Projecting the 53-Man

[McGowan]

3 hours ago, McGowan said:

I hope they consider having Weatherford and Jenkins as the guards and moving Whitehair to C. 

1 hour ago, scs787 said:

I think Weatherford is a little too thin for the OL. Lol. I know you meant Leatherwood.  

 

Patrick was actually pretty darn good last year and Leatherwood was one of the worst lineman in the league. Leatherwood is gonna have to prove some things before the Bears even think about putting him in the lineup. 

 

Lol. Bad typo. Yeah I meant Leatherwood. 

[AZ54]

There's no need to watch the video just enjoy the tagline because apparently many Vikings fans had him penciled in as a starter this year even in their new defense.  I didn't realize they have Ed Donatell, our former DB coach, running their defense this year.   We'll see how it plays out but anyone interior player getting 5 sacks as a depth player has to have some talent.  

 

[Stinger226]

This is the biggest score we got out of our new players. He can contribute right now. 46 tks, 3 TFL and 5 sacks. They expected him to breakout this year, now , maybe here. Leatherwood has the biggest upside but that's 1 to 2 yrs away from playing up to that hype. I figure at best he takes over for Whitehair in one or two years. With Kramer in the picture for the next couple of years, all oline could be growing together for the next 5 years. 

[AZ54]

My thoughts on the waiver wire pickups:

• OL Alex Leatherwood
  • Pure project and shouldn't expect him to contribute at all this year.   He has good physical tools but even my eyes can see he needs a lot of help on technique and maybe attitude (as in aggressiveness).   My guess is Poles liked him in the draft when he was in KC, maybe not at 17 overall, but enough to see the upside if they can correct his issues.  This also makes me think we aren't set long term at RT.  There is potential here so now we have 6 months to figure out if he's the answer, at least as a backup OT, before we get into the next offseason.    
• TE Trevin Wesco
  • Pure blocking TE.  Slow but he can move guys out of the hole and clear a lane.    I never realized Getsy, and RB coach Walker both coached under Dave Wannstedt at Pitt, while QB coach Janoko was his backup QB.  Wannstedt said the one thing he knows is "these guys know how to run the football".  We're going to run the ball better this year than we have in a long time."   
• DT Armon Watts
  • More sacks than Tonga, more tackles than Tonga.  I think this was a pretty easy decision.  
• DE Kingsley Johnathan
  • Small for a DE at 6' 2.5"  and 267lbs he's not going to win with length or strength although his arms at 34" help.  He has some good quickness and speed as shown by his Pro Day results 10yd split 1.61,  3-cone drill 7.0sec.   Forty time was 4.76.  In college he was used in a 3-3-5 scheme so played more interior Dline but still had 15 career sacks.   Which means he has a lot to learn as an outside rusher.   If that 10yd split is close to being accurate (pro day usually inflate things a bit) and he can bend he could be an interesting prospect to watch, but as a prospect who needs a lot of development does he really fit on the 53 man roster?    
    • https://draftscout.com/dsprofile.php?PlayerId=1028341&DraftYear=2022
    • https://www.profootballnetwork.com/syracuse-2022-nfl-draft-scouting-reports-josh-black-kingsley-jonathan/
• LB Sterling Weatherford
  • He plays the game the right way.  Is he a LB or hybrid safety?  A lot of players get stuck in that tweener size but his athleticism indicates he could stay at SS.  Can he hold that quick twitch if he gains LB weight?  At a minimum he should be able to earn time on special teams coverage.  
  • https://bleacherreport.com/articles/2954747-under-the-radar-nfl-draft-prospects-emerging-from-dominant-pro-days#:~:text=His pro-day numbers confirmed,cone and 36-inch vertical.
• DB Josh Blackwell
  • elite athlete but on the smaller size for a DB.  Maybe he'll be ok in our zones?  The comp here is Duke Shelley so it's not a high bar to make the roster better.  
    • https://www.nfldraftbuzz.com/Player/stats/Josh-Blackwell-CB-Duke

[AZ54]

 

[dawhizz]

Bears claimed WR Ihmir Smith-Marsette off waivers from the Vikings and put Harry on IR. 

[Bill]

Start of training I had little hope for this roster.  I'm not sure if my excitement for the start of the season is just fueled by all the changes but I have more hope now then before.

 

"If you can't dazzle them with brilliance, baffle them with bullshit"

[adam]

51 minutes ago, dawhizz said:

Bears claimed WR Ihmir Smith-Marsette off waivers from the Vikings and put Harry on IR. 

He scored 2 TDs against the Bears last year on a total of 5 receptions on the season. In Week 17, he had 3-103, 1 TD against the Bears. 

[adam]

32 minutes ago, Bill said:

Start of training I had little hope for this roster.  I'm not sure if my excitement for the start of the season is just fueled by all the changes but I have more hope now then before.

 

"If you can't dazzle them with brilliance, baffle them with bullshit"

This is an approach we are not used to. I feel like Poles is hedging his bets with Fields this year. He has created a ton of roster flexibility and can lock up players next year that are deserving while still adding talent from other teams. If for some reason Fields is not the answer at QB, the team is young enough that they could bring another young QB in next year and roster age would not be an issue.

This roster may not have a high ceiling (unless Fields balls out), but it has a pretty high floor. 

