GroupThink - 1998 Little Rock Rollers

[wade moore]

I concur with Bee (boy, i'm a help, eh?)

[QuikSand]

Okay, with that we are able to wrap up our draft. We fall short on only one player - WR Seth redman, who went in the 7th round, just ahead of my target spot for him (Mr. Irrelevant). We go ahead and take the RB with the last pick of the draft, and are done:

147. Little Rock - Samuels, Russell, S, Boston College

148. Napa Valley - Burchfield, Charlie, ILB, Oklahoma
149. Manhattan - Wilkins, Roy, DT, Florida
150. Death Valley - Kondovski, Shannon, FB, Kansas State
151. Louisville - Barrett, Howie, G, Missouri Southern
152. Sault Ste. Marie - Arnold, Ross, G, Rice
153. Mazatlan - Conkel, Nicky, CB, Texas Tech
154. Tulsa - Denver, Chris, OLB, Memphis
155. Hawk Mountain - Crawford, Chad, OLB, Eastern Kentucky
156. Ocean City - Burnham, Randy, S, Wisconsin
157. Niagara Falls - Hardy, Gerald, DT, Houston
158. Hawk Mountain - Schwartz, Dwight, WR, Rutgers
159. Champaign - Stephens, Desmond, RB, Syracuse

160. Little Rock - Price, Mario, FB, North Carolina

161. Memphis - MacWhirter, Tony, TE, San Diego
162. Norfolk - Peters, Freddie, P, Arizona
163. Kitty Hawk - Winston, Lamont, T, Vanderbilt
164. Athens - Loftis, Deion, OLB, Stanford
165. Texarkana - Comeaux, Isaac, RB, Florida State
166. Sacramento - Weisenbach, Dustin, DE, Tennessee - Martin
167. Thunder Bay - Ballard, Deion, DT, California
168. Lake Erie - Raymond, Reggie, RB, Michigan State
169. Pensacola - Wynn, Gabe, WR, Colorado
170. Providence - Stokes, Raymond, CB, Clemson
171. Fort Knox - Favors, Blaine, G, Illinois
172. Norfolk - Lyons, Shawn, FB, Buffalo
173. Ypsilanti - Tuinei, Kenyon, G, Boston College
174. Fort Wayne - Mulitalo, Lenny, P, Boston College
175. Bermuda - Hormel, Marshall, CB, Central Florida
176. Nashua - Cardenas, Irving, WR, Tennessee
177. Cheyenne - Jenkins, Alvin, TE, Temple
178. Tijuana - Finch, Harold, CB, Cal. - Northridge
179. Key West - Noyes, Kendrick, ILB, Brigham Young
180. Napa Valley - Moore, R.J., DT, New Mexico
181. Norfolk - Ingram, Jake, DE, Morris Brown
182. Death Valley - Miklusicak, Bernie, WR, California
183. Wheeling - Richardson, Floyd, FB, Northwestern
184. Sault Ste. Marie - Burroughs, Roderick, S, Clemson
185. Mazatlan - Tate, Vincent, S, Wisconsin
186. Tulsa - Williams, Norman, G, Louisiana State
187. Puget Sound - Browning, Shaun, G, Boston College
188. Ocean City - McIntosh, Corwin, WR, Western Carolina
189. Niagara Falls - Roberts, Preston, OLB, Texas Christian
190. Hawk Mountain - Horton, Tom, WR, Missouri
191. Tijuana - Broughton, Stanley, C, Wisconsin

