DawgTalkers.net Forums DawgTalk Pure Football Forum 2017 Projected depth chart- post draft

Just thought it would be nice to have a reference point. Up for debate.

QB: Kessler, Osweiler, Mixer, Hogan(ps)

RB: Crow, Duke, 3+ guys for 1 spot maybe one on the ps

WR: Coleman, Britt, Louis, Higgins, Payton, Hall #3-6 could change dramatically. Should be a fun camp battle

TE: Njoku, Devalve, Telfer, Hamlett telfer may have a fight on his hands

OL: joe, bitonio, tretter, zeitler, Coleman, Greco, drango, erving, johnson, etc god it feels good to be deep. This is quite ridiculous actually. We may not be as top heavy as the cowgirls but we might just have the best overall unit top to bottom. Not even really being a homer but our 6th and 7th would start for half the NFL imo. I don't see us carrying more than 9 but combinations of Injuries and the ps should help us stash 2 more like Reiter and Martin maybe.

DE: Garrett, ogbah, nassib, orchard, Holmes, johnson(or sam?) Stacked for now. If orchard and nassibs don't take a step forward we could look for high end depth next draft.

DT: Danny, Bryant, big Larry, meder, coop, brantley, Wright, etc. If coop stays silent, des struggles to regain form l, brantley charged this could be a priority next year. While danny surged this yeah I still am reluctant to say he'll ever be a pro bowl level player. Would be nice to have a stud 3T.

LB: Kirk, Collins, Davis, Schobert, Alexander, carder, burgess, johnson(or de?) If schob or dom show any progression I see Davis being cut. Way too much cap for minimal usage. Especially now that we have peppers.

CB: Joe, Taylor, boddy, Wilson, burley, Hillary. Not exactly confident here. I've always said a good front 7 is necessary to assess the true skill of a secondary. I guess now well find out. If joe doesn't rebound tremendously he's gone and we need to utilize a few of those 5 high picks next year here. The door is open for udfa

S: Peppers, Kindred, Campbell, Reynolds, Powell. I'm more excited than most on peppers. I think we were the ideal fit for him and I spent a lot of time researching the person on top of tape and inthink he's a piece for us. That said I wish we had better true safeties because I'd love to run 3 s sets or at least allow him to rover but I'm not sure he'll be able to with this atrocious position. With how cocky Williams is he will probably still play peppers up and well have to trade off some long tds for highlight plays. Will lose us an extra game or two but maybe win one or two if were lucky.

K: Zane. Parkey is horrendous. Next

P: Colquit

Orchard played with his hand in the ground in college in a 4-3 defense. If he makes the team, I would expect him to on the defensive line rotation.

Kirksey and Collins will get the majority of the snaps at linebacker with Schobert, Davis, or whoever else makes the team sprinkled in when necessary.

Parenthesis represent cuts. Asterisk means PS target.

Offense -- 24

QB: Kessler, Kizer, Osweiler (*Hogan)

WR: Britt, Coleman, Hall, Louis, Higgins, (*Alford, *Payton, Boyce, Wright, Leslie)

RB: Crowell, Johnson, Jackson (*Dayes)

FB: Vitale (Holtz)

TE: Njoku, DeValve, Telfer

LT: Thomas, Rod Johnson (McCants)

LG: Bitonio, Greco

C: Tretter, (*Reiter, Martin, Fabiano)

RG: Zetiler, Drango (Ikard)

RT: Coleman, Erving (Sterup) **** Austin Pasztor is still a free agent. ****


Defense -- 24

DE: Garrett, Ogbah, Holmes, Nassib (*Schult, Orchard, Cam Johnson)

DT: Shelton, Brantley, Meder, Ogunjobi (Gabe Wright, Cooper, Des Bryant, NLS, Coley)

LB: Collins, Davis, Kirksey, Schobert, Alexander, Olugbode, (*Bello, *Marcus, James Burgess)

CB: Haden, BBC, Taylor, Howard Wilson, Marcus Burley, Najee Murray (Caldwell)

FS: Powell, Reynolds (*Nacua, Currie, Hillary)

SS: Peppers, Campbell



Special Teams -- 5

K: Gonzalez

P: Colquitt

LS: Hughlett

RS: George Atkinson

ST: Tank Carder

Where are Kirksey and Shon Coleman?

