AKRNA Posted May 21 Author Share Posted May 21 There's one camp battle that I'm really interested in that's not QB but could have a huge impact on our offense, that being Center. The three guys are Alex Forsyth, Luke Wattenburg and Sam Mustipher, a UFA pickup from the Bears/Ravens where he started 42 games. I'm not sure who's got the inside track. They kept Forsyth on the 53 all season so he couldn't get picked up. Wattenberg's appeared in 23 games but mostly ST's and Mustiphers a bit of a wild card. I'm thinking if we've got a mean bully in the group he'll have an inside track. Just a hunch, but I think we'll see more of the Joe Gibbs version of the offense. Big WR's, big RB's and a decent run blocking (maybe good depending on C) OL. Our offense really needs to establish an identity this year and a strong, between the OT's running game combined with a field wide vertical passing game looks probable. Anyway, how well the OL comes together and how quickly should have a lot to do with when we see Nix. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AkronsWitness Posted May 22 Share Posted May 22 (edited) 5 hours ago, AKRNA said: There's one camp battle that I'm really interested in that's not QB but could have a huge impact on our offense, that being Center. The three guys are Alex Forsyth, Luke Wattenburg and Sam Mustipher, a UFA pickup from the Bears/Ravens where he started 42 games. I'm not sure who's got the inside track. They kept Forsyth on the 53 all season so he couldn't get picked up. Wattenberg's appeared in 23 games but mostly ST's and Mustiphers a bit of a wild card. I'm thinking if we've got a mean bully in the group he'll have an inside track. Just a hunch, but I think we'll see more of the Joe Gibbs version of the offense. Big WR's, big RB's and a decent run blocking (maybe good depending on C) OL. Our offense really needs to establish an identity this year and a strong, between the OT's running game combined with a field wide vertical passing game looks probable. Anyway, how well the OL comes together and how quickly should have a lot to do with when we see Nix. I feel like its Forsyth's for the taking--but that might be me putting too many eggs in the Bo Nix Oregon familiarity basket. He, I feel has the most talent but he just needs to show it. But regarding the OL as a whole, considering how much money they spent last year on this OL they better be great lol All we heard last year was Payton wanted to pound the ball and pound the ball. It would be nice to see our OL be a little more dominant in the run game. Dominant as in manhandling the LOS. Might be wishful thinking, but that is the most veteran experienced unit on the team. They have to shoulder the load with all of these young QBs/WRs/RBs/TEs around them and with the amount of money we are paying them as a whole, we should have high standards for them Edited May 22 by AkronsWitness Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AKRNA Posted May 22 Author Share Posted May 22 45 minutes ago, AkronsWitness said: I feel like its Forsyth's for the taking--but that might be me putting too many eggs in the Bo Nix Oregon familiarity basket. He, I feel has the most talent but he just needs to show it. But regarding the OL as a whole, considering how much money they spent last year on this OL they better be great lol All we heard last year was Payton wanted to pound the ball and pound the ball. It would be nice to see our OL be a little more dominant in the run game. Dominant as in manhandling the LOS. Might be wishful thinking, but that is the most veteran experienced unit on the team. They have to shoulder the load with all of these young QBs/WRs/RBs/TEs around them and with the amount of money we are paying them as a whole, we should have high standards for them Pretty good take. It'll be interesting to see who takes 1st team center reps at TC. I'm really expecting to see lots of improvement in the OL. We've got two real dogs in Meinerz and Bolles but Powers and McGlinchey need to step up. From what little I've seen of Forsyth he's got some "nasty" to his game. Wouldn't that be great. We did add some much needed veteran depth at OT and OG this offseason. Anyway, I'm sort of putting last years poor showing on new coach, new players, new system and a QB that couldn't play from the pocket. No excuses this year. As little as I watched last year I saw Bolles get flagged for two holds that were on Russ and a couple of sacks given up where instead of stepping up into a clean pocket Russ tried scrambling and ran into defenders. The first 5 games of the schedule should show us quite a bit. Good defenses will test the middle of our OL and I doubt we'll see a better IDL than we will in week 4 against the Jets. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BroncoSojia Posted May 22 Share Posted May 22 I personally have our ceiling as 7 wins. We have too many question marks at key positions (QB, WR, TE, DT, ILB, CB opposite PS2, Safety) to even sniff the playoffs this year. I'm personally just hoping for the young players (Nix, Franklin, Mims, Moss, etc) to show enough promise to give us fans hope for the future. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
copeland Posted May 23 Share Posted May 23 I know most at least acknowledge that Payton has a bit of an ego, and some would say its too big. With that said, the man is not stupid. I would expect that the OL will be asked to largely be the leaders of the offense this season. The run game this year will be simply relied upon(doesn’t matter who the QB 1 is). Stidam is a vet, yet inexperienced, Nix is a rookie, Wilson is a mess. Expect this season to be a run based offense/play defense type of year. I think they’ll be patient/conservative with both sides of the ball. