Ten Decisions

[Mack Herron]

Ebner MIA once again. Either Injured Reserve or show him the door.

Ebner put together a Slater-like rookie season on STs, and he has some upside at safety, where we have mediocre talent. I think Ebner stays.

 

[Spiral]

I watched the 3rd and 4th games back-to-back last night. My thoughts:

Sorry Jake. Bequette can't play. No explosiveness or quickness. Gets pushed inside on running plays, no pressure on the QB. I'll give him credit for playing hard the whole game last night but he made 2-3 plays--that was it.

Sorry Jake, pt. 2. Who keeps saying that Ballard is a good blocker? Do they say that because he can't run? On short yardage plays, they'd be much better with a sixth OL than him. P.S.: Sudfeld is worse. Size-wise, he looks like an in-line TE, but he's probably better at AH's old position.

Still waiting for Adrian Wilson to make a play. The most I notice him is missing tackles on screen passes or outside runs. There doesn't appear to be much upside here. A good candidate for the shadow roster.

Will Svitek is a better backup at tackle than guard. He looked awful against Detroit. Hope he never has to play there. Connally looks like he's very rusty or still hurt. Looks to me like they should have tried harder to hang on to Donald Thomas. Cannon looks like he may be ready to play.

We still haven't drafted a safety who can make plays on deep sideline passes. I don't know if it's a matter of speed or instincts, but neither Wilson nor Harmon can make plays there (and Chung is no longer here because he couldn't either). I'd put Green on PS and see if you can make him a safety.

Depth at DT is major concern. This could be a huge issue, especially late in games and early in the season, since I doubt Kelly and Wilfork are ready to play four quarters in hot weather. There may be some improvement among the DBs, (Logan Ryan looks OK to me), but with those DTs, I just don't see this defense being any better.

 

[letekro]

I watched the 3rd and 4th games back-to-back last night. My thoughts:

Sorry Jake. Bequette can't play. No explosiveness or quickness. Gets pushed inside on running plays, no pressure on the QB. I'll give him credit for playing hard the whole game last night but he made 2-3 plays--that was it.

Sorry Jake, pt. 2. Who keeps saying that Ballard is a good blocker? Do they say that because he can't run? On short yardage plays, they'd be much better with a sixth OL than him. P.S.: Sudfeld is worse. Size-wise, he looks like an in-line TE, but he's probably better at AH's old position.

Still waiting for Adrian Wilson to make a play. The most I notice him is missing tackles on screen passes or outside runs. There doesn't appear to be much upside here. A good candidate for the shadow roster.

Will Svitek is a better backup at tackle than guard. He looked awful against Detroit. Hope he never has to play there. Connally looks like he's very rusty or still hurt. Looks to me like they should have tried harder to hang on to Donald Thomas. Cannon looks like he may be ready to play.

We still haven't drafted a safety who can make plays on deep sideline passes. I don't know if it's a matter of speed or instincts, but neither Wilson nor Harmon can make plays there (and Chung is no longer here because he couldn't either). I'd put Green on PS and see if you can make him a safety.

Depth at DT is major concern. This could be a huge issue, especially late in games and early in the season, since I doubt Kelly and Wilfork are ready to play four quarters in hot weather. There may be some improvement among the DBs, (Logan Ryan looks OK to me), but with those DTs, I just don't see this defense being any better.

I agree 100% with your assessment. They don't have a single backup DT worth a darn against the run. If Wilfork or Kelly goes down, they will end up cheating up safeties and then get burned (even more than usual) over the top. I liked Harmon's tackling last night, but he is average at best against the pass. A. Wilson is horrible.

 

[mgteich]

And then there were 12 cuts to make.

OFFENSE (2 real questions left)
TE is settled and I don't think that we are keeping any of our OL's.

QB Tebow or no Tebow
RB Who do we keep in addition to Ridley and Vereen?
============

DEFENSE (6 questions)
DE - Cunningham? Bequette? Francis? Buchanan? Buchanan seems to be a lock.
DT - Forston? Vellano? There is no downside to keeping both for now.
LB/ST - Tarpinian? Beauharnais?
DB - Do both Wilson's make the team ( I think that the answer is yes)
ST - Ebner? I think not.
P - Mesko? I think yes

There are 10 roster decisions that affecting 26 players by my count.

ONE - QB
Tebow or no Tebow?

TWO - TE
Odd man (men) out at TE?

THREE - RB
Who do we keep at RB in addition to Ridley and Vereen?

FOUR - OL
Who do we keep beyond the top seven?

FIVE - DE
Who do we keep as backups?

SIX - DT
Who do we keep as backups?

SEVEN - LB
Who do we keep beyond the top 5?

