I really couldn't bring myself to post all of the exhibition games - I find that I quickly grow bored with the preseason, and for now would much prefer to skip it. Noteworthy developments during the preseason:
A minor trade: we sent our 2014 6th round pick to division rival Vegas for their veteran LG Kenneth Smalls. He'll make a very solid backup (RB: 57, PB: 62) to Poplawski
A major trade: we sent 12-year veteran FL Sydney Armitage back to his original team in Boston for 3rd, 4th and 6th round picks over the next few seasons. Armitage was our "best" receiver (rated 54/61) for the last 3 seasons, but he never managed to put up particularly good numbers. He typically caught about 50% of the passes thrown his way, and his yardage average was fairly pedestrian. He didn't drop many passes, but he just didn't catch very many either. Anyway, his performance didn't warrant the $8m bonus he wanted for a one-year extension, so his ass is gone.
We finish the exhibition season with a 3-1 record, yawn a bit, and cut down the roster. Here's the 53 we take into the regular season:
Code:
Player # Pos Start Exp Current Estimate Future Estimate Cntrct
Hogan, Milan "Colonel" 4 QB 14 55 59 2 yrs
Weinke, Artie 9 QB 6 30 46 3 yrs
Goodwin, Kent 19 QB QB 3 69 69 5 yrs
Holliday, Drew 42 RB RB 7 51 54 5 yrs
Edwards, J.C. 25 RB 5 38 40 1 yr.
Hayakawa, Kelvin 33 RB 1 29 35 2 yrs
Jenkins, O.J. 43 FB 7 32 36 2 yrs
Jeffries, Corwin 26 FB FB 7 53 53 4 yrs
Torres, Anthony 82 TE TE 6 73 73 4 yrs
Joyner, Marlon 84 TE 6 54 55 3 yrs
Chandler, Colin 83 TE 3 40 50 3 yrs
Thomas, Shannon 85 TE 1 28 50 4 yrs
Housley, Freddie 86 FL FL 7 41 46 2 yrs
Hodges, Courtney 81 FL 5 37 43 2 yrs
Higginbotham, Demetrius 80 SE SE 10 42 42 4 yrs
Parr, Coleman 88 SE 13 41 41 2 yrs
Emerson, Jake 87 SE 2 29 42 3 yrs
Reeves, Casey 54 C C 5 62 62 4 yrs
Gaines, Hunter 50 C 2 36 53 2 yrs
Smalls, Kenneth 67 LG 10 48 48 2 yrs
Poplawski, Ross 60 LG LG 5 71 71 5 yrs
Connell, Kelvin 64 RG RG 6 62 62 4 yrs
Van Buren, Sean 78 RG 3 44 48 2 yrs
Tollefson, Russell 62 LT RT 12 71 77 3 yrs
Lyle, Stan 65 LT 6 42 44 1 yr.
Kudrow, Shane 68 LT LT 4 66 67 2 yrs
Franck, Chris 71 RT 16 44 46 2 yrs
**Pitman, Matthew 63 RT 8 72 76 3 yrs
Winters, Edward 15 P 5 67 67 3 yrs
Eckard, Hugo 12 K 11 60 68 3 yrs
Smith, Carl 73 LDE 11 42 43 2 yrs
Grier, Howie 75 LDE LDE 9 57 60 3 yrs
Muranaka, Emmanuel 96 LDE 1 25 52 4 yrs
Bernard, Ted 72 RDE RDE 8 39 39 2 yrs
Horn, Albert 97 RDE 8 50 50 2 yrs
Cochrane, Bennie 74 LDT 4 40 45 2 yrs
Van Brocklin, Gary 77 LDT 2 35 38 1 yr.
Neubauer, Kenneth 70 RDT RDT 10 53 57 3 yrs
Stoltzfus, Harold 95 RDT LDT 10 93 94 1 yr.
Wash, Grant 52 MLB 15 48 48 2 yrs
Jarrard, Josh 90 MLB MLB 10 46 50 3 yrs
Trujillo, Buster 55 SLB SLB 11 60 65 1 yr.
King, Jerry 93 SLB 12 50 57 1 yr.
Watford, Joseph 58 WLB WLB 12 59 64 2 yrs
Crane, Bob 98 WLB 8 42 45 3 yrs
Davis, Gavin 40 LCB 11 25 28 1 yr.
Callis, Bernie 27 LCB 9 36 44 1 yr.
McGarrity, Cris 34 LCB RCB 4 45 48 4 yrs
Giles, Bobby 35 LCB LCB 3 56 56 4 yrs
Rosenberry, Cheap Shot 37 RCB 12 40 47 2 yrs
Hawkins, Ron 29 RCB 1 18 40 1 yr.
Enoch, Mitchel 31 SS SS 12 76 84 2 yrs
Torres, Austin 38 SS 1 25 53 3 yrs
Visser, David 44 FS FS 15 62 62 2 yrs
Hartung, Kenneth 32 FS 12 55 55 3 yrs
Burns, Tommy 39 FS 1 39 62 4 yrs
The big changes to our roster this year:
Quarterbacks: Goodwin just keeps getting better.
Running Backs: Holliday should be able to keep it together for another year or two. And I like this Hayakawa kid - the undrafted rookie free agent might surprise a few people.
Receivers: Armitage is gone, but I'm not sure that will hurt us much. We've got quite a few solid-but-not-spectacular targets for Goodwin. We should be fine here.
Offensive line: We're much deeper here now with Tollefson and Smalls. We ditched our longtime backup center Luther Buckley in favor of the younger and potentially better Gaines. Pitman is still out for the year - but he should be healed by the playoffs. We can't afford to keep that roster spot open for him, so he's on the IR. I'm looking forward to seeing how he comes back from the injury. If he's OK this will be a position of great strength for us.
Defensive line: Largely unchanged from last year. And that's a good thing.
Linebackers: are a lot older. They should still do OK, but the clock is ticking on this crew.
Secondary: has been heavily reworked, and I'm not really sure what to expect from them. I think McGarrity will be fine with some experience, and Callis should help out a bit, but we've got a lot of new faces back there. Our pass defense might not be as tight as it was last year.
Specialists: the same.
That brings us to opening night! We start the season with a home match vs. Honolulu.