Roster Spot Battles

[adam]

Looking at the current roster, it seems like the top 46 players are set unless something extreme happens. That leaves 7 slots open. Using last year's 53-man roster position composition, here are the battle spots, 3 on offense, 4 on defense:

On offense, it looks like the last WR spot is still up for grabs and is ESBs' to lose. By adding Moore, the WR room was knocked down a slot, which makes Pettis and Webster likely cut candidates.

6 WR? Can only have one of the following 6 players:
WR6 (ESB vs Pettis vs Webster vs Ford vs Fountain vs Reed)

TE3 still seems totally up for grabs. Will they go the H-Back route and Tonges or try for a more traditional 3rd TE?

TE3? Can only have one of the following 4 players:
TE3 (Carlson, Allen, Tonges, Pinkney) Bears signed Lewis

It also looks like the top 8 on the line are pretty much locked in. This one will come down to roster needs:

9 OL? Can only have one of the following 9 players:
OL9 (Eiselen vs Leatherwood vs Kramer vs Diesch vs Collins vs Haskins vs Houy vs Lugg vs Mbaeteka)

On defense, the Bears have a huge decision to make on the D-Line. Do they go with 5 DT or 5 DE? If they go with 5 of each, which other position goes without? Terrell Lewis has really separated himself so far and may have slid up the depth chart already. He seems like the most likely pick here, but if they want a healthy trench rotation, do they need 5 DT more than 5 Edge?

9 DL? Can only have one of the following 7 players:
DT5 (Bell vs Brown vs Jeter vs Holmes)
DE5 (Lewis vs Jones vs Harris) Bears signed Ngaokoue

If they only go with 9 DL, they will have 6 LBs. After the first 5, there is a big drop off. Will it be the new arrival, Buddy Johnson, or one of the other young guys? If the Bears do go with 10 DL, I could see them only going with 5 LB due to the lack of quality depth here.

6 LB? Can only have one of the following 4 players:
LB6 (Johnson, Baskerville, Deng, Gates)

CB6 is gonna be a tight battle. The Bears added Stevenson and Smith to Johnson/Gordon/Vildor, leaving one slot open for 3 strong candidates:

6 CB? Can only have one of the following 4 players:
CB6 (Blackwell, Jones, Stroman, Ojemudia)

Lastly there is Safety, the Bears should keep 4 and Hicks has the upper hand as a Poles draft pick from 22, but Trahan just had a nice day with 2 picks.

4 S? Can only have one of the following 4 players:
S4 (Hicks, Trahan, Thomas, Colbert)

Do you guys see any other roster spot battles that I missed?

[AZ54]

It’s hard to sort out right now.  Special teams is a big factor and Velus can do returns and kick coverage.  I’m assuming you are keeping ESB on the 53.  Is that last spot really for Velus to lose or ESB who does nothing on special teams?   Same with Vildor.   Without some special trait I can’t see them keeping guys like that on the roster.  Pettis on the other hand can do returns.  That might have more value thana run blocking WR if injuries forced Velus to pick up more snaps on offense.  

[Mongo3451]

I don't know why I like Pettis more than ESB.  ESB has him beat on measurables at 6'5 and runs a 4.4, while Pettis is 6'0 and 4.3.  With Moore, Mooney, Claypool and Kmet getting the lion's share of reps, where does a good blocker fit in?  Add Tonyan and Velus and where is room for another receiver?  At the end of the day, it's a good situation to be in.  These conversations are gonna be crazy, next year, with the depth we'll have...

[adam]

3 hours ago, Mongo3451 said:

I don't know why I like Pettis more than ESB.  ESB has him beat on measurables at 6'5 and runs a 4.4, while Pettis is 6'0 and 4.3.  With Moore, Mooney, Claypool and Kmet getting the lion's share of reps, where does a good blocker fit in?  Add Tonyan and Velus and where is room for another receiver?  At the end of the day, it's a good situation to be in.  These conversations are gonna be crazy, next year, with the depth we'll have...

I was assuming ESB played some ST. I was totally wrong, he had zero ST snaps. Velus Jones led all WRs with 121 ST snaps. Pettis was 2nd with 39. 

So it is going to come down to blocking for ESB. Like you said, it is not like he is going to get many targets as WR6, so he needs to either be a ST contributor or blocker.

[adam]

3 hours ago, AZ54 said:

It’s hard to sort out right now.  Special teams is a big factor and Velus can do returns and kick coverage.  I’m assuming you are keeping ESB on the 53.  Is that last spot really for Velus to lose or ESB who does nothing on special teams?   Same with Vildor.   Without some special trait I can’t see them keeping guys like that on the roster.  Pettis on the other hand can do returns.  That might have more value thana run blocking WR if injuries forced Velus to pick up more snaps on offense.  

Yeah, I was mistaken, you can really swap Velus and ESB, and ESB and Pettis should be vying for that final spot. It is going to be interesting. With the addition of Moore and Claypool, and technically Tonyan, the WR6 is almost exclusively a ST guy.

[Stinger226]

I think ESB has the advantage because of his size. We have Claypool and no other large WRs. Scott and V Jones can do anything Pettis can do. 

Also I didnt see any RB competition. They still have Ebner  and Hosmer besides the Hebert-Forman-Johnson trio. Hosmer was signed to a two yr contract plus he is a major ST player. Ebner can still get to the practice squad so he can be held on to, but I think he gets cut.

Our Ss are Brisker-Jackson-Hicks. I think if Williamson isnt ready, they could slide him to the practice squad and use Terrell Smith as the 4th S. He has been taking some snaps there. If Trahan plays his way into a spot, Smith could just stay at CB.

[adam]

Poles must be reading Talkbears. He is going right down the list and closing out the roster question marks.

All that is left is bottom of the roster spots, OL9, WR6, LB6, CB6, and S4.

Technically all have players competing there, but an outside upgrade would not hurt. 

[adam]

Checking on snap counts, the WR6 last season got a total of 34 snaps all season on offense, which was only over a 5 game span. Meaning, the WR6 did not have a single offensive snap in 12 games last year.

So that guy is going to be a core ST'er.