2018 53-Man Roster Projections and Discussion

[Broncofan]

Guess with dress rehearsals, and Pacman's acquisition, it's time to think serious roster construction.

53-man roster needs 3 specialists, and we've traditionally gone 25/25/3...but I'll see if I can keep the best talent on the team both long & short-term:

OFFENSE (24)

QB (2) - Keenum, Kelly

RB (4) -  Booker (in name only #1, but hey, vet nod), Freeman, Lindsay, D-Henderson (Practice:  D. Williams)

FB (1) - Janovich

WR (5) - DT, Sanders, Sutton, Hamilton, Patrick, ?? (Practice:  Diarse/Cracraft loser) 

TE (3) - Huermann, Butt, Fumigali 

OL (9) - Paradis, Leary, McGovern, Bolles, Vedheer, Garcia, Turner, Kouandjio, Wilkinson (IR: Sam Jones)

 

DEFENSE (26)

NT (3)  - Peko Sr./Harris/Kerr

DE (3) - Wolfe/Harris/Walker/Gotsis/Kerr (Harris & Kerr overlap roles) (IR:  Clinton McDonald, sadly enough)

EDGE (4) - Von / Chubb / Ray / Barrett / Holland

ILB (4) - Marshall / Davis / Jewell /  AJ Johnson

CB (6) - Harris / Roby / Pacman / Brock / Yiadom / Langley

S/Hybrid (5, but last 3 of them play either S or nickel LB) - Stewart / Simmons / Parks* / Dylan-Thomas* / Cravens* (IR:  Jamal Carter)

SPECIALISTS (3)

P - King

K - McManus

LS - Kreiter

KR - Lindsay, Hamilton

PR - Pacman, Lindsay, Langley

Practice Squad Notables - 2 draft picks - Bierra & David Williams, our 4th TE if not on 53-man roster, at least 2 WR's, and some more OL/ILB depth.  If they survive the trip through waivers - Carlos Henderson AND Isiaih McKenzie.  Several CB's like Rios & CJ Smith.

 

What I like - we keep all our young guys protected (again, 2018 is unlikely we contend, 2019+ is where our hope really lies, so protect the cheap youth).  We have 2 KR's and 2 PR's - and guess what?  THEY ACTUALLY HELP ELSEWHERE (this is huge in establishing depth at key positions, and keeping guys like Lindsay, or Dymonte Thomas).   We keep 11 DB's, to address the hybrid LB need, but also to address our ST's, which with the new rules, have to be fast and able to block & tackle - no longer the LB's but more DB's help with no running start.  Now, if Cravens isn't even close to healthy, given it's a conditional pick, I have no problem cutting bait there - if he's close, then I'd think about Dymonte Thomas going to PS, but there's some risk there (but least compared to guys like Jeff Holland IMO, EDGE is such a premium).

The sacrifices are few IMO - Sam Jones has to go to IR, but that's seemingly likely with his back, and we have to put David Williams on the PS - but that's likely anyways.  I didn't think Shamarko Thomas was worth losing another guy.  It doesn't seem that Clinton McDonald is healthy, so injury settlement release seems most likely. 

The REAL changes though - first, Elway just moves on from his disastrous 2017 draft picks Henderson & McKenzie.  Both insanely talented physically - and both so limited in actual football skills.  Please, Elway, do NOT put other guys through waivers who can actually...well, play football, for these guys.   If they clear, great, practice squad.  If not, it's a sunk cost.

The other key decision - no 3rd QB for now.   Again, I've said it before, I'll stick with it - if Keenum goes down, we're sunk anyways.   No vet is going to save our season if that happens.  Let the young guys learn, let Kelly show us if he's got future potential.   Take the gamble Elway, be like 2011 mode again and go young!

Obviously, just my take, but I made it work to keep our best young guys who've emerged, and not sacrificed the current team.   Thoughts/feedback/other models MOST welcome! 

[broncofan48]

I believe you forgot Bradley Chubb 

[Broncofan]

13 minutes ago, broncofan48 said:

I believe you forgot Bradley Chubb 

Fringe rosterable.  

[Broncofan]

54 minutes ago, broncofan48 said:

I believe you forgot Bradley Chubb 

Well damn I knew that was too easy.   

I didn’t know who the 6th WR was going to be regardless and Lindsay / Booker are big enough weapons in the pass game so I’ll go 5 WR’s.   The alternative is we go PS with Fumigali and get a 6th WR but I think we need a 3rd blocking TE.   I don’t like 24-26 as much but the best talent shakes out that way.  

If we think that’s a bridge too far and we have to go 25 O and 25 D then I’d decide between whether Dylan Thomas gets waived to try and sneak him to the PS or we don’t see Cravens (injury the issue) or Kerr making the squad.   

[AKRNA]

You've got 5 edge listed, maybe Holland to PS or Cravens to IR?

