Good luck, out of 17 DB's - how many will they keep and can you name them??
I say we keep 10 (K)- PS 3 (PS) and cut 4 (C)... Hawkins is the toughest cut that I can see.
Gay(K) - Wilson (K) - Meriweather(K) - Andrews(K) - Hobbs(K) - Assante (K)- Harrison(K) - Richardson(K) - Hawkins(C) - Sanders(K) - Anam(PS) - Baker(PS) - Jackson(PS) - James(C) - Mitchell(K) - Wesley(C) - Williams(PS)
You have four going to the PS?
CB Ranked: #1 Hobbs. #2 Gay. #3 (NB) Meriweather. #4 James. #5 Richardson.
S ranked: #1 Harrison. #2 Wilson. #3 Sanders. #4 Baker.
ST ranked: #1 (Gun) Andrews. #2 (KR) Williams. #3 Mitchell.
Samuel isn't here and doesn't count.
mgteich generally uses a 27 man defensive roster when he's projecting a 53 man roster, 7 DL, and 10 each LB and DB.
- The extra LBs tend to be STs, Mitchell offers a small LB/Big S option for the goal line and other situational defense roles, plus STs.
- Williams is the #3 KR in camp so far, behind Hobbs and Maroney. I'd vote to save them. Williams is getting mixed reviews in coverage, but he's essentially a rookie coming off IR from last season. His Gunner work needs development, but he's got the speed, he just needs to train.
- Andrews is a good Gunner/KO wing and the #4 KR.
If you're going to figure DBs, then you also have to look at DL and LB:
DL: Sey, Ty, Vince, Jarvis, Mike - 1 NT, 1 DE - gameday inactives like last year.
LB: #1-5 Vrabes, Rosy, Tedy, Adalius, Jr. #6-8 Eric, Larry, Pierre. #9-10 is where Mitchell fits in, and if you keep both Andrews and Williams you can put one more in here. That puts the D at 27.
I think you can go with 8 LB this year because Alexander joined with the top five gives you more flexibility to mix up the front seven. It also gives you a good ST core amongst LBs with Izzo and Woods. Folks will advocate dumping Izzo, but they forget or ignore the fact he does more then run down on kicks, he's also a scout team QB and Seely's Tedy Bruschi. Alexander may be ready to start taking on some of those duties, but not all. The kids who would normally be kept as STs aces will just have to survive to be re-signed to the Practice Squad.
ST: PK, P, LS = 30
O = 23
2 QB: Brady, Cassel = 2
9 OL: Light, Mankins, Koppen, Neal, Kaczur, Hochstein, O'Callaghan, Yates, Britt = 11
4 RB: Maroney, Faulk, Morris, Evans = 15
3 TE: Watson, Brady, ??? = 18
5 WR: Moss, Welker, Gaffney, Caldwell*, Washington* = 23
*Good blockers, they can be used on STs.
PUP: T.Brown, C.Jackson, D.Thomas, E.Jackson.
IR: Scott, Hairston, ???
PS: OL - Elgin, Oldenburg. LB - Mays, Rogers. QB - Gutierrez. DL - K.Brown Utility Guys - Bam, Kelvin.
Where I think you can switch things around:
Keep 8 OL - I wouldn't, but it's an option.
Keep 6 DL - This I might do, keep a NT and count on one of Kenny Smith, Santonio Thomas, and the third NT to survive on the Shadow Roster in case a one-gap team grabs Kareem Brown (like Indy).
Samuel comes back and James gets the cut, for now he's the "tall" veteran CB in the Chad Scott role.