Jump to content

2018 53-Man Roster Projections and Discussion


Broncofan

Recommended Posts

20 minutes ago, broncofan48 said:

Gonna be a long rest of the season haha.  

I’m living for the Cat/Griz big rivalry game up here in Montana now haha

LOL well let me give it a better try.


Positives:

1.  He's not Lynch.

2.  He actually has decent arm strength, although not elite.   Has deep-ball touch, and can throw to both sides.

3.  Works well with quick-strike decisions.

4.  Good athlete, like Siemian, mobile.

He had enough that he was worth a 3rd round pick by Sean Payton.  So they clearly thought he might be the heir to Brees.

Sadly, though...


Negatives:

1.  He never adjusted to NFL speed.  Slow reads, and didn't show any anticipation.  Routinely threw into coverage (not just INT potential, but putting receivers in harm's way).

2.  His mechanics need work.  Too long a windup, which telegraphs throws and increases strip-sack potential.

3.  Despite his fantastic athletic tools, didn't move around the pocket nearly as much to create / extend plays.  This to me suggests poor pocket awareness.  If the quick strike isn't there, though, he's not able to create (which is disappointing given his athleticism, but not unheard of).


He hasn't had enough reps in real games (just preseason) to say all of those are set in stone...but there's a reason why he was only on a PS.  And after 3 full seasons of work to show progress and failing to do so, it's clear to see why NO moved on.   So yeah, it's hard to get excited.   Fails to show anticipation, poor pocket awareness, long windup - man, ugh.    

But if Keenum continues to suck, well, I'd probably still want to give him a look over Kevin Hogan lol.  But that's not happening anytime soon, barring injury, and unlike Kelly, this would be a PURE dart throw.  At least Kelly had NFL-level physical talent (but a 10-cent brain).

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, Counselor said:

It wasn’t hindsight for me. I called it back then

Me and you were the biggest Sloter fans. He should have played last year at some point, and he should have been the starter this year if he turned out to be good.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

22 minutes ago, BroncoBruin said:

Finding someone who isn't actively horrible (and isn't blackballed) is fine with me. 

Let's face it, after Elway took his stance earlier this year, blackballed dude isn't an option.   And to be fair to Elway (although his stance taken was ludicrous and disingenous), Kaep's skill set 2 years ago is a poor fit for a Musgrave O (and Kubiak's back then), let alone after 2 years of inactivity.

I don't have a problem with Grayson either...just there's pretty much no long-term appeal, or at least, 10x less than there was with Kelly (like, we went from a 20-25 percent chance with Kelly to a 2-3 percent chance with Grayson).   But that's the state of QB's. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Spoke too soon when I said we were down to Bolles / Walker as the only roster survivors from 2017's disaster draft now:

 

Meh, on the surface, 5th round pick isn't the problem (spending both 3rd and 5th on the same player type, though, but no need to go further, it's a sunk cost at this stage). 

The bigger problem I have is that going with McKenzie for the active roster is a purely win-now move - when in reality, we should be thinking about future development on the PS (yes, you know my boy, Jeff Holland).  ESP with Shane Ray on the shelf.    Now, of course, when Ray returns, the standard answer will be "we have 5 EDGES then" - well, if you are worried only about 2019+, you accept that.  Especially when you will only have 3 EDGE's next year returning (including Holland).    Hopefully we can trade either Ray or Barrett and create the space there, to avoid a claim that puts Elway to the test.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

BTW, this explains more why DEN promoted McKenzie.  I'm tempted to say BUF could have had him lol.

I can't believe we actually think he fits in our long-term plans.  Yes, I get DeSean Hamilton is out 2-3 weeks.  No I don't think it should justify promoting McKenzie.  Sunk cost.  SMH.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I know this sounds wild, but .. part of me does want to see McKenzie in a less traditional Offense. He's just never going to be a guy that you can lineup outside, beat press coverage and actually separate after beating press. 

I would like to see him do stuff like align at the back of trips, run motion on jet sweeps (play action is fine), etc. I am not for one second saying he's earned a chance at it or that we should change our entire Offense to accommodate someone who has struggled just to keep hold of the ball; I would just be intrigued to see him in that kind of an Offense because he is a twitchy athlete.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

5 hours ago, lomaxgrUK said:

I know this sounds wild, but .. part of me does want to see McKenzie in a less traditional Offense. He's just never going to be a guy that you can lineup outside, beat press coverage and actually separate after beating press. 

