Preseason Game 1

[texaspackerbacker]

As I said, it should be no problem to keep 7 WRs (see my roster breakdown in post #64 above). I'd really hate to see us throw away St. Brown who I still think is gonna be good. I think all things considered, I'd even keep Malik Taylor over Funchess. With 53 and 16 on the PS including several veterans, we shouldn't need to lose anybody worth keeping.

[pittstang5]

I know this is a little late, but I finally got to watch most of the 1st preseason game from the NFL Network replay. I only watched to about the 3rd quarter, but I have some questions/concerns and maybe some could offer their insight/opinions.

Love: Looked ok, not great, but not horrible. O-line didn't look good, but hardly any starters were playing. The new center looked pretty good.
J. Jackson: Holy crap, what a tire fire! Seemed every completion the Texans had was against him. He had one good pass break up in the end zone, but that's it. Kinda glad he's gone.
Runyan: From what I saw, he didn't impress me. I was hoping he'd make a big step. Thoughts?
Dexter Williams: Did he play - did I miss him? He was a higher pick a couple years ago, right? Where's this guy at?
Burks: New system seems to be working for him. Hope it lasts.
Funchess: Looked pretty damn good. Gonna be some tough decisions with the WRs come cut time. In my opinion, Adams and Rodgers are safe bets. Cobb - most likely safe (you usually don't trade for a player and then release them). The rest - Funchess, Lazard, MVS, St. Brown and Taylor - one or two could be traded or released. No one thought Sitton would be released that one year, so who knows.

[run pMc]

As I said, it should be no problem to keep 7 WRs (see my roster breakdown in post #64 above). I'd really hate to see us throw away St. Brown who I still think is gonna be good. I think all things considered, I'd even keep Malik Taylor over Funchess. With 53 and 16 on the PS including several veterans, we shouldn't need to lose anybody worth keeping.

Mostly agree. I was a big fan of ESB in the draft and surprised he dropped all the way to R6 for GB, but he can't stay healthy and hasn't really done much. I think they could stash him on the PS.
Re: your breakdown, I mostly agree but would rather keep an extra defensive back (most likely a CB) than a WR. 5 CBs feels light to me (especially if King is one of them), and Tonyan and Jones get pretty involved in the passing game anyway.

[bobblehead]

I know this is a little late, but I finally got to watch most of the 1st preseason game from the NFL Network replay. I only watched to about the 3rd quarter, but I have some questions/concerns and maybe some could offer their insight/opinions.

Love: Looked ok, not great, but not horrible. O-line didn't look good, but hardly any starters were playing. The new center looked pretty good.
J. Jackson: Holy crap, what a tire fire! Seemed every completion the Texans had was against him. He had one good pass break up in the end zone, but that's it. Kinda glad he's gone.
Runyan: From what I saw, he didn't impress me. I was hoping he'd make a big step. Thoughts?
Dexter Williams: Did he play - did I miss him? He was a higher pick a couple years ago, right? Where's this guy at?
Burks: New system seems to be working for him. Hope it lasts.
Funchess: Looked pretty damn good. Gonna be some tough decisions with the WRs come cut time. In my opinion, Adams and Rodgers are safe bets. Cobb - most likely safe (you usually don't trade for a player and then release them). The rest - Funchess, Lazard, MVS, St. Brown and Taylor - one or two could be traded or released. No one thought Sitton would be released that one year, so who knows.

In order:
Love is a rookie starting his first game in almost 2 years behind the backup OL. I'm not too worried. He actually did pretty good considering,
Well, Jackson is gone now so...
Runyan had enough tape last year that I'm not panicked, but disappointed. But he will be my 2nd most watched player tomorrow.
Dexter was a 6th I think. Never showed much. They say its his best camp, but I labelled Kylin Hill the steal of the draft and I'm sticking with it. That leaves Dexter looking in from the PS.
Burks: My most watched player tomorrow. He may have finally learned to read keys and it could be the new system. Hard for me to be convinced after one game though.
Funchess: Gone, he doesn't play ST. Good thing is he might play himself into replacing the 6th we gave up for an older lesser receiver who will make the final cut.

[texaspackerbacker]

I saw the game late. Love looked mediocre - about the way I expected him to look. You could make a case for Benkert actually played better.

Several other thoughts after seeing the game: Jackson overall has been a disappointment, and probably good he's gone. That being said, though, I didn't think he looked as bad as so many had been saying in this game. Houston was throwing in his direction, and yeah, he got beat, but not really beat bad, just good passes when his coverage wasn't terrible.

Oren Burks obviously looked good, and as I've said, I was never as down on him as so many others. However, after watching the game, I'm not quite as positive as I hoped after reading about him. He looked fast, as we all knew, and he made some good plays, but I also saw him overrun a couple and look a little bit lost a couple of times, especially in pass coverage. I also will be watching him - better an athletic high potential guy stepping up than a lower potential guy.

Kylin Hill looked decent, maybe even good. I really didn't see any Aaron Jones-type burst from him, though - after the glowing reports from practice. Patrick Taylor and Dexter Williams looked about as good as Hill. With the practice squad rules, though, we should be able to keep all three - 4 RBs on the 53 and the other on the PS.

Funchess honestly didn't look like anything special to me (of course, I went into the game not liking him, but whatever). I will be very much pissed off if St. Brown gets cut and Funchess and/or Malik Taylor kept. Here too, though, we should be able to keep them all - 7 on the 53, hopefully including St. Brown and Taylor, with Funchess on the PS, although that probably isn't likely. Maybe he will go to the PUP list with his minor injury and be available later if somebody gets hurt.

That "deep" O Line looked about like I expected too - deeply mediocre without the two Aarons, Rodgers and Jones, to make it look better than it is. Yeah, I know Jenkins wasn't there and Bakhtiari and others too, but those who were playing couldn't handle a pretty bad D Line.

The place we seem to have a lot of depth is Safety as well as probably Corner too. In addition to the two obvious starters, Vernon Scott, Henry Black, Gaines, etc. also seem pretty good.

J.K. Scott with his slow big steps looks like a blocked punt waiting to happen. I hope they consider replacing him with somebody cut late from other teams.

The big guy, Slaton, looked good. Heflin looked fairly good, Previlon looked at least ok. ALL of them looked better than Lancaster and maybe even better than Lowery last year.

[texaspackerbacker]

double post

[texaspackerbacker]

Mostly agree. I was a big fan of ESB in the draft and surprised he dropped all the way to R6 for GB, but he can't stay healthy and hasn't really done much. I think they could stash him on the PS.
Re: your breakdown, I mostly agree but would rather keep an extra defensive back (most likely a CB) than a WR. 5 CBs feels light to me (especially if King is one of them), and Tonyan and Jones get pretty involved in the passing game anyway.

I wish King wasn't one of them, but I really don't see any way around it. I agree about keeping an extra Corner or Safety, but I'd do it by reducing the O Line from 10 to 9 - O Linemen aren't much for special teams anyway and assuming that "depth" really is quality, not mediocrity, an extra one can be put on the PS. They already seemed to be trying Runyon as the backup Center ahead of Hanson. so maybe Hanson gets PSed.