Itās crazy how much deeper the OL is now. I expect to see Metcalf figure into the rotation somewhere provided heās back to health by the time the year starts. There was a lot of buzz about him before the injury. Probably one of the guard spotsā¦
Also the RBs I get itās a 3 deep but I think caveat is any of the 3 could get the most snaps/touches any given week haha.
Re: the RBās, I honestly considered putting "OR"s between each of Taylor, Waylee, and Brown. I do think for Brown, given his injury history and pass-catching skills, we might keep him out of a workhorse role and maybe use him as a 3rd down specialist instead.
On the OL, yeah, who knows how itāll shake out. Thereās 11 guys with starting experience. Reiterating a desire to give Boley the option to finally take his redshirt year. Biggest point of this exercise is to get all the names onto the board to view at once, help visualize all the pieces.
That DL is awesome, BTW I kinda think Melton essentially starts if heās healthy, though I donāt think who starts really matters. Weāre gonna rotate the hell out of these guys.
But that DL is legitimately 3 deep at every spot. There are at least 11 guys who are realistically competing to start across 4 spots.
On the WR front, I have a suspicion that Abdullah takes the slot receiver job at some point during the season and Newton-Short is going to make some noise. Maybe he bumps Eli Wood from the two-deep.
Yeah DNS has looked good in clips. Looks physically ready to play. Thereās a lot of good slot guys. Suderian, Kam, Abdullah, and Ross even though I think heāll play a bunch of spots.
I find WR production hard to project mainly because I think weāre going to run the ball a TON. It should open things up for the receivers but tough to tell who benefits most from that.
Thanks for putting these together. Yeah, thatās what I couldnāt do in my head following all the roster turnover, slotting guys into positions, not necessarily what order. Also to see what positions look deep or not. And what kind of returning players we might have next year or if itāll be almost all portal again.
I think you will see koudelka as number one or two on the depth chart come September. The coaches love his upside
The TL:DR, for those who didnāt click on the link, is that the GFās meddling apparently led the producers to scrap the planned UNC series. No reality show = no money, no fame, and best of all, no free PR for Tar Hole football.
So actually not smart. Sad. So, so sad
The full Athletic story is paywalled, but hereās the USA Today recap:
Also, itās very funny that Belichick has a stage parent/helicopter parent.
I read the full Athletic article, and itās notable that they provided very little evidence that the girlfriend is the reason the deal fell through. I donāt doubt sheās probably to blame, but it wasnāt great reporting.
Why canāt he back up in PHL or WAS?
Long ways to go but I like all the 300+ I see on OL
Weāre a lot further along then we were at this time last year. Thereās no reason that this team should not be bowling.
Mariota is a good backup for WAS
St Lou, thanks for that work on a depth chart! Some of the choices Iād move up, such as Wyatt, Melton and Osborne. IF Wyatt is healthy, he is a very solid OT. It will be a battle for sure in August, because a lot of those guys are similar at OT and productive. Boley is going to have to show heās better than they are.
On the DL, I think all those guys will play and rotate, so who is the starter may not matter that much. My sense is that on 1st and 2nd downs weāll have a space eater NT who can draw and take double teams (Carter, Holmes, Hammond, Britton, probably in that order) paired with a quicker but still large, playmaker hopefully 3 technique (Osborne, T Jones, and maybe Hammond from the prior group). Lots of options at DE and Edge. On passing downs the big boys come out and more Edges take their spots to stunt and rush.
Said it before and Iāll say it again: the staff needs to seriously consider redshirting Boley (recall he played as a true freshman in 2022). Let him take a year to get healthy, rely on the 50 other senior linemen we seem to have as more than enough, and then get Boley back as a 5th year next season. Sell it to him as a bonus year of NIL / revenue sharing.
Donāt disagree in the long term play, but Elliott likely needs to win now to save his job, may think that involves Boley playing
I mean between Thomas, Wyatt, Witmer, Unamba and the dude from Cuse, that seems like plenty to get through the season. Yes, give Boley a nice bag to RS so he can be fully healthy for '26 along with dude from Cuse and Mills.
Boley is good. Seriously, even among all the talent weāve added he is good enough to be a starter IMO. Also, remember that this system requires a ton from itās OL. We ask more of our OL than most offenses. In addition to both zone and power/gap techniques that are required in this system, we also have a lot of built in adjustments and counters to certain fronts. So if the D-line āstemsā pre-snap, our lineman need to be able to identify these fronts quickly to redeclare points and properly adjust. Boleyās experience and familiarity is gonna be vital Iād imagine with all the new pieces weāre incorporating