Stay, Go, Maybe & I Don’t Know
Frank Leggio
As we enter the offseason, I thought I would take a look at the roster as of the end of the season. I divided it up into 5 groupings, based on my assessment of their performance as of the 2016 season and what I think their value will be going forward. Green means I believe they need to be on the 2017 roster. Yellow means they are of value, but would be willing to upgrade for the right option. Blue means they are still an unknown and should be given more time, if possible. Orange means I don’t think they should be on the roster in 2017, if we can find anyone else at all. Red means they definitely need to be off the team next year.
I am not trying to say that the player is the best at their position or that we can’t do better. I am trying to view this from the perspective of other options and the “intangibles” that come up in many conversations.
Below you can see a table with the way I assessed the current roster. From a position group perspective, it looks to me like we are strong in the defensive backfield and receiving groups. We could also be fairly strong at linebacker and the defensive line, pending returns from injury. Where it looks like we need some help is offensive guard, tight end, and quarterback.
Another area to take a look at is the age of these groupings. Based on age, we should be focused on the offensive backfield and special teamers. Other than that, we have a pretty young team.
It looks to me like we have a pretty solid core of about 26 players that we definitely need to have on our roster next year, with another 10 that I think would be great contributors. That is 36 of the 53. The other 17 players we need John Dorsey to get to work and look for upgrades.
Depending on what he can dig up via trade or free agent signings, I would suggest the following as the draft priority.
Guard, Quarterback, Line Backer, Running Back, Tight End, Wide Receiver, Defensive Back, Defensive Line, and then Offensive Tackle. We do have a few players that are young and have potential, so perhaps Dorsey and Reid can pull one or two from there.
I took a quick look at the roster and where we might need to focus for 2017. It wasn’t what I was expecting. I was thinking we would need more help at the linebacker grouping. While I think we do need to look for talent there, we do have a number of players that are coming back from injury.
What are you guys thinking?
And there’s The Rub.
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