Defensive Depth

Coach Koetter had nothing but good things to say when discussing the improvement of his defense and how much Mike Smith has changed things up.

On Defense, they've been doing great. Very excited for not only how hard they're playing but how much they're buying in tho what Smitty's (D-coordinator Mike Smith) doing. Smitty blitzed a lot last night, played a lot of man coverage when he wasn't blitzing. Players have bought in. I think we have... were developing our depth especially across the front line. I think we got good depth at corner.

The defense has improved leaps and bounds from last year already based purely on pass rush and scheme understanding. Just having players understand their assignments helps that much more and it seems like this defense is easier to understand than Lovie Smiths. Koetter made sure to speak about the depth across the dline as there seems to be a nice combination of speed and power all the way through it. One thing he didn't mention was depth at the safety position which to me still seems to be a big achilles heel in this defense.