Roster after the draft

[taz]

I always like to look at the Roster where it stands after the draft. Where are the holes if any. The list is not necessarily in depth chart order just who is there.

QB - Hurts, Mariota, Book & Mckee - This is a deep room with an MVP canidate heading it. Mariotta is a better backup than Minshew, Book and McKee provide developmental opportunity.

RB - Swift, Gainwell, Penny, Scott, Sermon, Kennedy Brooks - Another deep room, deeper than last year as Scott in the 4 hole is better than Sermon in the 4 hole. Swift to me is a better all around back than Sanders and Gainwell seemed to be coming into his own. Penny gives them a bigger back.

WR - Brown, Smith, Watkins, Zaccheaus, Cleveland, Covey, Ngata, Ward, Allen, Hasellwood, Allen - On par with last year as OZ is probably a little better than Pascal. Might be an area where they could add in training camp

TE - Goedert, Stoll, Calceterra, Jackson, Keene, Russell - Will come back with the same unit as last year. Keene to me is a wild card he could pop in there of Calceterra.

OT - Mailatia, Johnson, Reid, Toth, R, Johnson, F. Johnson - Less depth to start as they lost Dillard however Toth in his limited action before his injury was OT and they do have swing guys see below.

C - Kelce, Tom - Jurgens technically but he is listed as a swing guy or just OL on the website - Could be better than last year as Jurgens is another year in the system

G - Dickerson, Opeta, T Robinson, Sills (technically still on the roster but suspended he will never play for them ) No right guard listed because of the comp on the OL guys listed next. Downgrade at least at first from last year with losing Seumolo.

OL - Jurgens, Steen, Driscoll, Good Jones - Driscoll, Jurgens and Steen will battle it out for the starting guard spot. I think Jurgens gets it, Steen is in Stoutland U and could be pressed into duty as a backup at any place except center, Same with Driscoll.

OL Note - Overall we may need another vet lineman for depth. I think rookie minicamp will determine more than we think if Stout thinks Steen and Reid can hold their own we will be fine.

Overall I think the offense is at least as good as last year if not slightly better as the RB room is improved.

Defense

DT, Cox, Williams, Davis, Carter, Ojomo, Street, Tuiplioto - This may be the deepest group of both young and veteran lineman I have seen. WOW

DE, Sweat, BG, Tarron Jackson, Barnett - About the same as last athough Barnett is an upgrade over Qunin from a run stopping

Edge (OLB) - Reddick, Smith, K Johnson, J Robinson - Getting Smith really upgrades here. I say OLB because of the 5-2

LB - Dean, Morrow, Bradley, Vansumeren, Eillis- I think Dean is an upgrade over TJ because of his speed to cover. Morrow is probably a slight downgrade from White. Depth here is an issue as there is no Dean backing up both positions like last year.

S - Blankenship, Brown, Edmunds, Evans, Chachere, Wallace - This is a deeper unit than last year however CJGJ and Epps were better players than Edmunds and either Blankenship or Borwn. However, the drop of can be slight as Edmunds is a better tackler than both Epps or CJGJ and Blankenship also is a good tackler. The point where we may have issue is turnovers. Brown is the wild card.

CB - Maddox, Slay, Bradberry, Ringo, Williams, Ricks, Jobe, McpHerson, Goodrich and Scott - Much deeper unit than last year. In fact I love this unit. You have to Vets with the guys developing behind them, Ringo, Jobe, Ricks, specifically. Williams is the top backup at both the slot and outside which is an upgrade over Scott and McPherson.

Overall I think this is a deeper team. Could use another LB and another Offensive lineman but man is this team deep in both Vets and prospects to develop. The future is much brighter for this team than it was at the end of last season. We have the best GM in football and that is hard for a lot of us to say as he has been ripped enough here. However he has grown and is willing to change which is the traits of a GM that will be here for a very long time

[andrewaters]

Our two areas of need to me remain traditional DE to back up Sweat and Graham. Maybe Barnett can take some snaps. I also wonder with Desai’s scheme if they will put Milton Williams more outside as almost a 3-4 DE. I think they are going to try and get Reddick and Nolan Smith on the field together. And when they do that the other 3 DL must be a bit bigger I think.

LB was not addressed at all which was disappointing for me. This organization does not value LB or RB. I like Dean and maybe Morrow is OK but seriously who are we going to trust as an every down LB outside of Dean?

[NoDakIggle]

I don’t see LB as strong as it was at the end of last year but it is about as strong as last year going into the season. If Dean turns out to be a player it will be a good group but it is to be determined if Dean is going to make it as a starting NFL LB.
I think they are fine everywhere else.
Blakenship has a year under his belt and can now show if he has the talent to be a good safety or an elite safety.

[sfphillyfan]

I saw this on Reddit. Not sure how accurate it is.

[Eagle60]

Let's face it SF, nothing is etched in stone until after training camp and even that can change due to minor injuries.