[Broncofan]

37 minutes ago, AKRNA said:

You've got 5 edge listed, maybe Holland to PS or Cravens to IR?

Cravens to IR is my preference if we had to choose between those 2.  I know Elway thinks present year first but with Ray / Barrett as UFA Holland is a key 2019 piece.   The only problem with IR is if we do it to get to 53 - you can’t bring them back  in-season.  IR-return only applies to guys who you first place on the 53-man roster and IR them after counting them (or later in-season).  Butt Kelly & C-Henderson all got IR-stashed to fix the roster crunch - but that also meant they were done for the year.  I don’t know if Elway & Woods want to go that far with Cravens (I would given Thomas & Parks abilities but I’m not them lol).

Elway cut TJ Ward because Jamal Carter was that important to us long term; I see the same issue at an even greater premium position with even less depth for Holland in 2019.  If we weren’t likely losing 2 guys ahead of him I wouldn’t be as strong in pushing for this but given how we treated priority stashes last year this seems even more important.  I know I’ve been banging the drum across multiple threads for keeping Holland but it seems like a huge key plan long term (and make no mistake as a pure pass rusher I think he was the 3rd-4th best in the draft - just so raw elsewhere zero ability in run support at this stage so being more than a situational EDGE is all he can do now and likely why he fell so far). 

[BroncoBruin]

Fumagalli is soooo getting that IR stash treatment. 

[Broncofan]

1 hour ago, BroncoBruin said:

Fumagalli is soooo getting that IR stash treatment. 

That would provide such a great solution - but do we only go with Butt/Huermann as TE's then?  I hate to say it, I don't know that Musgrave & Elway will.   That's the only reason I didn't list only 2 TE's.  A 3rd blocking TE seems so likely regardless of who it is.  If we did only go Butt/Huernann, that would solve a lot of our problems, but seems a lot of faith in just those 2 alone.  

[7DnBrnc53]

7 hours ago, Broncofan said:

That would provide such a great solution - but do we only go with Butt/Huermann as TE's then?  I hate to say it, I don't know that Musgrave & Elway will.   That's the only reason I didn't list only 2 TE's.  A 3rd blocking TE seems so likely regardless of who it is.  If we did only go Butt/Huernann, that would solve a lot of our problems, but seems a lot of faith in just those 2 alone.  

Matt LaCosse would also make it.

[OrangeNBlue86]

Lynch is making the roster. Don’t think he’s good enough but he will make it. 

[BroncoBruin]

16 hours ago, Broncofan said:

That would provide such a great solution - but do we only go with Butt/Huermann as TE's then?  I hate to say it, I don't know that Musgrave & Elway will.   That's the only reason I didn't list only 2 TE's.  A 3rd blocking TE seems so likely regardless of who it is.  If we did only go Butt/Huernann, that would solve a lot of our problems, but seems a lot of faith in just those 2 alone.  

I would think Traylor would make it as the 3rd TE, but he seems to have dramatically fallen out of favor since receiving most of the 1st team reps while Heuerman was out. 

[AKRNA]

19 minutes ago, OrangeNBlue86 said:

Lynch is making the roster. Don’t think he’s good enough but he will make it. 

Such a shame that finances play such a huge role in personnel matters. Based on talent alone we should have kept Sloter and let Paxton walk.

Sloter's tearing it up in Minnesota.

 

[BroncoBruin]

The only team I could see trading for Paxton is Dallas. Jerry was infatuated with him and their backups are crappy with no game experience. Why not take our crappy backup who does has game experience, and is tall? Conditional 7th and get him the hell out of here. 

[Broncofan]

3 hours ago, BroncoBruin said:

I would think Traylor would make it as the 3rd TE, but he seems to have dramatically fallen out of favor since receiving most of the 1st team reps while Heuerman was out. 

Yeah, that's definitely possible he's no longer seen as a guy to keep...just hard to believe Butt and Huermann will get the complete faith of the coaches, given their lack of any real NFL success (even as a blocker, not talking receiving).

Re: Lynch, if we keep him and cut actual assets...man, I don't blame the fanbase if they riot.    And keep in mind the cap does NOT matter any more, if we aren't keeping him next year or now, the cap hit is now in 2019 either way.  It's a sunk cost either way.  Keeping him before June 1 meant we had more cap room to sign FA's, and we needed to see what was there.   Now, the cost is the same if he's gone now, or next year pre-June 1.  So cut the cord now.

[BroncoBruin]

Just now, Broncofan said:

Yeah, that's definitely possible he's no longer seen as a guy to keep...just hard to believe Butt and Huermann will get the complete faith of the coaches, given their lack of any real NFL success (even as a blocker, not talking receiving).

I don't think you can realistically only keep 2 TEs. I'd imagine one of the young guys makes it. I was serious about "stashing" Fumagalli but it actually sounds like he's not going to be healthy enough to contribute this year, issues related to the hernia just keep flaring up with him.