Chesapeake Chili Dogs, 2012
It’s a new year, but it won’t be a new team. Our expectations will be to make fewer changes to this team than we have in any of the recent offseasons, as we are generally pretty comfortable with the roster we have in hand. We have developing key players at QB and WR, we have units on the offensive line and defensive secondary that seem to be coming together wonderfully, and we have solid talent nearly everywhere on our starting lineup. This is no longer about revolution, but rather just evolution.
The new season starts with announcements – and like all teams, we have some…
On the player retirement front:
DB Mark Carr . . . stays
RB Craps Copley . . . stays
Those were the two biggest names I was really worried about. We do have some retirements – mostly from guys who were position leaders for us like WR Charles Renaud, DT James Reach, and veteran DT Eugene Bradham, who gave us one more year than we had a right to really expect.
But then there’s one more name on the list of retirements for us…
DE Alvin Hall
Oh, no. Our previous thinking at DE for this year was basically this: we’ve got one stud in Alvin Hall and nobody else around him, so this is a crisis position. Now, we have to amend that a bit.
HELP!
I’m sure we will recover somehow – but this seems like a crushing blow to us and our hopes for an improved pass rush this season. We’ll eat a lot of cap from his remaining bonus money, but that’s not the real worry – it’s losing the player that really hurts.