I would like to see him do stuff like align at the back of trips, run motion on jet sweeps (play action is fine), etc. I am not for one second saying he's earned a chance at it or that we should change our entire Offense to accommodate someone who has struggled just to keep hold of the ball; I would just be intrigued to see him in that kind of an Offense because he is a twitchy athlete.

 

That's a very fair comment - I mean, look at Jakeem Grant in MIA.   Again, though, my problem wasn't McKenzie on his own, it's that Elway literally spent 2 picks, and a premium Day 2 one, to get the exact same type of player in Carlos Henderson (OK, Henderson is a KR, McKenzie is a PR - sorry, not enough to justify 2 picks).   And in an O that doesn't use that type of gadget player.  When guys who were on the board as obvious BPA WR's like Kenny Golladay and Chris Godwin went later (and yes, this was said then, not just now).    

I actually think McKenzie could probably carve out a career as a gadget guy somewhere else - but he's a terrible fit here, especially as we have Sutton/Hamilton as our top future guys, and Hamilton will be in the slot.  I'm going to beat the dead horse a bit here, so bear with me - for our future, we'd be far better off rostering Jeff Holland as a future 3rd EDGE on our team than McKenzie.  Now, maybe the gamble pays off and no one claims him - but I do hope Elway realizes McKenzie isn't that valuable an asset to burn a 53-man roster spot, if more important future assets are threatened.  That's a real concern given Elway just burned a spot to keep McKenzie - he just isn't worth that much effort.   The thing is, guys like Jakeem Grant / McKenzie can be found rather easily.   It's if they can do more that there's value (Tyreek Hill exhibit A).   So far, McKenzie's shown zero sign he can be more...which is why valuing him like an asset we can't part with is very iffy.   And especially moreso if it's a win-now type move, but even if it's a "hey we need to protect this guy for 2019" - that's very dubious thinking. 

If Elway's thinking "hey, Hamilton's out, we have room, why not, but let's not get too attached" - great.  If it's "we can't let him walk"...yes, you really can, if there are other guys at risk in the future.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...

Well, it's official - Isiaih McKenzie's bust pick comes to a close.  BUF picks him up.  Even if he works out there, he had zero future on our team with the 2018 draft class, so better to stop wasting a roster spot on him.    Nothing personal, just a wasted pick - hopefully he can hang on to the Bills long enough to get 4 years service time and get a pension & 10 years of health plan coverage.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Has there ever been a draft class unravel as quickly as our 2017 class has done? Seriously. It was only 18 months ago and we've cut 4 players (Henderson, McKenzie, Henderson, Kelly), 1 player has a ceiling of an average league starter (Bolles), 1 looks lost when on the field and is on the practice squad (Langley), 1 looks lost when on the field and is on the active roster (Walker) and we have 1 good player but is now on IR for the 2nd season in a row (Butt)

I would love to know if there has ever been a worse draft class than that. This forum could and would've done better than that - even if we know absolutely nothing, we could've used a draft website's rankings to end up with better than what we have. I don't think I am exaggerating when I say that Elway could've been fired for this alone.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

3 hours ago, lomaxgrUK said:

Has there ever been a draft class unravel as quickly as our 2017 class has done? Seriously. It was only 18 months ago and we've cut 4 players (Henderson, McKenzie, Henderson, Kelly), 1 player has a ceiling of an average league starter (Bolles), 1 looks lost when on the field and is on the practice squad (Langley), 1 looks lost when on the field and is on the active roster (Walker) and we have 1 good player but is now on IR for the 2nd season in a row (Butt)

I would love to know if there has ever been a worse draft class than that. This forum could and would've done better than that - even if we know absolutely nothing, we could've used a draft website's rankings to end up with better than what we have. I don't think I am exaggerating when I say that Elway could've been fired for this alone.

Yeah, that class has ended up horrible.  I think Elway knew it early as well because we saw a complete 180 in draft strategy last year, I hope that continues for years to come.

IIRC Derek Wolfe came out at one point last year and said the rookies from that class just didn’t get it.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.




×
×
  • Create New...