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dbrog24 Posted May 23 Share Posted May 23 11 hours ago, copeland said: I know most at least acknowledge that Payton has a bit of an ego, and some would say its too big. With that said, the man is not stupid. I would expect that the OL will be asked to largely be the leaders of the offense this season. The run game this year will be simply relied upon(doesn’t matter who the QB 1 is). Stidam is a vet, yet inexperienced, Nix is a rookie, Wilson is a mess. Expect this season to be a run based offense/play defense type of year. I think they’ll be patient/conservative with both sides of the ball. Yup I think the same and the style itself should win us more than a few games against the teams we're facing. That's why I don't buy everyone talking about us being a bottom 3 team. Again I'm not sure why people would say that as we've had significantly worse teams than this with significantly worse coaching and haven't been even in the bottom 5. I could see anywhere from 6-9 wins depending on how we look on the 2nd half of the season (Payton teams usually come on stronger then) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MontanaBronco Posted May 23 Share Posted May 23 The OL was very healthy last year which is quite unusual, but I think they were the strong point of the team. Run game fell off as the year progressed, but think this was more related to Russ and overall inability to keep defenses honest. Think powers and McGlinchey probably didn't perform as well as we might have hoped given contracts, but overall solid. Personally think McGlinchey held up in pass pro better than most people think, he did have a rough time with crosby though. Considering the disaster that RT has been for this team in the past, I will take it. Will be interesting to see what plays out with a new center. Overall, I think a lot hinges on whether or not we can establish a ground game this year. I think we can provided whoever is playing quarterback can actually throw the ball short to intermediate over the middle. Through seven games last year we were running the ball quite well with some pretty solid holes opening up. All this changed when defenses adjusted and pretty much exclusively gave us two high safety looks with linebackers giving very little consideration to passes over their head in the middle of the field and keying on run. Russ simply doesn't have the tools to consistently punish this. Also think our wr screen game takes a step forward this year with tim patrick blocking. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AKRNA Posted May 23 Author Share Posted May 23 4 hours ago, MontanaBronco said: The OL was very healthy last year which is quite unusual, but I think they were the strong point of the team. Run game fell off as the year progressed, but think this was more related to Russ and overall inability to keep defenses honest. Think powers and McGlinchey probably didn't perform as well as we might have hoped given contracts, but overall solid. Personally think McGlinchey held up in pass pro better than most people think, he did have a rough time with crosby though. Considering the disaster that RT has been for this team in the past, I will take it. Will be interesting to see what plays out with a new center. Overall, I think a lot hinges on whether or not we can establish a ground game this year. I think we can provided whoever is playing quarterback can actually throw the ball short to intermediate over the middle. Through seven games last year we were running the ball quite well with some pretty solid holes opening up. All this changed when defenses adjusted and pretty much exclusively gave us two high safety looks with linebackers giving very little consideration to passes over their head in the middle of the field and keying on run. Russ simply doesn't have the tools to consistently punish this. Also think our wr screen game takes a step forward this year with tim patrick blocking. It drove me nuts last year when teams were just stacking the box against the run, all but ignoring any passing threat and we couldn't take advantage. That just has to change. I did notice Stidham averaged 2 ypc more than Russ so at least he's looking downfield. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thebestever6 Posted May 24 Share Posted May 24 So Lucas Krull is the reason we didn't draft a TE? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AnAngryAmerican Posted May 24 Share Posted May 24 2 hours ago, thebestever6 said: So Lucas Krull is the reason we didn't draft a TE? Seems like Sean really likes him. I also think they weren't going to take a TE in the draft just to take a TE. When you're as bereft of talent as we are, you have a large board and don't hone in on specific needs, you take good football players. I really, REALLY like what we did in rounds 3 through 7 of the draft. I still think Nix was over-drafted but they're married to him now and this young team now gets a chance to grow together. In addition to Krull, I think Dulchich can be a difference-maker if can ever stay healthy. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thebestever6 Posted May 24 Share Posted May 24 2 hours ago, AnAngryAmerican said: Seems like Sean really likes him. I also think they weren't going to take a TE in the draft just to take a TE. When you're as bereft of talent as we are, you have a large board and don't hone in on specific needs, you take good football players. I really, REALLY like what we did in rounds 3 through 7 of the draft. I still think Nix was over-drafted but they're married to him now and this young team now gets a chance to grow together. In addition to Krull, I think Dulchich can be a difference-maker if can ever stay healthy. I'm really liking our offense I'm concerned most om this team with our secondary and dline depth and stopping the run. Have we heard anything about that dlineman being reinstated from his gambling suspension? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AKRNA Posted May 24 Author Share Posted May 24 1 hour ago, thebestever6 said: I'm really liking our offense I'm concerned most om this team with our secondary and dline depth and stopping the run. Have we heard anything about that dlineman being reinstated from his gambling suspension? We've added three solid veterans to the DL this offseason. Our rotation is much improved. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BullsandBroncos Posted May 27 Share Posted May 27 Like to think Forsythe is the front runner for center. Stopping the run and keeping Bonnitto + Browning healthy would be a good start Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BullsandBroncos Posted May 27 Share Posted May 27 On 5/24/2024 at 10:03 AM, AnAngryAmerican said: Seems like Sean really likes him. I also think they weren't going to take a TE in the draft just to take a TE. When you're as bereft of talent as we are, you have a large board and don't hone in on specific needs, you take good football players. I really, REALLY like what we did in rounds 3 through 7 of the draft. I still think Nix was over-drafted but they're married to him now and this young team now gets a chance to grow together. In addition to Krull, I think Dulchich can be a difference-maker if can ever stay healthy. I liked the middle round gets too. Talent in spots we have none Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AKRNA Posted May 28 Author Share Posted May 28 5 hours ago, BullsandBroncos said: I liked the middle round gets too. Talent in spots we have none Outside of Nix the entire draft looked like BPA in every round. We could use another year or two of that. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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