mgteich

Are you saying that we need more than four active wide receivers? I have Greg Lewis. That gives us plenty of receivers I think. I would expect to have Smith and Thomas active. The last active is subject to game plan.

BTW, I never indicated that this was an active roster. The intent was to assess open positions, to show how many were open, and frankly to show how little we would miss the rest.

Fencer

Ack. I wasn't thinking of Lewis. My bad.

The guys who get all the reps even in case of injury, which is how you did frame it, pretty much equates to the when-healthy active roster, no?

loosebearing

Why is this thread on the main board and not moved to the Draft one like all the other Draft threads?

mgteich

I didn't post this on the draft board because the focus is that we are ready for the season with the current roster. Upgrades, if they come, could come in the draft, from UDFA's, from trades or from free agency.

mgteich

While that was not my intent, but you are correct. I just need to add Smith and Thomas.

Fencer

Let's see what the first day of the draft does to this.

You have 7 DBs not counting Slater and Ventrone. The new DBs compete for some of those slots, as does Spann. Guys with bad training camp injuries will not necessarily be replaced with further depth. 2 or 3 DBs or quasi-DBs wind up on the inactives.

Vollmer sticks, so O'Callaghan and Levoir are competing either for one slot or to thin out another roster area. (Edit: Not to mention Britt.) Vollmer is clearly in the inactives.

Brace competes with Smith for an active spot, the other likely to stick inactive.

That's 4-5 of 8 inactive slots accounted for, with WR, QB, and OG/C each seemingly one roster spot light. Whether or not that's a problem depends in large part on what you think of LB depth. If Vollmer goes to guard that changes things a bit, but I haven't thought about whether he could possibly fit inside for the Pats.

But it also speaks to the difficulties of making room for up to 4 3rd-rounders plus 2 other comp picks.

mgteich

SECONDARY
CHUNG takes the backup strong safety spot, presumably that of Tank Williams.
BUTLER takes the backup FS/CB spot presumably from Spann.
We now have a very solid 9 defensive backs: 4 corners, 3 safeties and 2 swing DB's.
Both swing backs could compete for starting positions in 2010.
The last inactive will depend on ST play. Chung will be a definite active.

DEFENSIVE LINE
I expect BRACE to take Smith's roster spot and to compete with Wright for the active 5th DL spot on Game Day. Given the contract situations, we probably should keep 7 defensive linemen as you suggest, but it is not clear.

OFFENSIVE LINE
I expect VOLLMER to be inactive and for LeVoir to be the swing tackle as he was last year with O'Callaghan and Britt being cut.