We literally had to change our D entirely up last year to accommodate for the losses of JJ & Trammel (but particularly JJ). Even w/ Trammel down b4 the start of Fall camp, we went from looking VERY solid at the beginning w/ JJ solidly manning the FC spot, & Daniel quickly nailing down the BC spot--clearly beating out the other newbie, Leavitt.

Unfortunately, within the next month, with JJ down Daniel was forced to take on the new role as FC (because none of our other corner canidates had any athletic business manning that spot)--meaning the BC spot fell to Leavitt. And without any experience on the field at the corner spots, the coaches were more or less forced to go with a banged-up PoVey (& eventually w/ bionic Hague) over Leavitt.

When you suddenly lose both speed & experience like that, you can't expect it not to SEVERELY affect the performance of your team--particularly for the first few games. When the DBs can't cover, it means the LBs have to compensate--& that takes time & growing pains--to the tune of several games, at least.

mutu.