192. Little Rock - Sawyer, Antoine, QB, Tulane

193. Memphis - Klews, Cedric, G, Arizona
194. Norfolk - Hubbard, Monty, C, California
195. Kitty Hawk - Light, Karl, WR, Georgia
196. Athens - Fisk, Dean, G, Louisiana - Monroe
197. Texarkana - Houck, Steven, DT, Oklahoma State
198. Sacramento - Sheldon, Wayne, QB, Alabama
199. Thunder Bay - Upton, Alvin, K, Kentucky
200. Lake Erie - Hartman, Butch, TE, Ohio State
201. Pensacola - Barlow, Archie, K, Duke
202. Providence - Lubienski, Kris, CB, Notre Dame
203. Fort Knox - Stanfield, Quinn, K, Catawba
204. Louisville - Sprehe, Orlando, OLB, South Carolina
205. Ypsilanti - Pritchett, Henry, S, Duke
206. Fort Wayne - Burgess, Reggie, DT, Rutgers
207. Bermuda - Chappell, Matthew, ILB, Michigan State
208. Nashua - Krieger, Lee, P, Ball State
209. Cheyenne - Seto, Lorenzo, WR, North Carolina
210. Tijuana - Borrego, David, G, Shepherd
211. Key West - Rowell, Rodney, C, Washington State
212. Napa Valley - Rasmussen, Ricky, C, Holy Cross
213. Manhattan - Gist, Heath, OLB, Wofford
214. Death Valley - Redman, Seth, WR, Toledo
215. Wheeling - Armstead, T.J., CB, Stanford
216. Sault Ste. Marie - Brandon, Louie, C, Boston College
217. Mazatlan - Rash, Andy, OLB, Iowa State
218. Tulsa - Geiger, Hardy, S, Pittsburgh
219. Sacramento - Peterson, Jimmy, FB, Hawaii
220. Ocean City - Dodge, Mercury, S, Purdue
221. Niagara Falls - Felder, Reuben, S, Virginia Tech
222. Hawk Mountain - Heaton, Ken, ILB, Idaho
223. Champaign - Lofton, Damon, FB, North Carolina

224. Little Rock - Watkins, Leland, RB, Illinois

[QuikSand]

This gets us to 50 players signed... meaning that we must pick up 10 more URFA players. However, we're not going to have to carry an absurd number of stiff rookies on the roster this year, as we had feared. Picking up a few extra draft picks and getting a few of our own guys re-signed helped that a bit, I think.

[Bee]

Looks like the punter we discussed went undrafted. He looked decent for a URFA.

[QuikSand]

Undrafted Rookie Free Agent signees

Coming in, we must fill up spots at P and ILB. If LB is as bad as I think it will be, we can switch young George Burgess to MLB, and make him our official backup there (might be wise). Rookie DT Sammy O’Donnell is also LB-sized, and could be considered for a position switch as well, though I doubt it would be smooth.

G Vincent Barber – watch his ratings in camp, if he bumps up, he might be a keeper
TE Preston Edwards – same song
WR Terry Galles – possible 5th receiver, kick returner, could improve
DT Claude Wooley – who knows, could improve
LB J.T. Lewis – the best I could find at ILB, but doesn’t look like much
CB Kevin Choi – not much, but can fill in a bit, I suppose
S Zach Freeman – switch to corner, perhaps?
P Kevin Swift – have to get one, this converted kicker seems okay
LB Antoine Owens – across the board, decent reserve, I guess
CB Floyd Poole – no upside, but has some adequate current ratings for fill-in player
CB Frank Ross – decent player, good hitter, who knows about upside


There’s the lot of players I could find for us. The coordinators will need to make some decisions – we do have a few roster spots up for grabs among these guys.

Perhaps the final cut-down could be a collaborative process as well? I’m not looking to slow this all down, but maybe it would be worth having some discussion about who makes the final slot at CB this year, based on our scout input and their pre-season play. Just a thought…

[QuikSand]

Incidentally, we have been offered a trade, which passes our fairness test.

Kitty Hawk would send us a pretty decent OLB and next year's 2nd round pick

We send them LT Cornelius Lofton, our all-pro from last season.


Recall, we just picked up a guy who is the heir apparent for Lofton. We're also a bit thin at the LB position, though our need is really at MLB rather than OLB.

Regardless, just tossing that in for consideration - I don't think it's an absurd offer.

[QuikSand]

File update #1

[QuikSand]

File #2

[QuikSand]

And just in case you would liek the draft recap:

Amateur Draft Report:

Rnd 2 - Tyrell Rusk, CB, Auburn
Rnd 4 - Hunter Craig, T, Nebraska
Rnd 4 - Ted Gunn, DE, Clemson
Rnd 5 - Mario Price, FB, North Carolina
Rnd 5 - Sammy O'Donnell, DT, Louisiana State
Rnd 5 - Russell Samuels, S, Boston College
Rnd 6 - Antoine Sawyer, QB, Tulane
Rnd 7 - Leland Watkins, RB, Illinois

[QuikSand]

Originally posted by Bee
Looks like the punter we discussed went undrafted. He looked decent for a URFA.

He went at pick #174. However, in my desperation, I brought in a few decent-looking URFA kickers and tied switching them to punters... and the best of the lot turned out probably better than Mulitalo. Works out, I suppose.

[QuikSand]

Some thoughts on this year's training camp and preseason:

-I'd like to see the rokie QB get snaps in preseason - and let's keep a close eye on this kid's off-ratings through the process. If he shows some jumps, we coudl have a real gem on our hands.

