Not a lot of NEEDS
 

I think that we have lots of wants. IMHO, we NEED an OT, an OG, a DE and acouple of RB's. IMHO, the defense will get better (even without addition) as they mature.

A start would be to re-sign Mankins, Light and G. Warren, and pick up a couple RB's and WR's in free agency. The rest is gravy.


ACTIVE PLAYERS BY POSITION

QB - 2 Brady, Hoyer
RB - 5 Green-Ellis, Woodhead, Clayton, Kettani, White
FB - 0
C - 2 Koppen, Wendell
G - 3 Neal, Ohrnberger, Connolly
OT - 4 Kaczur, Vollmer, Levoir, Maneri
WR - 6 Welker, Branch, Edelman, Tate, Price, Slater
TE - 3 Crumpler, Gronkowski, Hernandez

DE - 4 Deaderick, Love, Ty Warren, Brace
DT - 3 Wright, Pryor, Wilfork
OLB– 4 Cunningham, Banta-Cain, Ninkovich, Moore
LB - 4 Mayo, Guyton, Spikes, Fletcher
CB - 5 Bodden, McCourty, Wilhite, Butler, Arrington
S - 5 Meriweather, Sanders, Chung, Brown, Barrett

P - 1 Mesko
K - 1 Gostkowski
LS - 1 Katula

Re: Not a lot of NEEDS
 

Besides the trenches we do need some playmakers. I honestly don't care if BB takes some risks in the draft this year. We need some players who can change the game and energize this team into reaching their full potential.

Re: Not a lot of NEEDS
 

OL - the unit that is currently under contract has only 2 players who I consider solid starters (vollmer and koppen) Neal is toast, I don't believe KAczur will be the same.....in short, need 3 starters

WR - the primary WR's are old. Branch can't be counted on for 16 games. Welker is not the same unless the #1 is a viable deep threat. Need one starting quality WR unless they see that in taylor price

RB - need bodies who can play. green-ellis and woodhead is not enough

DL - the group as a whole needs to be more athletic. Outside of wright, it looks like they have amassed a bunch of NT's the need some height at DE so they can get their hands up and cause problems for the QB

LB - still no pass rush. Cunning looks solid, but by and large, the OLBs are a bunch of backups

there are plenty of needs

Re: Not a lot of NEEDS
 

Very uncertain future right now with all the free agency and injuries going on.

I would say we a have a lot of needs. LT?,LG? C? RG? Though it is not time to hit the panic button since the super bowl ended yesterday. I would say there are a lot of uncertainties up front. Some not as pressing like Center because Koppen is under contract, but what about the year after? Our RG is contemplating retirement, our RT may take over at Left tackle, but the guy we are to have replace him has come off of major back surgery. You are right. Resign Light or draft Carimi at the expense of losing out on a really good defensive prospect. Draft a Pouncey, Wisniewski type etc. I think it can be fixed. But either way we need to restock.

And then a olb and de to improve the defense. All in all a big chunk can be taken care of in this offseason.

Re: Not a lot of NEEDS
 

Assuming Light and Mankins leave, I rate our needs based on tiers as follows:

Tier 1 Mass critical

#1 OLB Pass rushing demon. - Last or near last in 3rd down defense all year.

#2 DE - refer above to reason #1.

#3 OT - Not sure about Kazcur's back and lack confidence in Levoir.

Tier 2 Depth needed badly

#4 OG/C - Loss of Mankins and maybe even Neal makes us paper thin on the interior.

#5 RB - Expected retooling with Taylor, Morris and Faulk not expected back for TC.

#6 - NT - We have only Love behind Wilfork. Which means we are 1 high ankle sprain away from disaster on the D Line.

Tier #3 Competition makes our team better

#7 WR - especially a deep threat.

#8 CB - We have some pond scum players at this position that need to bring their game up to par.

#9 S - Mass exudos expected after 2011 and we have little in the development pipeline.

Re: Not a lot of NEEDS
 

I very much agree with the premise that we don't have a lot of needs. In my eyes we could use RBs, OL, DE, and OLB.

There are however a boatload of places where we could use an upgrade at the position. For example, I think we can stand an upgrade at WR, CB, S, and DT.