07-22-2019, 09:11 PM
(07-17-2019, 09:47 PM)BengalChris Wrote: When I look at the roster overall I find it hard to locate any position that has been improved much. Here's the project starters.
QB Dalton - no change
RB Mixon - no change
LT Glenn - no change
LG Jerry - change from Boling, but is he any better really? Or is it going to be Westerman stepping in?
C Price - no change, but he's coming in healthy and has a year under his belt. I expect improvement.
RG Miller - upgrade over false start guy (whatever his name was)
RT Hart - no change where an upgrade was very warranted
TE Eifert - coming in healthy, as usual - How long will he last? Uzomah ended up starting last season and may very well be the guy this year, so no change here either.
WR1 AJ Green - no change
WR2 Boyd - no change
WR3 ???? - any consistency would be an upgrade, but did we acquire that consistency? Will anyone show up as a consistent WR here or do we just move Eifert out to WR as his starting role and start Uzomah at TE? Personally, I believe Eifert moved outside as a WR and Uzomah as starting TE puts our best hands on the field and creates the best kind of mis-matches.
Has the offense been upgraded? Or are we counting on people not being injured in 2019 as our upgrade?
Projected defensive starters:
LDR Dunlap - no change
DT Atkins - no change
NT Billings - no change
DE Hubbard - an upgrade over MJ, but was here last season.
DL rotation - several guys are returning from injuries and that depth should improve the DL's performance overall.
LB Vigil - no change
LB Brown - no change. Are we counting on him being healthy as the upgrade over last season's tackling void?
LB Pratt - Hopefully he'll be an upgrade over how Burfict played last season.
CB Willie Jackson - no change
CB Kirkpatrick - no change
CB Dennard - no change, Webb isn't better than Dennard but he could help out if a starting corner misses a game or two.
FS Bates - no change
SS Williams - no change
Again, I have to ask, are we counting people not being injured in 2019 as our upgrade?
A ton of these positions should be an improvement over what we saw last year. Especially with adding Sample and Pratt at the TE and LB positions. Sample is a great blocker who was underutilized at Washington, Pratt was my 2nd favorite LB in the Draft, dude can cover, tackle and he can run the Defense from what we are hearing. Pratt should be a major upgrade over all of our LB's last season and he might actually have a decent LB coach which should help everyone.
Glenn was injured last season, should get much better if healthy. I liked the depth signing of Jerry but I think Westerman takes the LG spot and he has looked good nearly everytime I have watched him play and had a good PFF rating. Price should improve immensely with more experience which also equals an upgrade, Miller is better than Redmond. Hart could improve under Turner here and wasn't as bad as people made out last year and is a decent run blocker.
Players who are young and were studs last year should only get better in Mixon, Bates and Hubbard.
Traveon Williams was a major steal and could be an upgrade over Gio, we will see.
But the #1 thing that upgrades this team is new coaching as this has been our biggest problem here for years.
