A Starter on Offense and a Starter on Defense you are a bit 'Leery' of

That Tim Brody fella!

He has got s**t hair and he can't run! Don't know why he is on the team!

The starter to be named later at safety and Branch, i just don't know if Branch can hold up. i like him as a player but he misses too much time.

Why are people being so anal about thread topics? Should we just limit the forum to a gameday thread and thats it? Geez.

Anyways, for me on offense it's the RG position. As we saw in the Detroit game, we are one injury away from constant pressure when facing top-level Dlines. So, as far as being "leery", I would say ornberger is he is called into duty again.

On defense, I am going to say bodden. Not so much that I am leery about him, but I am curious to see how he comes back from injury. We could have a top flight secondary at CB between McCourtey, Bodden, and Arrington. Obiviously we have questions at safety, but that has been beaten to death.

When I look at our offense, I want to know who might have trouble competing against the best defenses.

-I have to look at the Welker/Branch combo at opposite side WR.

If these guys continue to have trouble getting off the line and getting to the second level against big, physical corners its really going to stall this pass game.

I see this particularly as a problem in 3 WR sets.

However, I think the offense is going to be more than adequate against the vast majority of teams this year.


On defense, my concern is in working out the base 4-3 defense. The Patriots are new to some of these concepts. The Pats linebackers will be forced to do a lot of pass coverage, probably more than last year.

-I'm slightly worried about the Ninkovich/Fletcher/Guyton combo at strong side linebacker. I assume that Ninkovich will be getting the most reps. He will be left to cover the TE often, where I think he is a liability.

Guyton will get swallowed up against the run so he is not a good base D option.

My hope lies in Fletcher, but he is still unproven.


The good news is that we will see if these are problems after week 2 with Miami's corners first, and then Antonio Gates and the Chargers offense.

I have no worries about the starters on offense. However....

I wonder about the rookie RB's. Will they put the rock on the turf?

Between pre season and the start of the regular season the intensity picks up and I hope they are ready for it. Fumbles lost would kill us.

On defense the secondary is mostly unknown. McCourty is a lock. What is the health status of Bodden? Who are our safeties?

I feel pretty good about Arrington as the nickel back, but who is the dime backer? Can Chung stay healthy?

If we can either get a big lead or totally shut down the Miami run, then the secondary will be under tremendous pressure.

Offense: Koppen. Put a guy on his nose on passing downs and he struggles mightily. Been like that for a few years. Every team should be doing this, considering Brady is the king of pocket presense...only when there's a pocket to step into.

Defense: Safety opposite Chung. Obvious.

Regards,
Chris

fumbrunner said:

Anyways, for me on offense it's the RG position. As we saw in the Detroit game, we are one injury away from constant pressure when facing top-level Dlines. So, as far as being "leery", I would say ornberger is he is called into duty again.

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We signed Waters and Ohrnberger is on the IR, so I don't know what you're going on about here.

The-Hooded-One said:

We signed Waters and Ohrnberger is on the IR, so I don't know what you're going on about here.

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Ah, missed that signing. That certainly alleviates that concern.:rocker:

On offense anyone on the line, especially in the playoffs, maybe Benjarvus but we have the best QB to help.

On defense the outside spot occupied by Ninkovich/Guyton whoever starts there.