[Jukin]

While I am really happy with the draft (and trade) I have to think the D is worse off than last year. We lost two quality Safeties in CJGJ and Epps and a Probowl DL in Hargrave. I think we have some serious talent coming in but until we see them in a game, week after week, I won’t say that we’re equal or better. Just gotta see these kids play a bit before we really know what we think we know. The 2011 “Dream Team” with visions of DRC, Asomugha and Young have made me cynical. Sorry but I want to see them play before I decide, regardless of talent, school
or talking head evaluation.

[taz]

Our two areas of need to me remain traditional DE to back up Sweat and Graham. Maybe Barnett can take some snaps. I also wonder with Desai’s scheme if they will put Milton Williams more outside as almost a 3-4 DE. I think they are going to try and get Reddick and Nolan Smith on the field together. And when they do that the other 3 DL must be a bit bigger I think.

LB was not addressed at all which was disappointing for me. This organization does not value LB or RB. I like Dean and maybe Morrow is OK but seriously who are we going to trust as an every down LB outside of Dean?

I think we are almost a fully 3-4 team now. So guys like Cox, Milton Wiliams, even Jalen Carter are going to play more of that Traditional end. Honestly I think with Barnett coming back we are at least as good as we were last year at the traditional DE area. I mean Barnett has to give us more than Quinn right?

As far as LB goes the middle linebacker position behind Dean is where I am most concerned. Morrow is decent outside guy and I wouldn't be surprised if we saw Edmunds play some at that LB position at times to. Especially now that they drafted Brown and are going to want to see him play more. The other thing I wouldn't be surprised with if they start using Smith a little bit at that WLB spot. He his certainly athletic enough for it and in fact he did at times play outside at Georgia. So maybe he will play a more traditional LB don't know. Fun to speculate though. I personally think they still need to use him rushing the passer.

Safety even if CJGJ came back he wasn't going to intercept 6 balls this year. In fact once he came back from injury he didn't intercept anything. CjGJ wasn't great against the run. I thought Epps was ok but not great either. Edmunds is really good against the run. The other safety position is the one that is in question. I really liked what I saw from Blankenship, but Brown is suppose to be plug and play ( I don't know) so who knows.

I just really like the blend of young and older players even more than last year. Yes they don't have Hargrave who was a great pass rushing DT. He was not that good against the run which became our achilles heel in the Super bowl. Not crapping on him we are going to miss him at least this year. I think once Jalen Carter gets his feet wet we won't miss Hargrave at all.

[musicman]

Smith had a fantastic grade vs the run, I look forward to seeing what type of games they will run. I think we should consider Elliss at LB, I thought he did some good things in mop up.

[andrewaters]

Taz… I agree we are definitely not a 4-3 team. We are pretty versatile and non traditional no doubt. We are better almost everywhere but LB if that is possible. I think Jurgens and Steen are going to battle for that RG spot. Steen is not going to experience a huge talent jump having played against SEC DLman.

[musicman]

I think we really have some depth in the DB rooms, all the Safeties have game experience or time in the system or both. The CBs are even deeper, just 2-3 years ago we were throwing CB shit against the wall to see who stuck and now we may be adding some decent players to the practice squad or cutting them outright. Ricks and Garner have a real chance as well.
I think Morrow, Dean and Elliss are a good start at LB, I think Nolan Smith will be paying some OLB as well. The Birds seem to like the athletic talent of VanSumeren , they gave him a nice amount of cash,
Rocker has some real depth and athleticism to work with. Other than Graham and Cox, the legs are all fresh and and those 2 are freaks who should be able to maintain quality short term reps.

Offensively, the addition of Mariota means we don't try to run something other than the same O we run with Hurts. I think we win the Dallas game with Mariota in there in place of Minshew.
The RB room is otherworldly, we have 4 RBs who can take over a game in short stretches. Can't wait to see how they use them.
Brown, Smith, Watkins, Zaccheuus and Haselwood or Ngata make up a fairly decent WR room.
Or TE room IMO could have used 1 more athlete, But Calcaterra showed a willingness to block, if he gets a touch better , he could be a pretty good #2.
Our offensive line has a ton of potential to go with a solid returning group of veterans. I think Steen more than covers the loss of Dillard and a couple of the undrafted FAs could turn into beasts with a year or so in Stoutland U.
I hope Zentner pushes Sipposs off the roster, he can handle the placekicking duties as well, but I really wish we had some field turning punt returners, Covey just didn't show much. Elliott and Lovato remain 2 of the best at their positions.

[andrewaters]

We better hope Nakobe Dean stays healthy... that's all I am saying.

[NoDakIggle]

Agree

[Eagle60]

He played last year and he was fine. A torn pectoral injury is no knock on his ability to stay on the field this year. Those are usually attributed to working out too much . I think he had a knee injury in college right? I don't think having your knee blown up is being prone to injury either. I just think that bad luck and can happen to anybody.. I wouldn't worry about him very much AW.