Preseason Week 2: Who the BFTB staff will be watching on Defense

We shared earlier who we’ll be watching on offense, here is who we’ll be watching on defense.

Richard - I want to see more of Dexter McCoil. He ran with the 2s during the joint practice and I'm hoping to see that translate into a preseason game.

Kyle - Arizona likes to open it up so I want to see if they'll attack Dwight Lowery down the middle of the field and if he can be more dependable than last week.

Cody - Defensively it's Casey Hayward. I'm looking forward to watching him go against some terrific receivers on that Cardinals offense.

Jeff - I want to see more quality play from Dexter McCoil. He's been the most active and aggressive safety the Chargers have fielded in training camp, and he carried those traits into his game against Tennessee. Playing well against the 2's for Arizona solidifies his place on the roster and further gives him a chance to push the players ahead of him on the depth chart.

Ruben - I want to see Mr (Darius) Philon work. All preseason long the team has been saying they are ready to go the season with him if Joey Bosa doesn't sign. Well, if Philon disappoints tonight, does that put some more leverage in Bosa's corner or if he shines does that put the leverage in the Chargers corner? Definitely something to watch tonight.

Jamie - It has to be Philon. DJ Humpries is a human turnstile; can Philon take advantage of the matchup and make plays in the running and passing game. Also want to see how Perry handles shedding blockers because he struggled last week. I also am curious how Pagano will handle Fitz and Floyd. Will 22 be on Fitz exclusively? How does Flowers handle His guy (not sure there is a favorable matchup for him in this game).

Nathan - If he's already been ruled out, that stinks, but I've been super excited to watch Jatavis Brown play since the Bolts took him in the 5th round. If he doesn't play, I'd have to say McCoil. I missed last week's game and haven't been to camp at all, so this will be my first time seeing him for real.

Garrett - Brandon Flowers couldn't hang in the joint practices vs. the Cardinals wideouts including an easy TD to Larry Fitzgerald. Flowers is another one who's had a pretty good camp and a quiet game one (which is good) so Iet's hope he used this last week as a learning period and puts it behind him.

Gennaro - Denzel Perryman has been all over the place, good and bad, and needs to show some better discipline to go with his talent. After working against the Cardinals RBs and TEs for the last few days, he should be primed to take advantage of one of them and turn it into a turnover early in the game. I’ll have my eyes on him for that.

A-A-Ron - I'm looking at Brandon Flowers. Coming out of the last few practices, it seemed like he was getting burned every single play. After an offseason where he talked about how he's refocused and is back to where he was, I'm curious to see if he does any better in game situations. He's older so his top end speed is gone, but I'm hoping he can still stick to receivers like glue in the intermediate areas of the field.

Ryan - Jerry Attaochu. Attaochu was in the dog house in the first preseason game, or that's how it felt at least. Kyle Emanuel has essentially become the starter and I want to see how Attaochu responds. I was really high on him coming into the year.

Stanley - Attaochu is who I’ll be watching. He played through basically the whole game last week and even in the 4th quarter against the Titans’ 3rd and 4th string all he could manage was 1 QB “pressure”?? I hope he was sick or something because that would be a huge regression for him. Hope he comes out firing on all cylinders this week.

Who will you be watching?