With the draft and the first wave of free agency know in the books, the next 90 days or so until the preseason holds camps as well as Free Agency II. We all know we need a DT, preferably a NT, but there are options.Rashad Moore and Johnathan Babineuax are pretty much what we have and there are options. Here are a few:
1. Marcus Tubbs, Seattle: The Seahawks currently have Red Bryant, Larry Tripplett, Rocky Bernard, and Brandon Mebane. Tubbs would possibly be available. He is young (26 years old) and has had productive seasons. He didnt play in 2007 and In 2005, he had 40 tackles and 5.5 sacks. Not elite numbers, but productive.
2. Montae Reagor, Philadelphia: Mike Patterson, Trevor Laws, Broderick Bunkley, and LaJuan Ramsey are all on the roster, so Montae Reagor could be up for grabs. He was a mainstay on the Colts defensive for some time at DT and could be a valuable asset for us. THe downside is his age (30) and his inability to play and start all 16 games (accomplished once in 2004 [41 tackles and 5 sacks].
3. Grady Jackson, FA: A familiar face to Falcons fans, Jackson is the run stuffing nose tackle our defense needs. While playing for us, he led the league in TFL, but was cut by Petrino for some reason not connected to his production. with Mike Smith now in office, Jackson may be reunited with the coach who brought him to Jacksonville after he was cut.
4. Rod Coleman, FA: Rod Coleman is a pass rushing UT that was a solid player for us for years. We do have Moore and Babineaux, but Coleman starting under a restructured contract is an improvement. Injured last season, the previous three years he compiled 28 sacks, the most smong DT in that span, averaging 9.3 sacks per year.
I think we should take back Grady and Rod before its to late, because we can get them cheap and they have experience on the team so it won't be to hard on them.
It depends on who has to be taken off the roster to make room for them. Grady and Rod would definitely be an upgrade and improve our team. I just don't see Dimitroff and Smith doing it, in interviews they seem pretty keen on Lewis and that DT we got from the pats. I am hoping we at least bring one of those guys back...
We need to get Grady and Rod back to help our defense. The DT position is one we haven't addressed in the draft so lets get Grady and Coleman back to help boost our defense.
I'd like to see Grady as a backup fifth DT just as an insurance policy, but I don't hold any illusions that he'd be a major upgrade as a starter over Rashad Moore. His age and physical conditioning will limit his playing time. Even if Grady started, Moore would have to play at least 40% of the defensive snaps.
If the team sticks with four DTs, odds are that Moore, Moorehead, Babineaux and Lewis are our men in the middle. We haven't seen Moore and Moorehead play yet, but Smith and Dimitroff are really big on these guys. If they keep Tim Anderson and Montavious Stanley off the field, that alone is a really big upgrade over last season.
Just remembered a new fact. NFL Europa no longer exists. This, in turn, prevents teams from keeping 80-90 players on their squad by stashing some into NFL Europa. With the 80 player limit and the average number of players per roster being 83, players will be cut and trades will happen, possibly allowing us to get a DT in that way.
Last year's limit was 90 players plus the five that each team allocated to NFL-E. So this year each team will be carrying 15 fewer players in training camp.
The change won't be as drastic as it sounds though. Most teams carried a bunch of extra undrafted rookies to field a full scout team in camp. Those guys were mainly auditioning to make the practice squads. The lower roster size means more of them will be available at all times than last year, but they would all have been available anyway right after the third preseason game.
The only eight teams that should see a real impact are the Argonauts, Alouettes, Roughriders, Stampeders, Eskimos, Blue Bombers, Tiger-Cats, and the BC Lions.