-We need to decid what to do on our defensive line, where we have a ton of guys stcaked up in the same position. Here's a thought - maybe our rookie DE might be better suited to slide in as a RDT? He has the size... I leave it up to the coordinators.

-Might be time to consider position-switching for LB as well. I noted a thing or two above... your call, DC.


My general thought is that some of these decisions might be worth making publicly - to keep this whole thing going. Up to now, most of the gameplanning and roster decisions have just been made, without any discussion or reporting. For the same of readers and other participants, maybe doing this out in the open would be good?

"After the preseason, we like Floyd Poole's effort well enough to keep him on as the 5th CB. That means that we cut Frank Ross adn Kevin Choi, neither of whom showed the nudge in development that we hoped for. Poole isn't a long term answer, but can pitch in this yera dn do okay."

[Bee]

Originally posted by QuikSand
Incidentally, we have been offered a trade, which passes our fairness test.

Kitty Hawk would send us a pretty decent OLB and next year's 2nd round pick

We send them LT Cornelius Lofton, our all-pro from last season.


Recall, we just picked up a guy who is the heir apparent for Lofton. We're also a bit thin at the LB position, though our need is really at MLB rather than OLB.

Regardless, just tossing that in for consideration - I don't think it's an absurd offer.

I say we make the trade. We have Upshaw and a decent LB + 2nd round pick would help the team more than Lofton IMO.

[wade moore]

QS,

I agree with your concepts on public decisions... I'm not sure why we moved more away from that, but we did.. I am definately open to the idea of making it a more public decision... I figure we'll pick the gameplan for the preseason, and then take comments/criticisms for changes?

[cthomer5000]

Originally posted by wade moore
QS,

I agree with your concepts on public decisions... I'm not sure why we moved more away from that, but we did.. I am definately open to the idea of making it a more public decision... I figure we'll pick the gameplan for the preseason, and then take comments/criticisms for changes?

I'm certainly for opening things up a bit. My time to spend on this varies greatly each week, and it's really precluded me from having any say in whats going on. Being able to chime in on a public decision would make me feel a bit more "a part" of this thing.

[QuikSand]

So, there we were...

[wade moore]

Sorry, I guess prime and I need to take the ball and run with it..

Like I said, I'm packing up to move for this weekend so my time is a bit weird... If prime cannot get to it sooner, I can run training camp and do my gameplan settings either tonight or tomorrow morning.. But a head's up, I won't have Internet in my new place (moving in saturday) until Tuesday, so prime may have to take a brunt of simming depending on how long it takes us to set the rosters, depth chart, etc. with an extended public discussion on it..

Sorry abou the stall..

[Bee]

Does anyone else have an opinion about the trade offer?

[QuikSand]

Bee, if you are on board with the trade, that sways me considerably. I thought it was a pretty fair offer, and if you're okay with the new acquisition stepping right in at LT, then I say we go for it. We get a decent LB and a 2nd round pick out of the deal - not too bad, I'd say.

[cthomer5000]

If we think the linebacker definitely helps us, I say make the trade. The tackle is going to be replaced eventually anyway, might as well get something for it.

[primelord]

Sorry guys yesterday was a busy day. How big the OLB? Can he make the move to MLB?

[QuikSand]

The LB we'd get from Kitty Hawk would be Wade Stegall, who would come over with two years remaining on his contract, at about $2.2 and $2.7m respectively.

His ratings, by our scout:

Run D: 34/56
PR Tech: 34/56
MtM D: 9/16
Zone D: 0/2
BnR D: 49/56
PR Str: 45
Play D: 51/85
Punish: 65
End: 27/30
Sp Tms: 72/83

What we seem to have here is a nice, fairly productive reserve linebacker who can be a standout on special teams. He doesn't really fit our defensive system too well (void in zone) but can be our #5 or 6 linebacker or thereabouts. (While the salary is a little steep, we can certainly afford it this year - next year he may be a cap casualty)

At 235 lbs, he can make the move to MLB, but it won't be an easy one. As a 5th year player he will lose most of his current experience, but probably won't lose that much in terms of his potentials.


My thinking is that we move George Burgess over to be the reserve MLB, and move Skip Artis over to be the starter on the strong side. That not only preserves our best ratings combinations, but it gets our best cover linebacker (Artis) matched up on the tight end more frequently, which he ought to be able to handle well.

