Younger's defense

[dd]

Agreed and also, no one, other than Brandon Alexander, who himself was more of a Richie Hall guy than a Jordan Younger guy, has been successful at safety. No one.

That's true. BA was the only safety we've had since Loffler that was an impact player back there, all others have been a step behind/trying to figure it out/invisible.

[bunker]

Who's to say Findlay would be any better in Younger's system than anyone else? And it's hard for draft picks to get on the field and play with the way our coaching staff approaches things. Even Oliveira had to wait a full season. Jake Kelly was drafted in 2023 and is only now getting reps.

There's truth to what you are saying, but the other part of the equation is that our drafting has often not been very good in terms of player quality.

When players showed they could play, they were given an opportunity. Guy like Wallace was starting into his second year. Liam Dobson also started very quickly.

Going through our recent draft picks,  I don't think Jake Kelly is good enough to play, and Anthony Bennet definitely wasn't. Clercius  played as a rookie, and is a borderline talent in terms of being a starter. Chris-Ike I think is played to a level commensurate with his talent, ie part time as an extra blocker and on STs. Shay and Smith have done little so far to show they deserve more playing time, although that could change as the season progresses.
I'm struggling to think of any draft picks Osh held back from playing on their ELC, who went on to have a major impact elsewhere.
Don't have the energy to go through the Americans, but I know Pokie Wilson and Vaval both started for us as raw rookies, with essentially no pro experience. As did Scheon.
No question Osh likes his vets, most coaches do. But IMO his major problem is hanging on to them a little after their best before date, out of loyalty.
I think he's willing to give young players a chance to play if they show him they are ready.

[Tecno]

Our D is/was great against a pass-only QB in a pass-mostly O.  It is/was great against a run-only QB (Ford/Crum-style).  But our D stinks against the young pass/run QBs, and even worse when they have a decent OL & RB.  And now our D stinks even against the oldster pass-mostly QBs because we're letting even the oldest escape & run into a wide open flat -- or do delayed RB draws on 2nd down.

Both '25 and now I watch other O's scheme all RECs to clear our flat and leave a wide open outlet for their QB to gut run or edge run.  It's a free bingo spot.  Our DL is too slow to give chase and they seem incapable of effecting both edge contain and A/B gap escape routes similtaneously.  And every "LBer" has dropped way back to keep the zone intact.

It's so bad that even BLM was able to run unmolested for a 1st down against us.  Almost unheard of for BLM.  1 run for 15!!  Holy cow how is that possible!!

When I watch other D's, they never fully vacate the flat.  Usually at least MLB & WILL are still there until it's 100% clear it's a pass.  If a QB runs they are at least close by to give chase.

As long as we leave this open, every QB will be able to convert almost every 2nd down.  Our blanket coverage might work perfectly, and sometimes does, but then they just take the free outlet.  When I'm in the stands watching this, it's extremely frustrating.  And when it's BC or MTL it'll get downright embarrassing.

Now... compare to when Zach runs, there's 3 guys all around him, usually tackling him at the LoS, and everyone holds their breath as we contemplate how long the "neck" will be this time.  The problem isn't Zach, as he's just as fast as BLM, the problem is other D's don't leave this freebie open like we do.  They all get on top of a QB swinging out right basically immediately.  Why can't we?

[Tecno]

Younger runs much more pure zone. It starts as zone. It stays zone. There's a lot more moving pieces, linebackers covering routes, others filling run lanes.

Except our D has been broken down by guys like the TSN talking heads, especially Lapo.  It's been stated many times we are running match coverage, or some hybrid.

And it's clear we're not always just in zone because you can see how many times Moxey or Nichols was isolated on one guy and getting torched.  In zone there should be at least one other guy there unless it's a very very deep go route, which most of these weren't.

The systems are not the same at all and the unit has gone further and further away from what Hall used to run over time.

My theory is Hall is still almost as much the DC as Younger, in terms of X/O's, scheme, etc.  Maybe Younger calls the plays at the moment.  And Younger certainly is the main interaction with the players, practice, etc.  But the brain stuff is still a ton of Hall.  He's sitting right there in the D booth every single game with the headset on!!  Heck, I see him more often than Younger in TSN game coverage -- I couldn't even tell you if Younger is on-field or in-booth!  That's how little I see him.

Your theory has one major hole: our run D.  If what you said was true, our run D should have been stout under later-year Hall (pre-Younger).  But it wasn't.  Our run D has been going to heck since Stove left.  So you can't say it's just Younger having every LBer go deep to cover the zone.  Hall was also allowing that flat to vacate on the regular, and when our DL wasn't good enough to stop runs at LoS anymore, it was already falling apart.

What we have now is just Hall++.  And maybe it would still work fine -- IF we had a Stove.  Which we don't (do we? -- Ceresna later season?).  If we can stop the run, and stop the QB escape freebies, with just 4, then I think we can get back to winning real quick.  But in the last 1.5 years I've seen no indication we have any hope of doing that.

My philosophy has always been '18-'21 Bombers: stop the run & make them beat you with the pass -- because the pass has way more that can go wrong for the O.  Now O's run against us at will, and smart ones even get their (possibly geriatric) QB involved.

Back to basics.  Stop the run.