If Lua to IR Do we Carry 8 LB's?

[TeamPats]

And even that is a bit of a stretch because Larry Izzo is not much of a LB. Right now I have these guys pegged for the 53 man roster. This definately leaves an open roster spot maybe for Garret Mills as a 4th TE or Kelley Washington as a 6th WR for ST purposes. But right now I don't see any obvious LB choices. I think Chad Brown is done and Justin Rogers needs a year on the PS. that just leaves Corey Mays and I just don't think he is the answer. Curious to know what you guys think...


OLBs = 3

OLB – Roosevelt Colvin
OLB – Mike Vrabel
OLB – Pierre Woods

ILBs = 5

ILB – Adalius Thomas
ILB – Tedy Bruschi
ILB – Junior Seau
ILB – Larry Izzo
ILB – Eric Alexander

 

[Lamanai]

And even that is a bit of a stretch because Larry Izzo is not much of a LB. Right now I have these guys pegged for the 53 man roster. This definately leaves an open roster spot maybe for Garret Mills as a 4th TE or Kelley Washington as a 6th WR for ST purposes. But right now I don't see any obvious LB choices. I think Chad Brown is done and Justin Rogers needs a year on the PS. that just leaves Corey Mays and I just don't think he is the answer. Curious to know what you guys think...


OLBs = 3

OLB – Roosevelt Colvin
OLB – Mike Vrabel
OLB – Pierre Woods

ILBs = 5

ILB – Adalius Thomas
ILB – Tedy Bruschi
ILB – Junior Seau
ILB – Larry Izzo
ILB – Eric Alexander

Keep Justin Rogers; float Mills onto the PS. I doubt he'd get picked up.

 

[Bigdogx]

Keep Justin Rogers; float Mills onto the PS. I doubt he'd get picked up.

Absolutely, i swear ever little bit of preseason i watched so far Rogers is doing something positive!

 

[Ring 6]

There is no way we can have just 3 OLBs.

 

[BelichickFan]

There is no way we can have just 3 OLBs.

Thomas at ILB really gives us 4 OLB, even though he barely got a look there in camp he's played there most of his career. I expect us to keep Justin Rogers but he barely counts at a 4th OLB as I don't think they'd want him on the field on defense this year.

 

[Ring 6]

Thomas at ILB really gives us 4 OLB, even though he barely got a look there in camp he's played there most of his career. I expect us to keep Justin Rogers but he barely counts at a 4th OLB as I don't think they'd want him on the field on defense this year.

But then you have only 3 ILBs.
We need 8 LBs exclusive of Izzo.
In a perfect world only 5 will ever play, with Vrable, Colvin, Thomas rotating outside and Bruschi, Thomas/Vrable(Im still not convinced how this will go) and Seau rotating inside. If all 5 stayed healthy all year no one else would play a snap, but if one of the 5 is out, you need 2 more guys to serve as backups, one inside one outside. Only having 7 leaves us very thin in the event of injury, and due to both the nature of the position, and the age of some of the guys there its foolish to think we wont have any.

I think the 5 plus Woods and/or Alexander are active, and the 8th LB (not counting Izzo) is inactive. Woods and Alexander wont play hardly at all but need to be active in the event of an injury and will contribuite on special teams. If a LB goes down the 8th (Rogers or Mays I suppose) would be active and hardly ever play on D but be expected to work on s/ts.

The last few roster spots that will be inactive will almost surely include an OL, a LB, a recevier/TE, and a DB who fit the description above. We dont need them today, but would in the event of injuries.

 

[cstjohn17]

If Lua to IR Do we Carry 8 LB's? No

 

[patchick]

But then you have only 3 ILBs.
We need 8 LBs exclusive of Izzo.
In a perfect world only 5 will ever play, with Vrable, Colvin, Thomas rotating outside and Bruschi, Thomas/Vrable(Im still not convinced how this will go) and Seau rotating inside. If all 5 stayed healthy all year no one else would play a snap, but if one of the 5 is out, you need 2 more guys to serve as backups, one inside one outside. Only having 7 leaves us very thin in the event of injury, and due to both the nature of the position, and the age of some of the guys there its foolish to think we wont have any.