So, I think our LB rotation ought to look like this:

Strong side: Skip Artis, Gerald John
Middle: Vincent Wellman, Wade Stegall
Weak side: Brenden Terrell, James Becker

We'll have to keep an eye on Gerald John... he seems to have taken a dip in his ratings, and may be on his way to exhauting his usefulness. If you think so, primelord, then we probably use Becker or Stegall as our reserve on the strong side as well.

[Bee]

We really aren't giving up much when you consider we picked up a solid player at LT in free agency.

With our current rules, the 2nd round pick has some value as well. We've done pretty well with our 2nd round picks in the past.

[primelord]

Yea that deal sounds fine to me too.

I have a lot of things on my plate so I may not be around much again today, but I will try and get the defese in order today and I will make sure I annotate my thoughts so everyone can feel free to make suggestions etc on my plan of attack.

Quik,

Did we decide not to sign A.J. Hitchcock? I just downloaded the file and noticed he is without a contract.

[QuikSand]

Yes, we opted not to re-sign Hitchcock. I think our defensive coordiator voiced displeasure with his on-field performance.

[wade moore]

I too thing that trade is a good long run trade.. Get our new guy in now, and get something out of Lofton..

[primelord]

Originally posted by QuikSand
Yes, we opted not to re-sign Hitchcock. I think our defensive coordiator voiced displeasure with his on-field performance.

I did. For some reason I just thought I remembered we signed him anyway. But that is ok. We have plenty of guys to work into the rotation anyway.

[QuikSand]

Let's look at the wide receiver position, shall we?

We have pretty big money tied up here, as Wayne Hill and Kerl Dockery make a combined $18 million this season. How good does this position look for us?

Karl Dockery has evolved nicely, from being a decent 4th round pick to now being a very solid all-around receiver. He's popular with the fans, and fell just short of his first 1,000 yard season last year with 974. He caught 66 out of 100 balls last year - a pretty solid conversion ratio. Overall, it looks like he ought to be the best guy of the bunch - and assuming this year goes fairly well overall, he ought to break that 1,000 yard mileston pretty comfortably.

Wayne Hill has come in and out of favor, but he's still with us after eight seasons on the club. A starter for his first three seasons, he then played as a reserve for each of the last five - starting a total of 13 games the last five seasons. He's back with us now, and fits in as (pretty comfortably ) the starting flanker. Hill has never had a 1,000 yard season, either, but has broken the 800-yard mark twice (in 1991 and 1992). He also lacks a superior rating in "route running" and will probably keep from having really big numbers even as a starter, but he ought to be solid enough to play full time, and in this good offense, that makes him a featured player.

Matthew Sims was our 3rd round pick last year, and seems to be coming along pretty well. He's a solid kick returner (25.1 yard average last year), and is developing as a receiver. He's a good open field runner, and has ability to make big plays, but lacks some of the receiver fundamentals to play every down. Bottom line - he's a nice reserve split end, and will see some playing time, but cannot be counted on as a top-shelf performer. He'll see time in multi-receiver sets, but hopefully not more than 250 pass plays.

Tracy Curtis is returning after his rookie season, where we picked him up as an undrafted free agent. He saw very limited action last year, but our scouts think he can be a passable sub for us going forward. If he continues to develop, he can become a decent deep threat, but he lacks the size to play much inside at only 5' 7". His build, however, is more like a running back than a receiver - so he can handle the physical play in the secondary. We'll look for Curtis to get spot time at flanker, but again - not reliable right now as an every-down performer.

Finally, Terry Galles gets a look this preseason, and will try to make the team in a reserve role of some kind. If he impresses, it wil be with his fundamentals - he's a solid route runner and shows some potential for growth. We were glad to see him avaiable after the draft, and coudl see him get onto the same path taken by Tracy Curtis.


Overall, we look okay in the starting lineup, but we lack the depth we've enjoyed in recent years. Dockery and Hill both could have very solid seasons, if for no other reason tyan they both should see a lot of playing time with the first team offense. Matthew Sims wil get in and make some plays, but the bread and butter will be the two starters.


Lineup projections:
Split end: Karl Dockery, Matthew Sims
Flanker: Wayne Hill, Trcay Curtis


Wide receiver probably needs to be fairly high on our priority list for the coming offseason. If we get through the year with our starters intact, we'll be lucky - we shoud add a promising youngster to the ranks to shore up the position.

[primelord]

Ok here are some of my thoughts for the preseason and upcoming season.

