WDE: Taylor, D Johnson
DT: McKenzie, A Johnson
DT: Vickers, Picou
SDE: Kongbo, Phillips, Butler
SLB: Smith, ??
MLB: Kirkland, Bituli, Jumper
WLB: McDowell, Reid, Sapp
N: Gaulden, Osborne, Gray
CB: Osborne, Buchanan
CB: Martin, Mosley
S: Warrior, Abernathy
S: Kelly, Berry
If Tuttle is healthy he might be our best player on defense. Him being ready to play gives us a really solid 5 man rotation at DT.
It is critical that DeAndre Johnson be ready to play and Kyle Phillips get healthy. Also, Matthew Butler weighs 270 (down from 284 in February) and IMO will get his first look at DE. He is the only newcomer on the DL that is physically ready to help.
I expect solid seasons from Kongbo and Taylor.
McDowell seems like he is going to make it hard to take him off the field. I have stated numerous times that the biggest leap in a player's development is between their first year getting legitimate reps and the following season. If Sapp is able to unseed McDowell at the Will, or Bituli is playing well enough at Mike for Kirkland to slide over to Will, that's even better...
I am really hoping Smith is a versatile enough player at Sam to allow us to play more 4-3. It is never going to overtake the nickel personnel, but being able to play 4-3 vs smaller personnel packages would be huge.
I would not be surprised to see Maleik Gray be the second string Nickel. We will have to do some thing a little differently to play him there vs what we do with Gaulden and Osborne... But if Osborne is your starting CB, not sure you can afford to move him inside to N in the event Gaulden is out. That would also mean that Gray is a better N than Buchanan or Mosley are at CB...
Warrior and Martin playing anywhere close to their physical potential makes the secondary exponentially better than last season. Osborne should be an upgrade as well.
Obviously a lot of question marks, but a lot of potential answers as well. Outside of DE we aren't asking newcomers to help, that is a positive.
DT: McKenzie, A Johnson
DT: Vickers, Picou
SDE: Kongbo, Phillips, Butler
SLB: Smith, ??
MLB: Kirkland, Bituli, Jumper
WLB: McDowell, Reid, Sapp
N: Gaulden, Osborne, Gray
CB: Osborne, Buchanan
CB: Martin, Mosley
S: Warrior, Abernathy
S: Kelly, Berry
If Tuttle is healthy he might be our best player on defense. Him being ready to play gives us a really solid 5 man rotation at DT.
It is critical that DeAndre Johnson be ready to play and Kyle Phillips get healthy. Also, Matthew Butler weighs 270 (down from 284 in February) and IMO will get his first look at DE. He is the only newcomer on the DL that is physically ready to help.
I expect solid seasons from Kongbo and Taylor.
McDowell seems like he is going to make it hard to take him off the field. I have stated numerous times that the biggest leap in a player's development is between their first year getting legitimate reps and the following season. If Sapp is able to unseed McDowell at the Will, or Bituli is playing well enough at Mike for Kirkland to slide over to Will, that's even better...
I am really hoping Smith is a versatile enough player at Sam to allow us to play more 4-3. It is never going to overtake the nickel personnel, but being able to play 4-3 vs smaller personnel packages would be huge.
I would not be surprised to see Maleik Gray be the second string Nickel. We will have to do some thing a little differently to play him there vs what we do with Gaulden and Osborne... But if Osborne is your starting CB, not sure you can afford to move him inside to N in the event Gaulden is out. That would also mean that Gray is a better N than Buchanan or Mosley are at CB...
Warrior and Martin playing anywhere close to their physical potential makes the secondary exponentially better than last season. Osborne should be an upgrade as well.
Obviously a lot of question marks, but a lot of potential answers as well. Outside of DE we aren't asking newcomers to help, that is a positive.
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