re: Is anybody worried about the defense?

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losing so much experience and leadership over the past couple years

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Everyone in our starting front 7 has played a lot of football for us, both backup OLBs are as good as the starters, and part of our 2nd team Dline has nice PT under their belt. Both ILBs are as good of young playes as anyone could possibly hope for and are both proven. And while our secondary is young, Thompson will be the signal caller back there and has a lot game and practice reps under his belt. Add to that mix the fact that Saban notoriously cross-trains players,develops youth early as part of the process, and everyone in the conversation is either a 4 or 5 star type athlete.

So what are the downsides? Secondary is crazy talented but inexperienced in spots, and the 2nd team Dline needs to continue to develop. A recipe for worry it ain't.

No defense is ever perfect, and I promise you in all those years where we had a "best all-time" type defense, there were preseason concerns each and every year.

If you want to err on the side of either optimism or pessimism, be my guest. But the amount of concerns going into 2019 defensively are no more than a normal year, and we have A TON to be excited about on that side of the ball.

FG kicking, punting, and the performance of both new OCs are both bigger concerns than anything on defense for me. And they're not that big of concerns.

I actually think this could be our most complete team in a number of years.