Figured I'd throw some stuff on here about this. Everyone should know my feelings on Mike Smith, so I'm not going to get into it. Not covering IR players, starting front-to-back:
DEFENSIVE LINE
RE JPP (B) - He's done well w/ Speed-to-Power rushes and has mostly held the C/D gap and cutback (depending on alignment). He's gotten pressure, he's finished opportunities much of the time, and he's played a variety of techniques. He has put some poor plays out there though where he has lost PoA/the edge/cutback or had non-productive 1 on 1s in crucial situations.
DT by committee/Allen/Gholston/Vea/Werthy (C-) - These guys have had to play 0, 1, 2, shades of those, and 3. Some good play, some poor play, mostly inconsistent (from guy to guy and from snap to snap).
DT McCoy (B) - Gerald has been extremely good against the run, but just a bit above average and inconsistent against the pass this year. He's put a lot of good rushes out there, but hasn't finished several opportunities. As always, he's asked to run more games than any premier DT in the league and he runs far more NT than they do (Donald rarely plays 1 tech), so his straight pass rush opportunites from 3 tech are disproportionately lower than guys like Donald, Cox, Atkins. But those guys are all better finishers than he is.
LE Curry (C) - He's had some productive Speed-to-Power rushes, but not remotely enough. His play in the run game has been a + broadly, but he's had some extremely key losses of the edge or inability to disrupt a pull that have led to big gains against Pittsburgh and Chicago.
DE depth/Nassib (C+) - He's had some key rushes but also had some finishing issues and 1v1 losses in key situations. He's played the run well (as you have to do at LE)
LINEBACKERS
OLB LVD (B-) - The asks of him in this defense are really absurd. He should be an off-ball WLB exclusively, but he's regularly asked to play LoS and hold the edge at SAM and also cover guys ranging from Kamara to Michael Thomas 1v1. Those 3 tasks are ridiculous by themselves. Collectively, they're absurd. Nontheless, he's played great against the run overall (except about 6 plays, a few of which were outrageous asks or alignment losses by the D called). He struggled in certain coverage situations in the NO game, but every LB in the history of the NFL would have. He still plays top 3 M2M in the league and his Zone and Seam/Hook D is still well above average (though there have been some struggles in C3Z with 2nd vert through being turned loose).
MLB Alexander (D) - He's blitzed better this year than he ever has and he's made a few plays, but that is as far as it goes. He's been extremely poor in the running game (late to read, indecisive, failure to get into his gap before he gets caught up in wash, missed tackles) and spectacularly bad in the passing game. He's played some of the worst Zone defense I've ever seen this year and his M2M hasn't been remotely average either. If not for his blitz game this year, he would be a sound F.
OLB Taylor (F) - Really poor in all facets. Lost in zone coverage, losing in M2M, failing to keep edge when playing SAM on LoS, failing to read/react/get downhill as off-ball WLB, unproductive on blitzes.
DEFENSIVE BACKS
CB Davis (C-) - He took a lot of lumps in NO early and struggled in the Chicago game. However, in between those two, he's put a lot of solid snaps out there including some crucial coverage wins in key moments. This is still a player learning to play Off Coverage and Zone Defense. Interestingly, his run support has been +.
CB Grimes (F) - 2 games and I don't want to see him out there anymore. He's been bad in coverage, just awful and unwilling in run support.
CB Smith (B-) - Easily the best of the bunch. He had a really rough stretch against NO in coverage. Outside of that, he's been great in run support and overall + whether in Man or Zone.
CB Stewart (D) - His open field tackling, + run support, and a couple of just-above-mediocre blitzes saves him from an F here. He's been a liability in coverage in an extremely large number of plays. When tasked to cover on anything that isn't a Hitch, he's losing...often very badly. He's had some solid-but-not-great snaps as a Zone defender when handling Hook/Seam or Flat in C3Z (basically OLB or SS coverage).
SAFETY
FS Evans (B-) - He's put a lot of good snaps out there this year, including some big TOs. However, as he is apt to do, he's also put some game-changing losses on the board in coverage (2 huge ones and a smaller one in Chicago) and run support (1 in Pittsburgh and a few in Chicago).
SS Whitehead/Johnson (C) - They've both had a few coverage issues (eg not being underneath a Post/Dig when you have C3Z coverage and that leading to a big play...or misplaying a ball...or DPI) and they've each had some run support issues where they take a poor angle and have lost their responsibility because of it. Whitehead has had some absolutely fantastic moments of decisive, downhill run support. But overall, they've played pretty much as you'd expect rookies to play. Mistakes, some solid play, some ok play. No big plays.
