How solid are we at OLB/DE and ILB/MLB

[jah]

Me too, as I indicated in my original post. But then, I'm somewhat surprised that he's on the squad at all.

Yeah. I've said it before and I'll say it again: Markell Carter must have really sucked for them to keep guys like Harrison, Lavarias, and Rivera over him.

 

[captain stone]

I have both Scott and Francis being cut, with a DE group of Jones, Bequette, Cunningham, Ninkovich (all playing the rush DE/OLB role), Fanene, Deaderick (the former two playing the run-stuffing LDE we saw last season with Ellis and Deaderick). I don't see any room for Scott, barring injuries. And given Scott's history, the injury will likely be his anyway.

Scott might indeed be injured sometime during TC; but if he isn't, then I feel that he will almost certainly make the 53. We need all the edge defender help we can get.

 

[captain stone]

Does anyone have some thoughts on Marcus Harrison? He's sort of the forgotten man on DL.

Harrison was considered a 1st round talent in 2008, but injuries (ACL in college) and off-field issues (drugs) caused him to slip. He had a good rookie year for Chicago and then tailed off a bit, and was cut prior to 2011 for coming into camp out of shape. The Pats picked him up and cut him a week later, but I was intrigued when BB re-signed Harrison this off-season, particularly given his history and issues. Either he's just a training camp body (more likely possibility), or BB saw something that intrigued him (less likely, but more appealing). At age 27 and at 6'3" 317# Harrison has the size and strength to 2-gap and has some penetrating ability. I'm mildly encouraged that we haven't heard anything about him - no news is good news right now. If he reports to training camp in shape and ready to compete, I'll be encouraged, though I suspect he's a real long shot. But he has talent, and it would be nice to have another live body at DT.

Thoughts?

Barring catastrophic injury losses, I think that Harrison will be released at the appropriate time,
i.e., at the first round of cuts.

 

[captain stone]

Yeah. I've said it before and I'll say it again: Markell Carter must have really sucked for them to keep guys like Harrison, Lavarias, and Rivera over him.

This has bothered me since Carter's release was announced. Harrison, Lavarias, Rivera & Matt Roark
have no chance whatsoever of making this team. Why not toss away one of them instead?
Very disappointing.

 

[Deus Irae]

This has bothered me since Carter's release was announced. Harrison, Lavarias, Rivera & Matt Roark
have no chance whatsoever of making this team. Why not toss away one of them instead?
Very disappointing.

Carter was cut before training camp, and it wasn't one of the "give a veteran a chance to catch on elsewhere" sort of cuts. That means that he either did something really stupid which hasn't been reported, or he had no shot to make the team.

Getting rid of the dross is getting rid of the dross.

 

[Frezo]

Carter was cut before training camp, and it wasn't one of the "give a veteran a chance to catch on elsewhere" sort of cuts. That means that he either did something really stupid which hasn't been reported, or he had no shot to make the team.

Getting rid of the dross is getting rid of the dross.

If I had to guess, he showed up way out of shape.

 

[Ring 6]

Scott might indeed be injured sometime during TC; but if he isn't, then I feel that he will almost certainly make the 53. We need all the edge defender help we can get.

We actually have a lot of competition for those spots.
Jones, Hightower, Ninkovich, Cunningham, Scott, Bequette are all 34 OLBs and at least 3 if not 4 of them are primarily RDEs in the 43.
All but Hightower and Nink would be exclusively edge rushers in the sub.
There may be room for all of them, but there may not, depending on how each fares at camp, and how they progressed in their offseason program.
Andre Carter coming back defintiely costs one of these guys their job.

 

[BradyFTW!]

This has bothered me since Carter's release was announced. Harrison, Lavarias, Rivera & Matt Roark
have no chance whatsoever of making this team. Why not toss away one of them instead?
Very disappointing.

I didn't think Carter was going to make the team in the first place, so while the timing of the release was a bit surprising, the end result wasn't. To make the team, he was going to have to be one of the 3 or 4 best players out of Ninkovich, Chandler, Bequette, Scott, and Cunningham. Add in that Hightower may play some snaps at OLB, and I could pretty easily see the Pats only carrying four players from that list, even with Chandler and Bequette both playing, to some degree, hybrid/specialist roles. Based on that, my guess was that one of Cunningham/Scott would be cut, as well as Carter. If that happens, the team will be a little light on 3-4 OLB depth, but if Hightower is able to fill that role, then they should be fine with Ninkovich, Hightower, and whichever one of Scott/Cunningham makes the team.