We are pretty set at the Dline position. We can already pencil in Adrian Brewer as a full time starter at RDE and Howen and Walton will rotate heavily on run downs and Walton will get the passing downs on the LDE. I plan on moving Ted Gunn to RDE to backup Brewer.

I have a thought I would like to throw out to QuikSand and the rest. I really like the look of NT O'Donnell, but as we said he will be nothing but a backup for at DT. He has the size to make the move to DE and would even get a bit of a ratings bump up from the switch. So my vote would be to move him to RDE and let him and Gunn battle it out in the preseason for backup time behind Brewer. Any thoughts?

[QuikSand]

Have you given any thoughts to moving Gunn inide? As I recall, he has te size to do it... maybe he'd be better off as a DT for us, especially on the right side, where we are very thin. (Don't have the game open, but I think that's accurate)

[primelord]

Originally posted by QuikSand
Have you given any thoughts to moving Gunn inide? As I recall, he has te size to do it... maybe he'd be better off as a DT for us, especially on the right side, where we are very thin. (Don't have the game open, but I think that's accurate)

I think that should be fine. If we move O'Donnell outside and Gunn inside I think we may be in good shape. Although unless Gunn is a serious breakout he won't ever be any help to us on the run.

[QuikSand]

Alwasy looking at the down side... we didn't take Gunn for his current skills, we took him because he might be a serious breakout. And if he is, where do we want him? DT, I suspect.

[primelord]

Originally posted by QuikSand
Alwasy looking at the down side... we didn't take Gunn for his current skills, we took him because he might be a serious breakout. And if he is, where do we want him? DT, I suspect.

I realize that, but I was just thinking that if he isn't a major breakout he still may be able to contribute some as a pass rusher on the outside. We can always move him back if that is the case so that sounds good to me.

Looking at the safety slot do we want to consider offering Nichols a contract now? We have the cap space to do it, and althouhg he has had little to no playing time with us the last couple of years he still has solid ratings and would make a much better backup to Mercado than Freeman probably will. Depending on how he played we would maybe even want to consider starting him over Mercado and just rotating them heavily to try and get some development time for Mercado.

[Bee]

Originally posted by primelord

Looking at the safety slot do we want to consider offering Nichols a contract now?

Under the new rules we can't.

[primelord]

Originally posted by Bee
Under the new rules we can't.

Oh yea I forgot about that.

[Bee]

primelord (and Quiksand as well for that matter)
I don't know if you looked at my suggestion I posted earlier today in the General Forum under the FOF4 Suggestions thread (the sticky one). I wouldn't mind seeing your thoughts on my suggestion.

[wade moore]

Uhhhhh...

My computer won't boot passed the bios.... it's 5:45 am, and I just don't have the time to troubleshoot it right now or to get FOF installed and all of the files d/l'd onto my girl's computer..

sigh..

I'm going to have to lean on you guys some the next few days depending on what happens with my computer... Bee, is there any chance you would be able to take the reigns for a few days to make it run smoother, or is it still incredibly busy for you?

[Bee]

I can help run things starting Saturday afternoon.

[wade moore]

Good deal... With moving, I'm still going to try and get my computer up and running by the time I have internet on Tuesday.. but at this point, I haven't even opened up the case to figure out what it could be, let alone what it is... I can still check internet at work, etc... but I just don't want to hold the show up cause of my computer..

[QuikSand]

And so, there we were...

[QuikSand]

Is there some role that I could play to help out?

I'd really rather not see this just die on the vine...

[Bee]

I had some personal stuff come up this weekend and haven't had a chance to do anything. Sorry guys.

[primelord]

Originally posted by QuikSand
Is there some role that I could play to help out?

I'd really rather not see this just die on the vine...

I wouldn't worry about it Quik. I alos had some things come up this weekend and at work on Friday so I just didn't get a chance to get to it. With Wade moving too it just sounds like it was a busy weekend for everyone. I will try and get the defense done tonight.

[QuikSand]

No grave fears. I just actually had an FOF jones... have settled it by starting up a "misfit toys" career - so I have my fix. I'll be fine.

[wade moore]

The good news is my computer is up and running, the bad news is that I still don't have internet at home until Tuesday night.. so, I still can't do anything until atleast then... Plus my computer is still at my old place, but that is easily fixed ..

[QuikSand]

Just a bump to keep this from falling off the front page of the dynasty section. But I'm not worried...

[wade moore]

Good thought bumping though.. Cable guy is supposed to come tonight..

prime, how do things look on your end?

[primelord]

It'll be done today I promise.

