Well, honestly, 5 might be being generous. Defensive Building blocks include Howard, Wilkins, Fitzpatrick … maybe Baker … maybe McCain for the short term. Asterisk for someone like Van Ginkel, but no reason to believe he'll be assured a place at this point. Most of these guys are in the audition phase, playing to prove they'll deserve a spot in the future, but all expected to be replaced with draft picks in the next 3 drafts. That includes McMillan and Godchaux. Those guys are firmly in the maybe category, but will be upgraded if the option comes along. Everyone else is very much in the 'most likely going to be replaced' bin, IMHO.In other words, we don't have the players to play god defense regardless of what the coaches call them to do. I count maybe 4 or 5 players that you can build with on defense and that's about it at this point.
On offense, I'd say Deiter and Davis are the only ones who will be fairly secure. All of the other OL, TE, RB, WR, and QB's are very much in the tryout phase. This roster is going to receive a bigger overhaul next offseason than it did this past offseason. We're looking at the stopgap players for the most part. They're a lot like the scab players when the Players Union went on strike … they're wearing the uniforms, and we're rooting for them, but they're all dead-men-walking in the long run.