dlockz
Hall Of Famer
I always hope for an injury free season but in the NFL thats pretty damn impossible. These are the five players in order of importance that I think would affect us the most if they were lost to injury this season. This list is very much about the depth of the positions on this team.
1-Jason Ferguson NT- Definately not an elite NT by any means but he is effective at what he is supposed to do. He is getting to the age where players get more and more injury prone. Behind him we have basically zilch. Maybe a guy that is good for a play or two but nonone that is close to a starting 3-4 NT in the NFL. Hopefully we will address this position in the next draft and hopefully that will not be a year too late. Paul Solai has shown very little that would have you see him as a solid replacement for Ferguson and the rest of our guys are even more raw. When your suspensions rival your tackles thats not a good thing. Beyond him we have the rawwest of the raw and a couple of undersized guys that are not good 3-4 types. The NT is key to our defense and 2007 showed what happens when that position is not effective.
2-Jake Grove- Grove has been very injury prone through out his career and takes over for a guy that was very durable. The only player that scares me more than seeing Solai as a starter is Joe Berger who has bounced around the league and collected inactive time. Grove should be a major key in establishing our run game this season and Im not sure any position on our team has as huge a chasm of dropoff that this position has. I do think NT is more important and harder to replace so I rank this second.
3- Jake Long- We are probably one of the few teams that could line up a decent LT if our LT were to go down but the negative impact would be felt so much on both sides of the line it would be very hard to overcome.Moving Carey over would be a solid band aid although Carey is far from the LT that Long is . The depth at tackle would definately hurt us as its basically nonexistant.
4-Will Allen- Being that he is the only proven good CB in the secondary, we definately need him to stay healthy. Not sure anybody wants two rookies starting this season even if both seem like very good players down the line. With Allen in the lineup we can make both rookies more effective and have mentor type player to teach them as they play. Beyond the rookies not sure any of the other players are dependable at all. Eric Green in shorts has not been effective and Jason Allen always looks the part and plays more like an undrafted free agent than a first round pick. Im not sure Allen would start in the CFL. Im half serious on that.
5-Anthony Fasano- Fasano showed alot of potential last season and at times was our best receiver on the field. He was a player known much more for his blocking and showed he can be a very good all around TE in some serious spurts last season. I look forward to more growth from Fasano and absolutely love TE's that can do what a TE is supposed to be able to do.
Never a huge fan of Te's that are described as poor blockers, thats like a FB that cannot block, mind boggling lol. There lies the problem if Fasano gets hurt. None of the other TE's are good two way players. Martin played shockingly well for him last year but I cringe thinking of him as a starter and he is also coming off of injury. He has never been a a good blocker but I saw better effort as a blocker last year. Beyond these guys seem to be only practice squad dummies.
Im sure that there could be an arguement made for alot of players but these concern me the most and the next on the list would have been Crowder. Im confident that Henne and Williams would do solid jobs if needed and all of our receivers are pretty even so I think they could pick up the slack if needed. The guards worry me but its not like we did not have this happen before and overall I think guard depth will be better than tackle and center depth.
1-Jason Ferguson NT- Definately not an elite NT by any means but he is effective at what he is supposed to do. He is getting to the age where players get more and more injury prone. Behind him we have basically zilch. Maybe a guy that is good for a play or two but nonone that is close to a starting 3-4 NT in the NFL. Hopefully we will address this position in the next draft and hopefully that will not be a year too late. Paul Solai has shown very little that would have you see him as a solid replacement for Ferguson and the rest of our guys are even more raw. When your suspensions rival your tackles thats not a good thing. Beyond him we have the rawwest of the raw and a couple of undersized guys that are not good 3-4 types. The NT is key to our defense and 2007 showed what happens when that position is not effective.
2-Jake Grove- Grove has been very injury prone through out his career and takes over for a guy that was very durable. The only player that scares me more than seeing Solai as a starter is Joe Berger who has bounced around the league and collected inactive time. Grove should be a major key in establishing our run game this season and Im not sure any position on our team has as huge a chasm of dropoff that this position has. I do think NT is more important and harder to replace so I rank this second.
3- Jake Long- We are probably one of the few teams that could line up a decent LT if our LT were to go down but the negative impact would be felt so much on both sides of the line it would be very hard to overcome.Moving Carey over would be a solid band aid although Carey is far from the LT that Long is . The depth at tackle would definately hurt us as its basically nonexistant.
4-Will Allen- Being that he is the only proven good CB in the secondary, we definately need him to stay healthy. Not sure anybody wants two rookies starting this season even if both seem like very good players down the line. With Allen in the lineup we can make both rookies more effective and have mentor type player to teach them as they play. Beyond the rookies not sure any of the other players are dependable at all. Eric Green in shorts has not been effective and Jason Allen always looks the part and plays more like an undrafted free agent than a first round pick. Im not sure Allen would start in the CFL. Im half serious on that.
5-Anthony Fasano- Fasano showed alot of potential last season and at times was our best receiver on the field. He was a player known much more for his blocking and showed he can be a very good all around TE in some serious spurts last season. I look forward to more growth from Fasano and absolutely love TE's that can do what a TE is supposed to be able to do.
Never a huge fan of Te's that are described as poor blockers, thats like a FB that cannot block, mind boggling lol. There lies the problem if Fasano gets hurt. None of the other TE's are good two way players. Martin played shockingly well for him last year but I cringe thinking of him as a starter and he is also coming off of injury. He has never been a a good blocker but I saw better effort as a blocker last year. Beyond these guys seem to be only practice squad dummies.
Im sure that there could be an arguement made for alot of players but these concern me the most and the next on the list would have been Crowder. Im confident that Henne and Williams would do solid jobs if needed and all of our receivers are pretty even so I think they could pick up the slack if needed. The guards worry me but its not like we did not have this happen before and overall I think guard depth will be better than tackle and center depth.
