The Plan - dammit

I had a big ass post al typed up and lost it.

Anyway -

We talked alot about the 'plan', or lack thereof, when we lost Grant, Howard, James, Donnalley, and Steussie.

After the draft, I wanted to revisit this. I like what our secondary could be. And I'm allright with starting over - Manning was solid, Minter is back, Grant was not coveted by our coaches or on the open market (only his old coach and lone cheerleader went for him), and I think Gamble could be outstanding. Hawkins and Wesley are fine.

So - while I was horrified about our secondary, and lack of a FS, I feel pretty good about it today.

We upgraded LB for sure. DE is still solid.
We upgraded WR for sure. By alot.

O-line. I'm concerned. I can't see an upgrade. Meadows, I fear, will miss half the season with injuries. Claridge, Tylski, Nelson, and Reyes are unknowns at guard. Wharton will likely see time at RT when Meadows hits the tub. Brez is such a nonfactor I forgot about him.

The good thing about the line - we drafted 3 of them, if you count Wharton. Also Seidman, during the Oline binge of day 1 2003. So that's 4 possible starters that we grabbed.

The O-line is the big, big mystery.

Does Meadows ever play guard?

 

Yeah, the OL will have to (yet again) step up from nothing to be something.
Also, the only corners that have "experience" actually playing in the league, are toward the bottom of the corner list in talent. The talent has no experience, and we don't have the safety help to cover it up.
Safety? pray.

We filled our holes. We jsut have to hope that guys who couldn't do it before, can, or that guys who haven't been here before will act like they've been here their whole lives.

 

I think our OL was THE over-acheiving part of our squad last year

Plus, Foster having a year under his belt now, going in we're a LOT better at RB.

 

I keep hearing that Safeties are a dime a dozen, and that they don't matter that much. We seem to be more than happy to test that theory. I hope that common wisdom is correct, even though It scares me to no end.

Corner is fine. The talent level is better than we have ever had. I repeat...BETTER THAN WE HAVE EVER HAD. The production, we will have to wait and see. We should get more Ints this year, just due to the nature of Manning and Gamble. I just think we could give up more passing TD's then in the past as well.

Widout doesn't matter to me much for this year. Yes it is nice to have Colbert in case someone gets hurt. I don't see much Field time for anyone outside of our top four though (if we do it is bad news), so not as much of a boon in talent as seems to be on paper.

LB depth will be nice for ST. Other than that, again I am hoping not to make too much use of it.

O-Line and TE are hard to figure. Last year the lineup was set early and never shuffled. Look for the starters at the first preseason game to be the starters for the season. Shuffling past that point will be bad news.

Some I want to infuse the Dline backups with some of the young talent we have, but on the other hand, it seems like with Fox here Linemen will always be wanting to play for us, and replacing backups (and maybe Buck in the future) shouldn't be a problem so may the best players win.

I think we are better on paper than last year this time. The question will be how the ball bounces.

 

Apparently Jake was asked who he would miss most that's not coming back. He said Donnelly. He mentioned his locker room joking and his play. Since Donnelly was retirement age and James is young, I'm surprised he didnt say James. I wonder if it means anything about James.

 

He didn't give Stuessie any love either :huh:
________
mazda millenia specifications

 

Take it for what it is. KD retired a Panther, Jake is currently a Panther. TS and JJ are wearing different colors this year. Who are you going to miss?

 

For those worried about safety...

We weren't that great a FS last year and Grant wanted to much $$. We are at least comparible at FS IMO.

We are younger overall with good talent to develop. That = successful offseason IMO.

There isn't/wasn't a CB on the roster close to Gamble in talent or upside. We now have solid vet depth at OLB and the HUGE part is that we were in the Super Bowl and didn't lose a huge FA to someone else.

Don't underestimate the Steve Smith or Al Wallace re-signs. Those were 2 of the better moves in the offseason.

 

>>For those worried about safety...
>>We weren't that great a FS last year

not "great". Competent, at the absolute least, above average in my opinion.

>>and Grant wanted to much $$.

Not really. What he got was affordable, and good market value, especially considering what the value at corner was.

>>We are at least comparible at FS IMO.

And how is that exactly? is that a reflection of your thoughts on Grant being a lot worse than he actually seemed to be, or a reflection of something you know that no one else does, about the scrubs we have?

 

I'm not terribly worried about safety (as of now) I believe the direction is to test what we have starting Tuesday and if nobody steps up we'll go fishing. then maybe worry..!