I saw a mock last night....again, one mock, one dude (yes, Brad Kaaya was very high in an early McShay mock)...just saying. It had 3 noles on defense going in the first round, and one of them was not Asante Samuel Jr. who is easily one of the best cover corners in the conference.
Their defense has some players, make no mistake. But the backers are still suspect for the 15th year in a row (I think they made a deal with the devil for Matthew Thomas and it's been downhill ever since), and the offense is absolutely horrifying.
People tend to forget because they were so laughable last year overall that the defense was still pretty decent. 38th in the country in defensive YPP. It's not up to FSU standard, obviously, but it's certainly not bad. And I think just about everyone is back.
I just think they're so deficient on the offensive line, so bad at QB, so devoid of talent at RB....they're just not going to be able to compete with most teams who have a competent offense. I would think 7 wins would be a really good year for Norvell. I personally think they're more like a 6-5 team....MAYBE 7-4 if they get a few bounces to go their way. They absolutely do have NFL talent in a few spots on defense, though.