its more a case of it being what was a very crowded DL room. Before the exodus we were literally 4, even in some cases 5 deep, at every position across the DL. Now were solidly 3 deep with a ton of talent at every level. Other than Pegues, most of these guys either - weren't huge contributors or weren't going to be big contributors.
Let me throw in a "Yeah, but...."
The only signees remaining from the 21' class on the D-line are Dylan Brooks 6'4" 227, and Tobechi Okoli 6'5" 255. Neither played a down this year. We signed three D-linemen this year, all 300+ pounders, JUCO Jeffrey M'Baaaaaa, Enyce Sledge and Oregon transfer Jayson Jones. That's one port hole guy in the bunch.
The problem shouldn't be this year. I think we're fine. The problem comes in a year or two from now when you have a class that basically had no D-linemen in it. Marcus Harris and Tony Fair were great finds last year through the portal. Hopefully, Jones will be a plug and play too.
But the bottom line, is that if we don't get any more D-linemen by February 2nd, we'll have 2 recruiting classes with 5 total, two of which may not be ready for prime time. May put us in the same boat as our O-line recruiting in a couple of years if we're not successful in the portal.