Regarding Campbell... I think as long as we stick to a predominantly man coverage scheme, he shouldn't take significant steps back in terms of his performance within the D. Anytime you lose a player like Garrett, you're going to feel it, but in getting Verse I think we mitigated a lot of that impact. Garrett was #2 in QB hits in 2026, Verse was #6. I used QB hits because we're talking about our DE's impact on our CBs' performance. I do think the CBs are going to have a harder time covering w/o Garrett up front, but I don't think it's going to be a precipitous fall.
There are a lot of moving parts going on with our defense right now. 2nd year players (ex. Graham, Schwesinger) need to continue to develop, the new LB needs to fill Devin Bush's shoes, and we gotta see how well the new coaching staff can pick up where Schwartz left off, and potentially our new rookies getting involved (our new safety, mostly). I expect a small slide, but this team is basically in the same boat as last year because it largely go as far as the defense can carry it.