And speaking of Kirksey, did anyone catch Sashi's comment about it being a priority of the team to extend him. That comment came unsolicited.

Oops. Thanks.

Defense is looking good.

We need to have a Safety to start alongside Peppers and I didn't think much of anyone that played the position last year. At the end of the year whoever was starting was an improvement over whoever started the season imo.

At CB - it's important that BBC wasn't a one hit wonder and that he progresses a little. A healthy Haden, BBC, Taylor and Wilson is passable but not great without a lot of pressure up front.

The front 7 looks really good to me. Some of these folks are set to break out with the addition of difference makers like Collins and Garrett playing. Shelton, Ogbah, Kirksey could all start to look like studs if teams are forced to pay attention and scheme for Collins and Garrett (and Peppers if things go right).

Front 7 looks good to me too. I'm thinking Joe Schobert might be the SAM. With Kirskey at Will and Collins in the Middle. Garrett, Shelton, Bryant/Larry, Ogbah is pretty good.

At corner I start getting nervous, and safety a bit nervous too.

At safety I like Kindred's effort, but his instincts/skill needs to improve. I'm excited about Peppers and think he'll develop into that SS we need. I just don't think that Kindred is necessarily the right guy to play alongside him. We need someone like Tashaun Gipson. That guy I never wanted to lose.

At corner, we have two guys who have been successful over 1 year (BBC and Jamar Taylor) and Haden who is often injured lately. If everyone performs and stays healthy, we're okay. Otherwise we're in a bit of trouble. Hopefully we can find a UDFA or two that surprise

no mention of Gordon

You also forgot Kindred.

Who is going to get snaps on defense? On the defensive line the majority should go Garrett, Ogbah, and Shelton with shared between several guys (Bryant, Ogunjobi, Brantley, Orchard, Meder, Cooper, etc).

Kirksey and Collins are going to get the majority of the snaps at linebacker. Peppers might be listed at safety, but I bet he takes a lot of snaps from the "linebacker" position. There won't be many snaps to go around for anyone else.

The secondary is a huge question mark. I'm betting we will be playing with a ton of three safety sets (with Peppers being one of the three). I don't know who the other two safeties will be and I don't think any of the guys we have are any good. The corners are the corners.

What's the drawback to 3 safety sets though? I can see how Peppers' versatility will come in handy in doing so

I'm hoping that's something we work toward. To start, I'd rather run Peppers as a Strong Safety ALA TJ Ward. I just would rather have some beef up there to take on the blockers vs the run game.


Run a core of LBs being Collins, Kirksey, and Schobert. Then use Peppers and someone else at FS. When we run Nickel (which I suspect we often will), I'd rather just have three corners out there then three safeties and two corners)

I'm just curious (not saying/suggesting someone is wrong, I'm curious) why people feel Schobert has/will earn one of three LB'er spots?

I sort of thought he was under sized, looked to get bullied around often and that the looks of Johnson and Alexander were both better (all with limited snaps on defense it seemed) but yeah, Kirko (as Sashi calls him haha) and Collins should eat up the majority of snaps otherwise. Kirksey is probably an all-down LBer.

Tank Carder has been lingering around this team too, he could very well take up that other LB spot. I think it was Horton that said that Tank was one of his best blitzers.

Is Greg known for three safety sets?

I'd just figure where guys are best suited. I think Kirskey is probably best suited to the Weakside LB Spot, Collins in the Middle, and so you need someone to man the SAM. I don't think that Alexander can play Strongside LB. He's just too small.

If Alexander is playing LB for us, I figure he's gonna be the WLB.


