Well we've replaced him at this point with Daniels. I would change it to "not having his replacement already" though I'm sure they thought that was Neal but he couldn't stay healthy enough.
Originally Posted by: steveishere
Right. I'm hopeful that we have the front 7 back to where it needs to be. I like dominating the line of scrimmage.
To be most accurate, we lost players like Jenkins (age/free agency), Collins (injury) and Woodson (age/injury) and we didn't replace them with or have the replacements ready with the same level of talent at that position or otherwise. If you have a stretch of 5 years with an elite safety and an average pass rusher, and you replace them with an elite pass rusher and an average safety (arguments over the importance of a given position aside), you will be more or less at the same level you were before even though you haven't "replaced" the elite safety.
We had a dip post 2010 in the level of talent through a number of sources, some of which were out of our control. Coaching hasn't been as good either. Hopefully, we're back in the upswing. The margins can be fine between the top teams and the dregs of the league. A unit can hinge on one piece. It's one of the reasons why we see such swings year to year in the league and it's why it didn't take much for our defense to go from the 2nd scoring defense in 2010 to utter shit the next year.
I'd agree that Neal was a guy they were looking to fill, at least in part, the Jenkins shoes. Unfortunately, he was hurt early on and we are only recently starting to get any value out of him (though not touching Jenkins prime yet, if he ever does). If Daniels continues to progress the way he did last year he will more than replace Jenkins, though. If we can get a similar jump out of Datone and Raji returns to 75% of the form he had in 2010, with Peppers and Matthews the defensive front could dominate.
Born and bred a cheesehead