Better or worse? Previewing Minnesota's defense in 2020 (Phil Ervin: Worse)

[BleedGopher]

per Phil:

Overall: Worse
A step back on defense doesn’t mean the Gophers won’t be formidable. Disciplined with a touch of nasty every year under Fleck, Minnesota won’t be an easy team to score against.

It just might not be quite as tough as it was in 2019.

Better or worse? Previewing Minnesota's defense in 2020

Joe Rossi revamped Minnesota's defense in 2019. Can he keep it going with a new cast in 2020?

saturdaytradition.com

Go Gophers!!

 

[MNVCGUY]

Pretty fair breakdown of the defense. Only part I might quibble with is the idea that we will be worse at pressuring the QB than we were last year. As pure DE I think Mafe and Otomewo are an upgrade at the position and Mafe especially could become a force in an expanded role.

 

[MplsGopher]

LB will obviously be one question. If we can land Tony Fields, that would be awesome. But you can't count chickens that haven't hatched, and we do have some promising young guys. But young guys are unproven until they aren't.

 

[Some guy]

I’m concerned about losing Winfield. He covered up for front 7 deficiencies by being great against the run

 

[MGGopher]

Basically comes down to whether some very talented young players will be equal to or better than the very experienced players they're replacing. Tough to replace 3 NFL draftees, but top college teams do it every year.

I have no predictions on that front, but I've long been excited to see guys like Cheney and Anderson, along with expanded roles for Oliver (knee?), Mafe, Rush, etc.