[wade moore]

no worries, i'm not one to criticize promptness right now

[primelord]

Ok here we go. This is how I see the defense going into the preseason games.

Defensive Line

I feel pretty comfortable with our DE rotations at the moment. On the left side we have Ben Howen and Tommy Walton. Howen doesn't have guady looking ratings, but tends to puts up pretty solid numbers year in and year out. Walton had a very good rookie season and should be more involved than last year. Howen is a little better against the run so we will platoon these guys on running downs and Walton will get the passing downs all to himself.

At the RDE spot Adrian Brewer is the man. His sophomore campaign was a nice step forward over his rookie year and I would expect another jump in productivity. He will be backed up by another promising rookie in Sammy O'Donnell. O'Donnell was convereted from a NT to play RDE. I think he will better suit us on the outside and could be a break out player. We don't have any DE's after these 4 so we have to hop they can stay healthy, but fi they do we have a very nice 4 man rotation.

We go into the preseason with 6 guys at DT. We had no RDT's on the roster so I have moved Bert Ellis, Alan Schenck, and Ted Gunn (formerly a DE) to the RDT slot. I think playing time at the LDT spot is pretty well nailed down. Veteran Castillo should get the bulk of the running downs and newcomer Riddick Flannery will handle the passing situations. At the RDT slot Bert Ellis should be the favorite to be the starter goingin, but he has been a bit of a disappointment so far. He was drafted for his pass rushing skills, but has yet to show much of a pass rushing presence to this point. Alan Schenk who had 5.5 sacks last season and may be better against the run may push Ellis hard for some playing time. I don't think rookie Ted Gunn will be ready to help us this season, but he may provide some much needed depth as the season goes on.
[*]Pre-season notes - Howen, Castillo, and Flannery will all sit out the pre-season. It's a risk, but I am going to play Walton and Brewer to help conitnue their development.

Line Backers

At SLB Skip Artis makes the jump over from the weak side. His very strong zone coverage skills make him a pretty good fit at this position. He should be fine playign over the TE and is decent against the run. He also has some solid pass rushing skills so we may let him lose at the QB more this year. 14 year veteran Gerald John will be his primary backup. John is clearly on his last legs at this point in his career, but he was productive for us last season and still can probably chip in a few tackles here and there.

At MLB Vincent Wellman is flat out a monster. He got slighted in the post season awards last season, but had a fabulous season and I expect more of the same this year. We didn't utilize his pass rushing skills very much last season because of the weak talent around him. But with all 3 of our starting LB's having excellent pass rushing skills we may send Wellman and all of them head hunting more this year. George Burgess has moved over from the strong side to be the backup at MLB. He is a good special teams guy who can hit hard, and has some good run stoping ability, but if he sees any serious time on the field we may be in trouble.

On the weak side we are expecting some pretty big things from new comer Brenden Terrell. He has only been in on 230 snaps in his 4 year career, but he looks like he has the skills to be a major impact player. He isn't much of a cover guy, but is a good run stopper and an excellent pass rusher. I expect to blitz him often playing on the weak side he should be free to just runa round and make plays. James Becker is a solid backup and may even see some backup time at the two other LB positions too.
[*]pre-season notes - All of our LB's will be active this pre-season. We onyl have 6 on the roster and we need all of them to field a valid lineup. I will limit Wellman's PT as much as possible to try and ensure he isn;t injured for the regular season.

Defensive Backs

Our starting CB positions are locked up. We have two of the best in the game in Blaine Houston and Austin Maffett. There is playing time up for grabs behind these guys though. Despite a lack of ratings Cory Carlson has been very productive in a backup role for us over the past 4 years. We also have 2nd round draft pick Tyrell Rusk who looks like he could be a future star in the making. We may need him to be too with both of our CB's up for new contracts in two years. (If Maffett makes 5 Ints this year he will be free agent after this season!) Kelvin Choi, Floyd Poole, and Frank Ross all bring an assortment of ratings to the table and could also battle for a backup spot on the squad.

We have less options at the sfety position. Ty Lincoln and Nicky Mercado are clearly the starters. We are asking a lot out of Mercado who is trying to fill the shoes of future hall of famer Donnie Bridgeman. Bridgeman started an amazing 227 games for Little Rock in his career. Zack Freeman and Russel Samuels won't have anyone pushing them for the backup slots, but will get plenty of PT in the preseason to show us if they can provide adaquate depth.
[*]pre-season note - Houston, Maffett, and Lincoln will all sit out the preseason.

[primelord]

You're up Wade.

Updated File #1