​Stanford defensive tackle Harrison Phillips has heard the question so many times now, he has honed the perfect response.

How can the Cardinal make up for the loss of departed star defensive lineman Solomon Thomas?

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Pac-12 football will be back in 2020, but the specifics remain a mystery After all, Thomas was the No. 3 pick of the NFL Draft, a first-team All-Pac-12 Conference selection last year and the heart of the defense. You could argue that he left a bigger hole in the roster than superstar running back Christian McCaffrey, considering the lack of proven depth at his position. Get Pac-12 Conference news in your inbox. Sign up for the Pac-12 Hotline newsletter.

But “if Solomon was 10 percent of our defense,” Phillips said, “we just need five guys to be 2 percent better. And I think we have more than five guys who are more than 2 percent better. … We can still be a collectively better defense overall.”

Certainly, there’s room for improvement.

For all of Thomas’ enormous impact — he had eight sacks and 14 ½ tackles for loss last season, and was the rare defensive lineman to lead his team in tackles — the Cardinal still ranked a good-but-not-great fourth or fifth in the Pac-12 in most of the main defensive statistical categories, though they were No. 2 in points allowed.

“It’s always tough to replace a first-round draft pick, I don’t care what you have backing him up, because you just don’t have those kinds of guys in your program all the time,” said Nick Aliotti, the former Oregon defensive coordinator who’s now an analyst on the Pac-12 Network. “But what I will say is … I was very impressed by their defensive team. They have a lot of really, really good linebackers. They have what I would say is at least a top-three secondary in conference coming back, and it might even be better than that. Their overall defense looks very, very good.”

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Having played plenty of younger players at linebacker and in the secondary in recent seasons, defensive coordinator Lance Anderson said “that experience should start to pay off” this year, with nine defensive starters returning.

Theoretically, that means the Cardinal don’t necessarily need another stratospheric talent on the defensive line to replace Thomas.

“As long as we stay in our gaps and do our jobs, those linebackers should run free and make up for some of that production that Solomon had,” Phillips said.

The Cardinal expect junior Dylan Jackson and fifth-year senior Eric Cotton to start as the defensive ends in their 3-4 scheme, on either side of Phillips — a 6-foot-4, 295-pound senior tackle who’s a team captain and on the Outland Trophy watch list.

“Everyone’s bringing something special to the table,” Jackson said, “so I think we’re really going to have a strong D-line this year.”

The big question to Anderson is how well the younger players can work into the two-deep rotation. Sophomores Jovan Swann, Mike Williams and Thomas Schaffer are in line to help with what coach David Shaw has called “a bit of a group effort” in replacing Thomas.

“Football is a game of inches,” Phillips said, “and just the accumulation of everybody being an inch better will make us a better defense, for sure.”