Losing Al stings. There's no question about that. He's a top-notch corner and our depth isn't all that inspiring. Tramon won't be able to handle guys one on one as often as Al did. That means we going to have to give him safety help which further exposes the middle of the field (where TEs burned us last year) and weakens our ability against the run (which we've struggled at this year).
I make no bones about it; losing Al changes the way we play defense. But it's not catastrophic. This is still a playoff team with out him and it's still a team that can conceivably win the Super Bowl. It's just going to be tougher now.
I think Tramon will be okay. What concerns me more is having Bush/Blackmon/Lee in on nickel and dime packages. I don't think Sanders is a great DC, but he's not awful either. Hopefully he can scheme game plans that mask this loss as much as possible.
I will say this though, if Chuck Woodson goes down, as he had a history of doing, especially given he currently has a broken toe, this defense could be in some real trouble. I don't see a trade or free agent on the horizon though. I imagine Ted Thompson will stick with what we've got.