team All-Big Ten

CB - Darqueze Dennard (10-13) - 2013 Thorpe Award, 2013 unanimous All-American, 2x 1st Team All-Big Ten

CB - Trae Waynes (11-14) - 2014 All-American, 2014 1st Team All-Big Ten

S - Kurtis Drummond (10-14) - 2x 1st Team All-Big Ten, 2014 Big Ten DB of the Year

S - Trenton Robinson (07-11) - 2x All-Big Ten

that's a stout d. seems like a lot of overlap in 10-11 years.

ELA · « **Reply #10 on:** April 02, 2021, 11:13:05 AM »

Quote from: rolltidefan on April 02, 2021, 10:07:33 AM

that's a stout d. seems like a lot of overlap in 10-11 years.

Well, the JLS defenses were awful. So this is basically a 2007 to present list, so there's more overlap. I think Eric Smith is the only pre-MD guy I even considered. It was a coinflip between him and Trenton Robinson for the 2nd safety spot

betarhoalphadelta · « **Reply #11 on:** April 02, 2021, 11:51:37 AM »

Hmm... Tough one. Obviously Purdue has a much shorter list to choose from than most of your teams... Of course, that might make it easier, because it's a much shorter list to choose from lol...

DE: Ryan Kerrigan
DT: Kawaan Short
DT: Mike Neal
DE: Anthony Spencer
OLB: Akin Ayodele
MLB: Ja'Whuan Bentley
OLB: Shaun Phillips
CB: Ricardo Allen
S: Bernard Pollard
S: Stuart Schweigert
CB: Jacques Reeves

The big issue is that Purdue has WAY too many good DEs and not enough good LBs, but Tiller was the type that liked to bulk up LBs into DEs, so many of those DEs who got drafted were drafted as OLB... So I think I took maybe a little liberty with Phillips, who played OLB in the NFL even though I recall him primarily being a DE at Purdue.

I could have missed one or two somewhere too... I know this will make OAM's head explode, but I built this list off of Purdue's list of players in the NFL draft over the last 20 years. There's probably someone I'm overlooking who was a good college player but didn't have the measurables for the NFL... But while I agree with OAM that we shouldn't let NFL production color our opinions of college players in college, I do think the NFL draft is a good proxy for college production, so I don't feel bad about it. Yet... Even with 7 rounds in the draft over 20 years I still had trouble filling out a few positions on this roster, so there might be people who went UDFA or simply hung up the cleats after college that I've missed.

A few I left off the list:

DE George Karlaftis -- he might make the list from 2020-2039, but despite everything his production as a true Fr and So isn't enough for this list.
DE Cliff Avril -- Another tweener LB/DE.
DE Rob Ninkovich -- Tweener LB/DE where I have better LB and better DE to choose from, but man he was a good player for us.
DE Ray Edwards -- Great player, but can't oust Kerrigan and Spencer
LB Joe Odom -- Probably off the list because although I can remember his name being called on the radio a lot, nothing he did stood out.
LB Markus Bailey -- Great player, but had some injury issues. And he's a true MLB, and I just can't put him ahead of Bentley at MLB.
DB Anthony Brown -- It was close between him and Reeves

OrangeAfroMan · « **Reply #12 on:** April 02, 2021, 12:00:23 PM »

Quote from: OrangeAfroMan on April 01, 2021, 10:24:05 PM

.
Guys that just missed the list: CB Lito Sheppard, S Ahmad Black, S Marcus Maye, CB CJ Henderson, DT Dominique Easley, DE Dante Fowler, DE Derrick Harvey, DE Carlos Dunlap

@FearlessF: Guys that just missed the list: guys that weren't NFL guys

Uhhh, actually.......CB Lito Sheppard, S Ahmad Black, S Marcus Maye, CB CJ Henderson, DT Dominique Easley, DE Dante Fowler, DE Derrick Harvey, DE Carlos Dunlap
Players in bold were 1st rounders, including a 3rd overall and 8th overall picks. And two 2nd-rounders....annnnnd I didn't include a couple of other 1st rounders.

rolltidefan · « **Reply #13 on:** April 02, 2021, 12:10:10 PM »

Quote from: ELA on April 02, 2021, 11:13:05 AM

Well, the JLS defenses were awful. So this is basically a 2007 to present list, so there's more overlap. I think Eric Smith is the only pre-MD guy I even considered. It was a coinflip between him and Trenton Robinson for the 2nd safety spot

bama's not so different. only 1 player pre-saban (lb demeco ryans), and only 1 other that i considered (s roman harper).

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Topic: What's your team's best starting 11 on defense from 2000-2020?

OrangeAfroMan

What's your team's best starting 11 on defense from 2000-2020?

bayareabadger

Re: What's your team's best starting 11 on defense from 2000-2020?

Mdot21

Re: What's your team's best starting 11 on defense from 2000-2020?

MaximumSam

Re: What's your team's best starting 11 on defense from 2000-2020?

847badgerfan

Re: What's your team's best starting 11 on defense from 2000-2020?

bayareabadger

Re: What's your team's best starting 11 on defense from 2000-2020?

ELA

Re: What's your team's best starting 11 on defense from 2000-2020?

FearlessF

Re: What's your team's best starting 11 on defense from 2000-2020?

rolltidefan

Re: What's your team's best starting 11 on defense from 2000-2020?

rolltidefan

Re: What's your team's best starting 11 on defense from 2000-2020?

ELA

Re: What's your team's best starting 11 on defense from 2000-2020?

betarhoalphadelta

Re: What's your team's best starting 11 on defense from 2000-2020?

OrangeAfroMan

Re: What's your team's best starting 11 on defense from 2000-2020?

rolltidefan

Re: What's your team's best starting 11 on defense from 2000-2020?