Don't know much about Urbik, but I would love the 1st two picks.

 

Dunno about a guard that early. We seemingly have our starters. I think it isnt outside the realm of possibility that Donald Thomas becomes the replacement for Vernon Carey if he goes elsewhere, but other than that guard is locked down

 

I doubt Sintim falls to the second round unless he has a bad showing at the combine. That is really a priority for each one of these guys coming out next year. Granted its a lot of fun to do mock drafts and keep up with prospects as the season progresses, but realistically until the combine is over you never know where a player will fall or shine.

 

That was nice to see for a change and making me wonder if we will see more of Anderson replacing Roth on passing downs in the last few games of the year.

 

I'd be more than satisfied with Mount Cody.

 

I like Cody as a run stuffer but I just dont know if he fits well for our scheme with his weight issues. I notice too many times where he is off the field getting a breather. He really needs to drop another 25 - 30 pounds to increase his stamina.

Right now I like Jerry or Raji a bit more than Cody as they do not come off the field nearly as much, can hold the point of attack and sometimes still get to the QB.

 

Brace is more of a Cody type player for me with more conditioning and I do think he benefits from playing next to Raji as he should.

 

Cody and Stintim would give us the best defense in the league in 2 years

 

He had Peria Jerry's brother roll up on his leg in the Ole Miss game, much as happened to Justin Smiley last week. He's been back a couple of weeks but isn't full speed. As I said in the Florida/Bama thread, his responsibilities in that game were to keep Dante Hightower and Rolando McClain free to make plays. He was never going to be chasing Demps or Tebow down because that isn't his game. His job was to maintain lane discipline and keep Tebow from the perimeters. He did it very well. Just because a guy doesn't show on the stat sheet doesn't mean he didn't play well.

 

Cody came off the field for 2 reasons; 1) because of the injury 2) because Alabama wanted to counter speed with speed and use the quicker, lighter interior tackles.

 

Fair enough Boom, I was unaware of Cody's injury. I still think he could become that much of a better player minus 25 to 30 more pounds. I know he dropped a fairly large amount of weight to even get on the field for Saban so asking him to drop more over time should be no problem as long as he can keep it off and stay disciplined with his diet.

 

His stamina really isn't the major issue here. Over time a player's stamina improves and we have amongst the toughest stamina coaches and muscle-building trainers in the league. He'll continue his progress and right now I'd compare him to Ngata in the sense that his potential is immense. At 25lbs less than his current weight his quickness advantage would be amazing.

This is one draft where I'd consider even ditching that second second rounder in order to acquire both Sintim and Cody. That would mean we can add another offensive linemen in the third round or more likely a safety. Most likely though the team wouldn't do it as they believe in the philosophy of not giving away extra picks especially high ones.

The offensive line would have to be boosted in free agency or really just by the return of certain players.

LT- Long, hopefully a more experienced backup
LG- Smiley (hopefully), Alleman
C- Satele, Johnson
RG- Thomas, Ndukwe
RT- Carey

Would be fine with me. The CB core is decent and overall the team has far less holes than last year if we can re-sign our best players this year. After that it's just a matter of making sure that the front seven is figuratively "bullet-proof".

 

I'd disagree that it is that clear-cut in terms of the problem on our offensive line. Satele's been discussed to death here, but as far as the information that we have is that the current administration regarded him highly coming into the season, and that he's not performed well for an unknown reason. Where we go from here is guesswork, ultimately.

I'd also claim in terms of flopping the OL around, swapping Justin Smiley and Donald Thomas is probably something that will be considered. Justin Smiley has been best in his career pulling across the center, and going through the A or B gaps on the opposite side. Now that Long no longer needs a veteran next to him, it doesn't make sense that the best utilization of Justin Smiley to be on plays that have Jake Long isn't at the point of attack on. Especially if Donald Thomas turns out to be as powerful a drive blocker as advertised.

 

So what? Jason Peters was a tight end?

The upside of Donald Thomas is very much up in the air. He's got loads of physical ability, the downside was he had no experience and was supposed to be a project player- When seemingly turned out to be wrong.

I would argue the athletic ability is there- He ran the 2nd fastest 40 yard dash, had a 3-cone .01 seconds slower than Jake Longs, and if CBS's draft thing is to be believed, fairly long arms.

I kinda said why- Using Justin Smiley to the best of his ability at LG means running plays away from your 57 million dollar, #1 overall LT who happens to be your best linemen.

 

Smiley isn't ideal as the RG in the sense that usually a team runs with power to the right and Smiley isn't as powerful as Thomas however having a primary bread-and-butter play with Thomas effectively blocking out the NT or the 2-gap 4-3 tackle is a major coup. Satele can hit the LB effectively. Smiley can as well. To the right we'd still be fairly solid, we'd just have to pull Satele more often than Thomas.

I prefer keeping offensive lines together. That's why I'm not on the let Vernon Carey go bandwagon that seems to be so popular. I don't believe in easy solutions through the draft. They don't happen all that often. We had to spend a #1 overall pick to solve LT, our fourth round G is pretty ehhh so far. You can't just assume that a guy can easily replace Carey at RT. That's essentially risking your season and Pennington's health. If you have something that works at least on the edges (it does, Carey has gotten a bad rap) keep it that way. Smiley will play one of the G spots once he recovers.

I prefer not blasting a second rounder on a G. On the other hand if you suggest a C I might be more inclined as having a dominant C could tip the odds for us against a tough team like New England.

Picks will be precious this year. We have to again pull out a rabbit out of the hat and pickup our future NT (avoid the Traylor disaster), starting SOLB, and possibly more.

Digustipate, Jason Peters was INCREDIBLY athletic and probably is at his best as a LT. Thomas moves and plays like a guard. He's shown his best in close-quarters. Why move him outside? It's not like we lack money to acquire a veteran RT.

 

It would not be a surprise if we see another "replace a unit" draft, we need at least two playmaker Linebackers, and that is assuming we retain Channing Crowder.

If we do not, we will head into to 2009 with an overachieving type of LB Corps, Tuna may break out into hives, so strategically, LB/DE type in rd#1, OLB rd #2 A, and ILB rd #2 B.

Tuna had a penchant for taking NT in the later rounds, the skill guys during a rebuild are taken earlier.

 

That's the stereotype, but it's not really true. Teams run more often to whatever side is their best side. Here's Football Outsiders breakdown, which has 25% of carries going Off-tackle/B-Gap to the left side, and 24% to the right side league wide for example.

Our best run blocking side, if it isn't now, is very well likely to be in the near future the side that Jake Long is on.

I don't think you can say he moves like a guard, as fast and as agile as he has proven to be. Would he theoretically need technique work? Sure.