Fencer
Pro Bowl Player
- Joined
- Oct 2, 2006
- Messages
- 14,296
- Reaction score
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Any roster prediction at this point is fraught with error. That said, most of what we talk about at this time of year boils down to roster speculation. And with that as an excuse, let's dive in.
K/P/LS -- 3, always.
QB -- 3. (It's not 2, and there's no candidate for 4.)
RB/FB -- 4 or more; Ridley, Vereen, White and Develin are all near locks.
WR -- 6 or 7, counting Slater. I lean to 7, but part of my reason is how injury-prone the returning WRs seem to be.
TE -- could be as low as 2, since Develin isn't being counted in this group.
OL -- 9 or 10, if you count noses.
CB -- 5 or more, counting Browner. (The other obvious ones are Revis, Arrington, Dennard, Ryan.)
S -- 4 or more. Base case is McCourty, Harmon, Wilson, Ebner.
LB -- 5 or more, not counting Ninkovich.
DE -- 4 or more, to keep Jones and Ninkovich fresh.
DT -- 4 or more; Wilfork/Kelly/Easley would be -- well, "thin" doesn't feel like the right word, so let's say "imprudently few" even if all three weren't coming back from injury.
The bolded figures add to 50 total, out of 54 possible (the extra is for Browner's suspension), in a 3/25/22 ST/O/D split. Besides the obvious, namely that the defensive total is low, I've skimped on the "big STer" positions -- TE, RB/FB, LB -- as a group. Beyond that, I think it's mainly a question of which positions just have more individuals who should be kept, and also which kinds of packages the team wants to ensure are possible, e.g. 3-TE jumbo offense or traditional 3-4 (i.e. with three behemoths on the line).
K/P/LS -- 3, always.
QB -- 3. (It's not 2, and there's no candidate for 4.)
RB/FB -- 4 or more; Ridley, Vereen, White and Develin are all near locks.
WR -- 6 or 7, counting Slater. I lean to 7, but part of my reason is how injury-prone the returning WRs seem to be.
TE -- could be as low as 2, since Develin isn't being counted in this group.
OL -- 9 or 10, if you count noses.
CB -- 5 or more, counting Browner. (The other obvious ones are Revis, Arrington, Dennard, Ryan.)
S -- 4 or more. Base case is McCourty, Harmon, Wilson, Ebner.
LB -- 5 or more, not counting Ninkovich.
DE -- 4 or more, to keep Jones and Ninkovich fresh.
DT -- 4 or more; Wilfork/Kelly/Easley would be -- well, "thin" doesn't feel like the right word, so let's say "imprudently few" even if all three weren't coming back from injury.
The bolded figures add to 50 total, out of 54 possible (the extra is for Browner's suspension), in a 3/25/22 ST/O/D split. Besides the obvious, namely that the defensive total is low, I've skimped on the "big STer" positions -- TE, RB/FB, LB -- as a group. Beyond that, I think it's mainly a question of which positions just have more individuals who should be kept, and also which kinds of packages the team wants to ensure are possible, e.g. 3-TE jumbo offense or traditional 3-4 (i.e. with three behemoths on the line).
