These are wildly helpful. Thanks for doing them.
We wonât retain all of these guys but canât remember feeling this good about our OL heading into an offseason in a long time
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Boley being listed as questionable for the ACCCG seems like an indication that his injury wonât linger into next season.
Brugler ranked him 15th among senior OTs over the summer (FWIW Tristan Leigh 18, Logan Taylor 24). I donât know if his stock went up or down this season, but note that in 2025, NFL teams drafted 21 OTs and 17 OGs and that includes draft eligible juniors. Boleyâs probably a 7th rounder at best, probably spend a season or more on a practice squad. Whether here or at another school, starting LOTs at P4 schools make more than the NFL minimum salary and definitely more than practice squad players.
Most any fringe NFL player would do better financially in college earning revenue share money than taking their chances trying to make the last few spots of an NFL roster. The NFL opportunity will likely still be there next year. The NFL isnât like the NBA. With a few exceptions, they draft and roster players who can produce now (QBs are different. So are some 1st rounders). If you canât, then they move on to the next guy. Theyâre not dreaming on a ceiling years down the line. NFL careers are so short and contracts/team control are so limited in duration that they canât afford to do that.
I didnât see any other Virginia players listed in any of Bruglerâs top 25 seniors and top 15 draft eligible juniors by position at any other positions, so itâd probably make the most financial sense for anyone with eligibility to keep playing. Plus getting whatever grad school program youâre interested in paid for. It sure beats life on a practice squad and it really beats working an entry level corporate job or an entry level coaching job. All those are waiting for you anyway, so if your body, brain and desire can take it, get paid more playing football for Virginia than the alternative post college job (thatâll most likely still be there in a year anyway).
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Wow.. good for cal
https://twitter.com/petethamel/status/1997325369737728051?s=46
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I thought for sure somebody would come in with a big enough bag to lure him away. Maybe some Cal donor (they exist right?) made it an easier decision to stay.
He was at Oregon for hot minute so I wonder if bringing in their DC as head coach was part of the calculus to keep him.
Pretty good Jacob Rodriguez article. He says he loves it here and wouldâve finished out college here if Bronco stuck around. Also, when he transferred to TTU, he had no scholarship. Itâs conceivable that if we win our next 2 games, we could face TTU.
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Iâm pretty sure Nebraskaâs gonna be in the market for a new QB and Raiolaâs gonna be looking for a new school.
https://twitter.com/yahoosports/status/1997407634907951251?s=46&t=KRUvpbKQ9s5_3BPeM0gClg
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His brotherdecommitted earlier in the year now this. Seems like the two sides will separate soon.
Knock on effect looks like GT is losing their OL coach to Nebraska.
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One concern I have about the Chandler waiver requestâ when will we know if he gets it? I donât want to be in limbo and unable to pursue a transfer QB and get stuck with only Kaelin while waiting on a Chandler waiver process.
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Iâm not very confident Chandlerâs waiver will get approved. I imagine weâre going to be aggressive in the portal either way. Probably not for someone with the profile of Chandler, but another viable option in case Kaelin isnât the guy. Forget if I said it on this board or elsewhere but I think weâre basically in the market for Tony Muskett. A Tony-caliber player with the OL/other pieces we had this year can win you games.
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No shots at Muskett, but Iâd really like to aim higher than a Monmouth transfer at QB with the season we just hadâŚ
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I wouldnât hold my breath on a Morris injury exception. He was hurt in 2022 and only played in like 3 games, but thatâs because he lost his starting job while he was hurt. As best I can tell, he came back that season and dressed for games, he just didnât play. He actually played in the National Championship game. The injury wasnât a season ender.
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Tony pretty much pooh-poohed the idea of Chandler getting more eligibility as well. Which is the right move, because (1) itâs true that itâs not gonna happen, and (2) you want to squash that rumor in order not to scare off other QBs.
But as fans we can hope.
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Yeah I think the odds are slim. A couple of years ago he probably would have gotten it, but feels like theyâre cracking down way more now.
I hope we go with another older Go5 guy with a decent amount of experience again. Didnât see it at all with Kaelin this year. I assume we lose one of Geer or Jurgenson.
There are going to be a decent number of guys displaced by coaching changes from the P4 level though that could be targets, probably more likely to end up with someone like that if I had to guess.
That UNLV guy won conference player of the year, he could be worth a lookâŚHeâs started a lot of games I think.
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We might have better options out there in the portal. Love what Morris did for us this year but his rating was merely middle of the pack and just ahead of Drones. Kaelin is definitely not QB1 IMO.
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Yeah I will always think of Chandler fondly, but heâs not irreplaceable by any means. Continuity is still great though.
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Chandler Morris brought a lot more than skill to the table. He was a fearless leader, and imo, that kind of winning culture mentality the program badly needed.
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Chandler showed us whatâs possible with competent QB play and I donât mean that as a knock on him at all. He is a middle to lower upper quadrant QB and he tore it up for Virginia this season. It gave the program the opportunity to see what happens with consistent QB play and honestly the ceiling is pretty high. Now imagine what can happen if they find someone with upper level talent?
Losing Chandler will suck because it always sucks to lose a QB but I see it more of setting the bar rather than setting some unattainable peak.
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Next up, D-Line!
Defensive Line
Gone:
- Jahmeer Carter
- Jacob Holmes
- Cazeem Moore
Mitchell Melton- Daniel Rickert
Eligible to Return:
- Mitchell Melton - Bonus Sr - Edge (Medical waiver)
- Terrell Jones - RS Sr - SDE
- Fisher Camac - RS Sr - SDE
- Anthony Britton - RS Jr - DT
- Jason Hammond - RS Jr - DT
- Mekhi Buchanan - RS Jr - Edge
- Hunter Osborne - RS Jr - DT
- Tyler Simmons - RS So - DE/DT
- Chase Morrison - RS So - Edge
- Jewett Hayes - RS So - Edge
- Billy Koudelka - RS So - SDE
- Evan Ward - RS Fr - Edge
- Sichan John - RS Fr - DT
Incoming:
- JaySean Richardson - Fr - DT
Needs: Some good returners from the 2-deep including starting DE Camac, DTs Hammond and Britton, as well as key reserves Osborne and Koudelka (all five of whom logged snaps in all 12 regular season games). Massive if we can also get Melton back on a medical waiver for an injury- lost true freshman 2021 season. Will keep an eye on buried guys Terrell Jones, Simmons, Buchanan, Morrison and Hayes to see if any are finally ready to step up, though it doesnât look good for many of them (Jones and Simmons are undersized DTs, Hayes was limited to special teams all year, and Morrison and Buchanan barely played). Staff seems high on Sichan John to move into a backup DT role next year. Bottom line, though, is we need significant additional help with five outbounds and only one inbound, to say nothing of backfilling any additional transfers we lose. Would like at least one DT, one SDE, and one rush edge / Bandit in the Portal, maybe more, this is the one position on the defense that does need real Portal help
Latest updates provided on the đ 2025/2026 Football Offseason Roster Wiki
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Melton has another year of eligibility if he wants it, according to JF
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