EIGHT - DB
Do both Wilson's make it?

NINE - ST
Does Ebner make it?

TEN - P
Mesko or no Mesko?

 

[supafly]

I really can see them keeping just seven OL to start the season and keeping one or two on the PS. Svitek, Connolly and Cannon's versatility makes it just about feasible. It'll probably be 8 but I wouldn't be at all surprised if it's 7. We've started with 8 every year since '09 and have better versatility this year.

How would be possibly have "better versatility" this year with the losses of both Donald Thomas and Nick McDonald--who played various different positions on the line?

Who replaced those 2 guys to give us this better versatility?

Solder, Mankins, Wendell, Connelly, Vollmer, and Cannon--were all there last season too; so I'm not understanding how Svitek replaces either one of Thomas or McDonald as having better versatility?

I think anything's possible and you could certainly be right about only keeping 7 (initially), but I don't see we have more versatility than last year.

 

[mgteich]

What we lack is a backup center (ina addition to Connolly). This year, we have 2 backup guards, and 2 backup guards. Yes, Svitek is an adequate #4 OG.

Last year, we only had one backup OT. When Vollmer went down and Cannon needed to step in at OT, we than had neither a backup OT or a backup 3rd TE.

I could see someone saying we had more flexibility last year.

HOWEVER, we should carry the normal eight offensive linemen. We don't need a 9th developmental OL, since that player can easily be on the Practice Squad. What we do need is an 8th backup OL who is a backup center. I expect us to sign one in the next 10 days. I also expect 2-3 OL's on the Practice Squad.

How would be possibly have "better versatility" this year with the losses of both Donald Thomas and Nick McDonald--who played various different positions on the line?

Who replaced those 2 guys to give us this better versatility?

Solder, Mankins, Wendell, Connelly, Vollmer, and Cannon--were all there last season too; so I'm not understanding how Svitek replaces either one of Thomas or McDonald as having better versatility?

I think anything's possible and you could certainly be right about only keeping 7 (initially), but I don't see we have more versatility than last year.

 

[supafly]

I could see someone saying we had more flexibility last year.

This is exactly what I am saying. I find it hard to believe that "we have MORE versatility on the OL" this season as opposed to last year, especially with the loss of McDonald who could realistically play anywhere + Donald Thomas who was pretty good on the interior.

HOWEVER, we should carry the normal eight offensive linemen. We don't need a 9th developmental OL, since that player can easily be on the Practice Squad. What we do need is an 8th backup OL who is a backup center. I expect us to sign one in the next 10 days. I also expect 2-3 OL's on the Practice Squad.

Believe me, I agree with keeping 8 for sure. Anything less is asking for trouble in my opinion.

The question of course would be "who?" I think that is what is leaning posters to feel that we should only carry 7--simply b/c they can't reasonably name the 8th OL with any comfort. That is no reason to think we should carry only 7 when we obviously need at least 6 active, if not all 7.

The return of Nick McDonald would be a welcome sign in my opinion, but we don't currently know the status of his situation health wise. He had enough knowledge of our scheme here and has been a developmental project under Scarnecchia.

Stankiewitch is obviously a PS candidate, and I think he'll go there for sure. The loss of Zusevics to IR made this situation a bit worse, along with N.McDonald's uncertainty re: health. I am not as confident about Svitek as you seem to be at guard, but he has to count. I definitely would not consider him an upgrade to versatility in comparison to last season, which is the main overall point.

 

[mgteich]

I was thinking about this a bit more. If McDonald come back and is at full strength, he would likely be active instead of Svitek. After all, for me, Cannon is still our #1 backup at LT and RT, just as he was last year.

This is exactly what I am saying. I find it hard to believe that "we have MORE versatility on the OL" this season as opposed to last year, especially with the loss of McDonald who could realistically play anywhere + Donald Thomas who was pretty good on the interior.



Believe me, I agree with keeping 8 for sure. Anything less is asking for trouble in my opinion.

The question of course would be "who?" I think that is what is leaning posters to feel that we should only carry 7--simply b/c they can't reasonably name the 8th OL with any comfort. That is no reason to think we should carry only 7 when we obviously need at least 6 active, if not all 7.

The return of Nick McDonald would be a welcome sign in my opinion, but we don't currently know the status of his situation health wise. He had enough knowledge of our scheme here and has been a developmental project under Scarnecchia.

Stankiewitch is obviously a PS candidate, and I think he'll go there for sure. The loss of Zusevics to IR made this situation a bit worse, along with N.McDonald's uncertainty re: health. I am not as confident about Svitek as you seem to be at guard, but he has to count. I definitely would not consider him an upgrade to versatility in comparison to last season, which is the main overall point.