Preseason Week 3: Who the BFTB staff will be watching on Defense

With the Vikings starters also playing a while on Sunday, we will get a nice long look at the starting defense too possibly. So who will we be watching?

Ryan - Darius Philon. For obvious reasons. I want to see how he stacks up against a starting offensive line for an extended period of time. I would even go as far as to say that I want to see the entire defensive line. Can they cause any trouble for the opposing offense? It will the Vikings absolutely maul them up front.

British Jamie - Jerry Attaochu/Kyle Emanuel. It looks like these guys have a battle for the starting OLB spot opposite Melvin Ingram. They'll be going against Andre Smith and TJ Clemmings for most of the game, neither of whom are great at T. I expect to see both Attaochu and Emanuel do well, and a good performance from Attaochu could see him start to earn back some of the snaps Emanuel has been taking away from him so far.

American Jamie - Corey Luiget. The Chargers highest paid DL has been virtually invisible in the preseason. I don't recall seeing him make any real plays and am curious how he will hold up against the MIN OL. Need to see him win some match ups, disrupt the running game and make some kind of an impact.

Ruben - I want to see Melvin Ingram dominate. This is the year that he is either going to move into a top tier level pass rusher or be just a an average Joe. There’s nothing wrong with being an average Joe ( he is an NFL player after all) , it’s that I keep wanting Ingram to be the type of player that you see line up on the edge and you know he’s gonna get that sack on 3rd and 9. He hasn’t been that so far.

Jeff - Jerry Attaouchu. Some reports indicated that he reported to camp not in great shape, and it showed in Week 1. Last week, his play improved significantly as his conditioning has improved. I want to see how he performs this week, both to monitor his progress from early in camp and also to see if his conditioning improvement allows us to see any other improvements he made in his game during the offseason.

Cody - Dwight Lowery and Jahleel Addae. Jahleel had a good game against the Cardinals. He made a few plays in run support and capitalized on an overthrown ball to get the interception. I want to see him continue to play the way he did that last game. Lowery has not impressed me at all so far. I want to see something, anything, out of him this week. Just so I'm not as nervous about the safety group heading into the season.

A-A-Ron - I am looking forward to see Joey Bosa... I mean, I'm looking forward to seeing if our front 7 can contain the run like they did last week. I want to know that week 1 of the preseason was a fluke.

Garrett - Jatavis Brown was one of the most exciting LBs to watch in camp & he jumped to ILB3 before he got injured. He'll be THE defensive player to watch this week, Brown has the ability to be a difference-maker but let's see how he does in game action.

Richard - I'm curious to watch Denzel Perryman. He appears to be experimenting with what he can do in games and it's truly fascinating to watch.

Nathan - I'll pay attention to the D-Line and see how much push they're getting, if any. Sure, they held the Cards' run game to meager stats, but there was little to no pass rush and overall the unit seemed kinda 'meh'. Just how badly do they need Bosa? We'll have to wait and see.

Stanley - I think for me it’s a tie between Jatavis Brown and the starting Safety pair. We have yet to see an extended look at how the starting safeties work. Will they be good enough? or will they be a weakness? As for Brown, the team picked him because he brings athleticism to the LB position that the team really hasn’t had before. What do they do with it? Does it help?