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lumberjackchris

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here is something important to think about. We have a young offensive line right now, and they are locked up for multiple years, with the exception of henderson, but we have Rankin who might be able to slide to RT next year if we lose him. If they are able to hold their own, and we dont need to upgrade there next off season, this is what we will be paying for our starting offensive line in 2019

Davenport - 791k
Fulton - 7 million
Martin - 1.5 million
Kelemete - 4 million
Rankin - 860k

Thats a starting line of just about 14 million. Throw in our starting QB for just 3.8 million.....add in say a new 1st round pick at tackle to either replace Henderson or Davenport and hes making 4 million a year.....we could potentially have our line and QB for 20 million. 

Why is that important?

JJ Watt. And here is why, after this season, he has a cap hit of 15 million with a dead space of just 2 million. If we have to go out and invest in free agent offensive linemen, plus pay Clowney, Watt could be on his way out if he doesnt agree to a massive restructure of his deal. I am afraid that Watt isnt worth 15 million any more. A cheap line and QB, can keep him with us next year without any problems. 

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So right now we don't have Coutee, Rankin, or Foreman. 3 of our young guys that would benefit from pre season action. 

beyond that Weeden is so bad that our offense wont really even get much work in because I suspect that Watson takes very limited snaps in pre season

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1 hour ago, Pastor Dillon said:

So right now we don't have Coutee, Rankin, or Foreman. 3 of our young guys that would benefit from pre season action. 

beyond that Weeden is so bad that our offense wont really even get much work in because I suspect that Watson takes very limited snaps in pre season

Whitney Mercilius has an undisclosed injury and will miss the Chiefs game, too. He's a vet, but could use the time to get some of the rust off.

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Some post pre-season game thoughts:

1) We are stacked at LB. Clowney, McKinney, Mercilus didn't play and we still dominated a team that thrives on the run and short pass game. Honestly, I think we may come to regret the McKinney deal in a few years as Cunningham already seems better than him, I'm not sure Cole is far behind, and Gilchrist not far behind him.  To be clear, I like McKinney and we've got cap to burn, just strictly from a moneyball perspective, his skillset seems to be one we are able to reproduce easily and cheaply.  

Ejiofor looks like a steal and I'm actually thinking holding off on the Clowney deal may make sense.  Kalambayi didn't show much this week, but he looks legit as well.  That's your eight.  That leaves Scarlett, Peters, Keyes, Lewis, Kamalu, and Bellamy fighting it out which is going to make for some tough cuts.  Personally, I'm ready to be done with Peters who is useless as an on field LB and I'm not quite sure how he maintains such a solid rep as a special teams maven with the craptastic performance of our coverage teams all 3 years he has captained. Scarlett seems to be considered a lock by most, but I think it's just because he's gotten injury PT the past two years. 

2) The secondary still sucks.  Virgin flashes legit skills and may be tolerable as a #6, but he is really mistake prone.  Josh Thornton strikes me as the best of the developmental guys with speed we desperately need and ball skills more advanced than Kareem has learned in 8 seasons.  Colvin and Johnson were out there, but I didn't notice them (which is usually a good thing).  First impression of Bandemosi is that my wishful thinking about him being more than just a special teamer was mostly wishful thinking.  Andre Chachere got a long look and looked worse with every look and really needs to be cut loose when Kelly gets on the field (my expectations are as low with him).  I'm always looking for something to rip on Corey Moore for, but he didn't provide any material this week.  Decoud did and it's time to stop wasting time on a dumb wasted Rick Smith pick that combines terrible tangibles with terrible intangibles.  Justin Reid seemed to get most of his reps in the slot with Campbell and Drummond playing SS without distinction and any illusions of him stepping in and taking over from day one were unrealistic.   I sure wish we would bring in Bashaud Breeland for a look as we are one injury away from another disaster back there. I still think Eric Reid would be the 2nd best safety on this team, but might also be the 3rd best corner.  yay politics. 

