Well to be fair, the underneath became vulnerable once Mathieu went down. Cover linebackers who care more about football than pot are hard to come by in this league.
I thought it was an issue all season. Not always apparent, but it could if they figured it out. But the hole became glaring when Mathieu went down, and teams could zero in on it. Plus it affected throws a bit deeper so that area we were vulnerable was larger.
Teams that tried to go underneath both before and after could do it. Especially the crossers.
Of course some of it was scheme due to having our safety in the box so much. I'm not against that, but I think we relied upon it too much.
Cover LB's are hard to come by, but we have cap space and draft picks.
Of course as you know a good pass rush makes everyone on the 2nd and 3rd level better.
We have a strong secondary. It was easier to get yards underneath us then over the top, and adding a CB like JJ won't really change anything imo. (which is a good situation to have)
It was the LB play who couldn't close the bottom half of the window or couldn't chase from side to side, or pick up the back, or pass off the receiver from one to another and keep pace that was the problem. I don't see another CB solving that. LB's and pass rush will... again if we can get them. But that imo should be our priority. It's the bigger holes that can make more of an impact by closing.