It’s a measure of how far we’ve come in understanding defense that this award has become second only to MVP in importance.
With the rather expensive short-term signing of former Buccaneers backup Mike Glannon and then the acquisition of Mark Sanchez as the new No. 2, Chicago has created a new stopgap situation post-Jay Cutler, Brian Hoyer and Matt Barkley. As much as the Bears need that franchise passer soon to challenge in the NFC North, they might be buying time with that money to Glennon.
If the Bears were to go QB, North Carolina’s Mitchell Trubisky, the most pro-style passer, likely would be the choice. Glennon and Sanchez are hints that they would be most comfortable grooming a prospect of Trubisky’s ilk in their system. File them right there with the 49ers as potential teams looking to steal a QB early in Round 2, with Cal’s Davis Webb being preferred over Notre Dame’s DeShone Kizer. Later on Day 2 or early in Day 3, Pittsburgh’s Nathan Peterman is a fit, too.
We’ve had enormous advancements in defensive tracking systems, but we have yet to settle on quantifiable metrics that we all understand. That’s normal. It was only a decade or so ago when people really started to catch on to per-possession offensive metrics, and those are much easier to calibrate and quantify.
So, this really becomes a philosophical question. Utah has a great defense in large part because of Gobert. The Warriors have a great team because they transition from defense to offense and back again so fluidly, and that’s primarily because of Green.
It’s a measure of how far we’ve come in understanding defense that this award has become second only to MVP in importance. In its own way, this vote was just as difficult.