3)  WR/RB - Seems like we have flipped this from last offseason.  We went into last year with only 4 WRs and it quickly burned us especially when combined with the injuries at TE.  Coates isn't perfect, but I like what he brings to the table way more than Braxton Miller who I'd look to move to Cleveland as soon as their denial with Gordon and Callaway is over (tossing Corey Coleman away for a 7th rounder shows they are as incompetent as ever up there, so let's toss Hue another ill fitting part).  If we don't, I predict he's hurt again by week 2 and I'd rather sell early than wait for the inevitable realization that like Strong and Posey, holding a roster spot for the light to come on for a #5 WR who isn't even useful on ST's is a waste. I'd keep Anderson as a #6WR/#4TE and ditch Prosch, but I know it will never happen. 

Now at RB, we seem to be perilously thin until Foreman can prove he's ready.  Pope should easily be ahead of Ervin at this point as #3 RB, but we absolutely need to bring in someone to give Blue competition for his ridiculously undeserved role as primary backup and this mythical "ice away victories" role which in practice works like the prevent defense as in "prevents us from winning."  I'm not sure why we didn't see Swanson this week, but I'm hoping he starts this week (seen enough of Lamar to put him in bubble wrap the rest of PS). Not really fair to judge this Lavon Coleman guy on 2 awful snaps, but we need another body in here to suck up carries and hopefully show something Blue simply doesn't have.  

4) Joe Webb needs to be on this roster.  We aren't replacing Watson if he goes down again, but with Weedon's arm and Webb's legs we could still be competitive.  Would love to see him get some WR reps this week. 

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3 hours ago, Pastor Dillon said:

BOB gonna play the starters very limited reps again in week 2. We aren't going to be ready to go when the season starts. 

They just did two full days of live reps....no reason to play them much this Saturday. Most teams do it this way. 

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5 hours ago, amazingandre said:

They just did two full days of live reps....no reason to play them much this Saturday. Most teams do it this way. 

Yep, no problem with this approach. Camp and practice are where you are installing and practicing the real playbook and the good stuff is behind closed doors.  Preseason is just live action evaluation of players, more like a Senior Bowl/East-West Shrine than what you actually will be doing when games count.  I have yet to get a feel for how eliminating the 75-man cut down after week 3 has affected preseason rotations, but traditionally game 3 was the one you rolled with starters between a quarter and a half and is the only one that is even close to a real game.  The first two games might as well be one and are really focused on evaluating new players and making decisions from the bottom of the roster up and bottom of the depth chart up (with most starting spots firmly secured). 

Game 2 is really more about seeing the remainder of the fringe players you couldn't get a good look at in week 1, like Terry Swanson and Jermaine Kelly, trying to confirm what you saw in week 1 with guys like Atkins, Pope, Gilchrist, Thornton, Blackson, and you probably don't bother with the "knock the rust off" reps for guys like Lamar Miller or really any veteran starter.  Basically, you need to see the most out of players you are least sure about, so there isn't much to be gained by Lamar Miller carrying the ball vs. Pope/Blue/Ervin.  For me, the o-line and secondary are the two exceptions as they need to develop chemistry and confidence.  Watson is a tougher call as he's still only played in 6 1/2 NFL games, but the downside risk far outstrips any minor lessons learned and the added bonus of Weedon getting great reps for the WRs and Webb somewhat approximating blocking for a mobile - keep the play alive guy.

Especially now that you have the full 90 man roster, Game 4 might as well not exist at all as you treat it like a bye week and you roll with 37 guys who are getting cut after the game, showcasing any you might be able to trade, and pray nobody who matters gets hurt.  Really, I kind of wished we kept Stephen Morris around, just to play the 2nd half of game 4 as I don't want to see Weedon or Webb hurt (but we needed a stupid kicker).  The sad part is, there is always someone who has a breakout game in the final week, but the reality is the best most can hope for is to play their way onto another roster, except that time we kept Rex Grossman around.  RB's and LB's are always the one's I fall in love with in the pre-season only to see em cut and never heard from again.

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10 hours ago, amazingandre said:

They just did two full days of live reps....no reason to play them much this Saturday. Most teams do it this way. 

Exactly, you're getting tons of reps of 1 v 1's and so on in practice when you the most youll get in a quarter of play is 10-20 snaps max

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