See below for how I see the defensive roster at the moment, with plenty of room for upgrade, especially at LB. Understand that an "offensive" player like Aiken could beat out Ventrone or Andrews for a ST spot. My personal prefernece is that Alexander not have to be relied on as a linebacker and be considered a STer.
The reason to list STer's separately is that they will not make the roster for their position play. It matters very little that Izzo is a "linebacker" or that Andrews is a "safety".
I don't believe that players in a particular unit (especially backups) necessarily make the squad at a particular position (say RDE or ILB or FS). Within the units, we all understand that we need people in various critical roles, many of which we don't usually even list: nickel back, dime back, gunner.
DEFENSE (25)
DL (7) Seymour, Wilfork, Warren, Green, Wright, Smith, Thomas
LB (7) Vrabel, Bruschi, Thomas, Woods, Alexander, open, open
DB (7) Hobbs, Bryant, Webster, Harrison, J. Sanders, Meriweather, Richardson
ST (4) Izzo, Williams, Andrews, Ventone
Camp Fodder Slaughter, Mixon
There are definitely some players that are Special Team players only. However, they have a 'natural' position too even though they'll never see their respective offensive or defensive team side of the ball. So, I kept them in their 'natural' position area.
How would you like me to designate those players instead so that maybe they are more clearly separated from the pure offensive/defensive players battling for starting / playing roles? Maybe keep using the star annotation reference (*) .. or??
Thxs