I think the 5 plus Woods and/or Alexander are active, and the 8th LB (not counting Izzo) is inactive. Woods and Alexander wont play hardly at all but need to be active in the event of an injury and will contribuite on special teams. If a LB goes down the 8th (Rogers or Mays I suppose) would be active and hardly ever play on D but be expected to work on s/ts.

The last few roster spots that will be inactive will almost surely include an OL, a LB, a recevier/TE, and a DB who fit the description above. We dont need them today, but would in the event of injuries.

I think I agree with every word of this post.

 

[TeamPats]

But then you have only 3 ILBs.
We need 8 LBs exclusive of Izzo.
In a perfect world only 5 will ever play, with Vrable, Colvin, Thomas rotating outside and Bruschi, Thomas/Vrable(Im still not convinced how this will go) and Seau rotating inside. If all 5 stayed healthy all year no one else would play a snap, but if one of the 5 is out, you need 2 more guys to serve as backups, one inside one outside. Only having 7 leaves us very thin in the event of injury, and due to both the nature of the position, and the age of some of the guys there its foolish to think we wont have any.

I think the 5 plus Woods and/or Alexander are active, and the 8th LB (not counting Izzo) is inactive. Woods and Alexander wont play hardly at all but need to be active in the event of an injury and will contribuite on special teams. If a LB goes down the 8th (Rogers or Mays I suppose) would be active and hardly ever play on D but be expected to work on s/ts.

The last few roster spots that will be inactive will almost surely include an OL, a LB, a recevier/TE, and a DB who fit the description above. We dont need them today, but would in the event of injuries.

I agree as well, but what other LB is going to bump out Willie Andrews, Tory James, or Garret Mills to earn that needed spot. I think Justin Rogers has a lot of potential but I don't know if he is ready for the active 53 making the DE/LB transition. I agree we need another OLB so if BB does not like Rogers, is it Chad Brown?

 

[Oswlek]

But then you have only 3 ILBs.
We need 8 LBs exclusive of Izzo.
In a perfect world only 5 will ever play, with Vrable, Colvin, Thomas rotating outside and Bruschi, Thomas/Vrable(Im still not convinced how this will go) and Seau rotating inside. If all 5 stayed healthy all year no one else would play a snap, but if one of the 5 is out, you need 2 more guys to serve as backups, one inside one outside. Only having 7 leaves us very thin in the event of injury, and due to both the nature of the position, and the age of some of the guys there its foolish to think we wont have any.

I think the 5 plus Woods and/or Alexander are active, and the 8th LB (not counting Izzo) is inactive. Woods and Alexander wont play hardly at all but need to be active in the event of an injury and will contribuite on special teams. If a LB goes down the 8th (Rogers or Mays I suppose) would be active and hardly ever play on D but be expected to work on s/ts.

The last few roster spots that will be inactive will almost surely include an OL, a LB, a recevier/TE, and a DB who fit the description above. We dont need them today, but would in the event of injuries.

That may be your perfect world, but my perfect world includes plenty of second half downs with Woods, Rogers and Alexander protecting 30 point leads.

 

[JJDChE]

I think Alexander is ready to get into the ILB rotation.

 

[captain stone]

There had been speculation amoung the posters that Lua might have been waived/PS'ed before he was injuried last night. A trip to the IR now seems likely.

I had given the 9th LB spot to Lua, with the hope that the presense of Alexander, Mitchell and Wesley would make Izzo obsolete. Instead, Izzo probably assumes Lua's 9th LB spot.

Without further ado, here are your NEP LBs for 2007:
Vrabel - A.Thomas - Bruschi - Colvin
Rogers* - Seau - Alexander - Woods

*Chad Brown a possibility here

Two things come to mind:
1) Backup OLB is very inexperienced. I would have preferred a relatively young, but experienced, OLB in Rogers' spot. (Rogers could then be waived/PS'ed.) It's true that Thomas, Seau and Bruschi can move outside, but that would leave us with...
2) Pray that Seau stays healthy. Otherwise, our ILB (and overall LB) depth goes down the toilet.

Overall, I am disappointed that more capable ILBs wre not acquired either via free agency (Hartwell, Kacyvenski, i.e.) or the draft (Posluszny, Siler). An experienced (but younger than Chad Brown) OLB, esp. if Thomas plays heavy ILB snaps, would have been nice, too.