sturf wrote:Wounded Bear wrote:When they put the initial roster together I thought that they went light on both offensive and defensive linemen. I don't understand that at all.
And one more thing, Pace is a fool if he doesn't go strong on offensive line picks next draft. We always seem to be injury plagued on the oline and I don't want Trubisky to be running scared back there.
They had the standard 8 OL, and all 8 had at least some NFL starting experience. Only 7 are active during games so there is little reason to have the 9th guy on the 46 instead of the practice squad. They are a 3-4 team and they had the standard 5 DL, which makes them 2 deep considering there are effectively 2.5 starting positions because of how little base defense is played. They had Jenkins on the practice squad if Goldman got hurt. Who else deserved to make the roster on either line?
Well for one, I would have more than gladly went with Jaye Howard on the D-line over any of our 6 wideouts, especially if you take into consideration Eddie Goldman's injury past. Jaye Howard would be far more impactful than a Tanner Gentry or a Markus Wheaton (or just pick any receiver on our roster).
sturf wrote:[I'm sure Pace will be looking for opportunities draft an offensive tackle, but I don't see this need to draft OL multiple OL. They have all 5 starters still under contract next year along with Grasu and Morgan coming off his redshirt rookie year.
That's great that we have all 5 starters under contract next year, but our starters are having a hard time staying healthy, not to mention our Offensive Line is going to be pretty old next year. Josh Sitton will be 32, Kyle Long will be 29, Bobby Massie will be 29, Tom Compton will be 29, Bradley Sowell will be 29 and Hroniss Grasu might as well be 50 because he's always hurt. To demonstrate the problems with injuries on the offensive line let's look at the Center position. So far this year, we have had Hroniss Grasu playing Center, Bradley Sowell playing Center, Cody Whitehair playing Center, and Josh Sitton has played Center as well. So I don't have near the confidence in those guys as you do since this is very much a sport where age matters.
Pace had better embrace a youth movement in regards to our offensive line and attack it either through FA or the Draft because that oline, as a unit, is not long for this world and we have a brand new QB who I don't want to see running scared like Jay Cutler did for the for 6 seasons with the Bears.
So if we are to be proactive, which we should be if we really want to protect our young QB, I see multiple holes that need to be addressed and that requires multiple FA moves or multiple draft picks in regards to the OL. If we want Mitch Trubisky to get beat up and develop Jay Cutler style PTSD, we should turn a blind eye to this situation and understand that we are poised to repeat the sins of our past.