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[QUOTE="RF2044, post: 1083748, member: 40"]
Not necessarily.  I get that this is the on-paper conventional wisdom, and I totally understand your point of view, but I see it differently--and I think that the roster bears that out.

I expect Crume to have a huge year.  He's going to be a stalwart--just watch.

From there, we have lots of question marks, but that doesn't mean that things won't get answered positively.  Zeke Johnson got plenty of run last year as a reserve DE, and has all of the tools to be a stud interior lineman.  Marcus Coleman had a good spring--can he emerge as a platoon guy?  Wayne Williams has lost 50 pounds--can he emerge as a platoon guy... or maybe something more?

What about Ryan Sloan?  He's entering his third year in the program.

To say nothing of incoming frosh Jalen Harvey and Kayton Samuels.

I 100% acknowledge that there are lots of question marks on the interior of the defensive line, but as a whole I think that the DL is going to prove to be a relative position of strength.  Here's why: we are very, very solid at DE, with two returning starters [Robinson and Welsh], and plenty of players who are more athletically gifted than this dependable duo competing for minutes behind them [Johnson, Thompson, Simmons, Slayton].  Crume is going to give us a third solid starter.  That's an underrated foundation to build upon.  I am fairly certain that Johnson would give us an impact fourth starter.  But even if he isn't ready, we've got several other candidates who might.

I don't think--given the foundation described above--that we need anything earth shattering from the others.  The key will be:  can we cobble together and effective second unit of depth on the interior from Johnson / Coleman / Sloan / Williams / Harvey / Samuels.  My money is on the coaches figuring this out, and the team being stout again up front, where it counts.
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