[adam]

Last year's 53-man, strikethrough players gone, bold+strikethrough are players on the PS this year:

OFFENSE (26)
QB (3): Andy Dalton, Justin Fields, Nick Foles

RB (3): David Montgomery, Damien Williams, Khalil Herbert

WR (6): Allen Robinson, Darnell Mooney, Marquise Goodwin, Damiere Byrd, Nsimba Webster, Breshad Perriman

TE (5): Cole Kmet, Jimmy Graham, Jesse James, Jesper Horsted, J.P. Holtz

OL (9): Jason Peters, Cody Whitehair, Sam Mustipher, James Daniels, Germain Ifedi, Larry Borom, Alex Bars, Elijah Wilkinson, Lachavious Simmons

DEFENSE (24)
DL (5): Akiem Hicks, Eddie Goldman, Bilal Nichols, Angelo Blackson, Khyiris Tonga

OLB (4): Khalil Mack, Robert Quinn, Jeremiah Attaochu, Trevis Gipson

ILB (5): Roquan Smith, Christian Jones, Alec Ogletree, Joel Iyiegbuniwe, Caleb Johnson

S (4): Eddie Jackson, Tashaun Gipson, Deon Bush, DeAndre Houston-Carson

CB (6): Jaylon Johnson, Kindle Vildor, Duke Shelley, Xavier Crawford, Artie Burns, Marqui Christian

ST (3): Santos, O'Donnell, Scales

Only 18 players from the 2021 53-man roster made this year's 53-man roster. 8 offensive players, 8 defensive players, and 2 special team players.

That's 35 new players!

[AZ54]

4 hours ago, adam said:

He scored 2 TDs against the Bears last year on a total of 5 receptions on the season. In Week 17, he had 3-103, 1 TD against the Bears. 

Yeah and I had to watch the "highlights" of our defensive performance in that last game.  I don't see anything special in this guy as a receiver but he can return kicks and punts so that helps.  Poles is thinking while Harry is on IR he can see what this guy can do.   Long term he's just going to be one of the guys and we have a bunch of them already.  

What this might mean is that Ebner and Velus Jones aren't doing so well recovering from their injuries and they want to hedge their bets for returns.   Why Pettis can't do that I'm not sure.  

[AZ54]

5 hours ago, adam said:

This is an approach we are not used to. I feel like Poles is hedging his bets with Fields this year. He has created a ton of roster flexibility and can lock up players next year that are deserving while still adding talent from other teams. If for some reason Fields is not the answer at QB, the team is young enough that they could bring another young QB in next year and roster age would not be an issue.

This roster may not have a high ceiling (unless Fields balls out), but it has a pretty high floor. 

I think he's throwing darts hoping one or two hit the bullseye.   Swapping around the last 5-7 roster spots from a rebuilding roster with some targeted waiver wire pickups isn't really going to impact our performance this year.   Especially when you consider the good prospects he added to our practice squad.  Or at least many appear to be players who could contribute in a pinch on a game day:  Thomas Graham Jr., Darrynton Evans, Isaiah Coulter, Nsimba Webster, Trevon Coley, and if you had to get to your 3rd QB, Peterman is ok.  There are a few prospects worth trying to develop especially Kellen Diesch, and I think Eiselen and even Simmons (at OG) showed more potential this preseason than in years past and could become future backups or more.  There's about 7 PS players that I think are just place holders.      

Right now I think Poles upgraded 2 depth spots with Armon Watts and Sterling Weatherford.  Plus if you really like your TEs blocking and opening holes for the running game then Wesco is an upgrade.   The other 3 are just what-ifs.  

[AZ54]

After watching Poles' press conference I'm certain ISM is primarily here to play special teams.  Someone asked Poles what the plan was with just 3 WRs on the field for practice (Mooney, ESB, Pettis).   Poles gave the usual meh answer but it's obvious that right now we don't really know if we'll have Velus or Pringle available in Week 1.  That would mean dressing just 3 WRs for that game and in that case you probably don't want Pettis doing any work on returns.  In the event Velus is back we'd likely want to limit his exposure on returns where injury risk is higher. 

It seems they wanted Harry to return sooner than later but we have to field a full team now so putting him on IR was the easy solution so they could add ISM.   While Harry is on the mend they get to see if ISM has future roster potential.  They could have brought up Webster for the game but they already know he's not a long term answer at WR.  

To add to that we still have Ebner injured although I don't know if he returned to practice this week.  Herbert could do returns but again we might just be 2 deep at RB and it's pretty obvious with our new TE we want to run the ball.  The best thing we can do to help Fields and the Oline  early this season is to run the ball well especially while we're a little undermanned at WR.      

[Stinger226]

4 hours ago, AZ54 said:

After watching Poles' press conference I'm certain ISM is primarily here to play special teams.  Someone asked Poles what the plan was with just 3 WRs on the field for practice (Mooney, ESB, Pettis).   Poles gave the usual meh answer but it's obvious that right now we don't really know if we'll have Velus or Pringle available in Week 1.  That would mean dressing just 3 WRs for that game and in that case you probably don't want Pettis doing any work on returns.  In the event Velus is back we'd likely want to limit his exposure on returns where injury risk is higher. 

It seems they wanted Harry to return sooner than later but we have to field a full team now so putting him on IR was the easy solution so they could add ISM.   While Harry is on the mend they get to see if ISM has future roster potential.  They could have brought up Webster for the game but they already know he's not a long term answer at WR.  

To add to that we still have Ebner injured although I don't know if he returned to practice this week.  Herbert could do returns but again we might just be 2 deep at RB and it's pretty obvious with our new TE we want to run the ball.  The best thing we can do to help Fields and the Oline  early this season is to run the ball well especially while we're a little undermanned at WR.      

I totally agree that is their plan. It helps the Oline gain confidence, takes pressure off of Fields, takes time off the clock. They will do a lot of 2 TE sets because of the injury issue with the WRs. They will mix in draws, screens, jet sweeps and then use play action to go downfield. It will be a slow start but once it becomes successful, then we will have an effective offense. Injuries this week will be huge on how we approach our first game.