I hope Freeman makes a big jump. He needs to and we need him to. For a true frosh he had a pretty good impact. He made some plays. However, let's face it, he was nothing more than a bit of a bright spot on an otherwise unproductive DL. He had 4.5 sacks AND LED THE TEAM. Don't get me wrong, I have been singing his praises and I believe he will be really really good before he leaves here. I sincerely do. If truth be told, he should have RS last year and lived in the weight room. However, we couldn't afford to sit him because of depth issues. He was severely undersized and that wasn't really fair to him, but hey, the kid competed. Kudos to him.
Some are enthusiastic about the DL for 2015, while I am worried like crazy. Gotsis is most likely to improve a bit, just as he has every year since he showed up. I thought Gamble finally made a sizeable jump last year, especially at SDE against the run. He was still largely ineffective rushing the passer. We have to have JHD be eligible and as good as advertized for us to improve at all. I am not sure either will happen. I just don't know. I have to trust the reports, but it is hard for me to imagine him being that much better than Green. Let's assume he IS eligible and plays lights out. That still leaves us razor thin depth-wise. It is hard for me to be comfortable in that situation. We were so lucky with injuries last year on that side of the ball.
I can visualize Gamble at SDE during running downs and somebody coming in for passing downs (perhaps Whitehead) to give us a lift. Then having Freeman being a more physical player, with JHD and Gotsis on the inside. It has a chance to work, but lets not pretend that just breaking even with last year will be good enough. We were a pass rush away from being undefeated in 2014. I don't that to be the case again this year.
The rest of the guys really didn't add much in the way of quality depth. Perhaps Kallon will figure it out and the real athletic guys, like Merriweather and Simmons, will add weight too. Rook-Chungong did some things, but he needs to step it up too. I will be watching closely. Until I see it coming together, I will remain worried.