EDIT: I do think that Collin's best position is probably SSLB, but then I'm stuck figuring out who can be MLB. I guess Demario Davis.......

Either way. I think Kirksey is best suited to WLB where he can run free

What were your thoughts on Cam Johnson?

Excluding Ogbah because I think it's almost safe to say he'll have his hand in the dirt and be on the line, I think Cam is our next biggest LB'er if weight/size is your primary train of thought.

He's 260+. But, I wouldn't be shocked if Collins ends up at the SAM and the focus of the puzzle is elsewhere (edit, which you addressed already with your edit, haha )

Good.

Honestly, Cam Johnson is someone I saw as a 3-4 OLB, and I'm not sure where he fits in in the 4-3 (in terms of being a LB). I figured he was more of a DE in the 4-3.

Schobert on the other hand, IMO is more versatile

Depends on what you consider a safety. Last year the Rams' third safety played more than their third linebacker (with Mark Barron being one of the two linebackers that got the majority of the snaps.

http://www.pro-football-reference.com/teams/ram/2016-snap-counts.htm

Last year the Rams basically only used two linebackers the entire season.

I don't think this discussion matters much because, if Williams plays defense the way he did with the Rams, there will almost never be three linebackers on the field at the same time.

I see, looking at this it's like Ogletree and Baron were pretty much the only LBs they used. Now I'm all confused. I thought Baron was a safety they used like a LB

Nope. Barron was a linebacker.

I am assuming there will be some differences between what Williams did with the Rams and with us in 2017 just because of personnel differences (obviously). But I think that Kirksey and Collins will be on the field nearly 100% of the time. Those are our two starting linebackers.

[/quote]I am assuming there will be some differences between what Williams did with the Rams and with us in 2017 just because of personnel differences (obviously). But I think that Kirksey and Collins will be on the field nearly 100% of the time. Those are our two starting linebackers. [/quote]

Which would go a long way to explaining Peppers, who was a hybrid SS/LB at Michigan.. along with other jobs on Offense/Defense/Special Teams.

Yup. I think our defense will look more like the Cardinals defense from the past couple years:

http://www.pro-football-reference.com/teams/crd/2016-snap-counts.htm

Garrett
Shelton
Bryant/Ogunjobi/Brantley
Ogbah

Collins
Kirksey

Haden/Taylor/BBC/Howard

Powell
Peppers

JMO

The more I think about it, the more I think one of Kirksey or Collins comes off the field about 20% of the time to be replaced by another safety. Then Peppers plays "linebacker" with another safety on the field.

You could move Ogbah inside and drop Collins to DE in certain situations.

That is true, but it is not ideal.

I think Williams will be very creative with the defense though and that is very exciting.

By creative.

Do you mean DTs covering slot WRs?

Because that's super creative...

(Sup O'Neil)

Collins and Kirksey are both better in coverage than Peppers right now.

This might be true, but I think Peppers might have a better chance at covering a wide receiver than both of them.

Going to keep a sharp eye on Powell in the pre season ..

Has me nervous about the ability to run different plays out of the same look. You see Collins and Kirksey in the nickel and you tip off zone. Peppers up and it's gonna be man or blitz.

I see many of us are putting high hopes on a player claimed off waivers. Can't fill all the holes in one season and know they took swings in free agency, but boy there w e re quite a few guys staring us in the face at different points in the draft. Maybe someone from a June 1st roster cut.

It wasn't easy making the defensive backfield of the Sea Hawks ..

I think it was a mistake not drafting Hooker. I also think it was a mistake to not address the secondary more heavily in the draft.

Especially when you figure getting guys like Sherman and Chancellor after the 4th round is basically luck.

I've seen similar comments that allude to JP's lack of coverage skills...I think there is some fire with that smoke.

The counter is that JP wasn't focused on coverage...as that's not what MI needed from him.

We need him to be able to cover TE's..should be interesting to watch it develop.

Would Shon Coleman, and Cameron Erving be tradable each for a decent Db in 2017? Or a decent TE in 2017.