Phew! Glad to look at our 53 man roster decisions without having to pull my hair out
I was actually reading comments last night on Field Gulls and some people there where thinking we should keep 7 WR's instead of 5 RB's because that 5th RB would likely not really contribute whatsoever (listed inactive etc.)
While I theoretically beleived that keeping 7 WR's would be awesome since we are so stacked with talent, I kinda wrote it off as a realistic possibility. This is the first off-season I've really followed closely and I never heard
any experts or media guys predict we would keep 7...
But after reading some of those comments on Field Gulls last night it kinda seemed like a no-brainer to keep 7 WR's.
All 7 of those guys can immediately contribute to our team's offense or special teams and they are all REALLY good.
Not surprised at all about Walters being cut, I was probably the harshest critic of him on this forum from what I've seen. I just don't think he's that good at all. He makes the most of what he's got but it's not very impressive and I beleive we were seeing his best this preseason. I think Walters had little to no room for improvement unlike Bates, Norwood (might already be a total beast), and Richardson. Walters is simply not worthy of being on a Super Bowl Champion team. I thought all along Bates was the most likely guy to challenge Lockette for that 6th spot but Lockette seems irreplaceble on special teams and he's been money as a receiver with his nutty speed.
Long story short, this 7 WR lineup is PERFECT we couldn't have done it any better imo.
The only thing I disagree with is keeping 3 Tight Ends, I have little faith in Helfet's ability but maybe he'll prove me wrong. It just seems like a healthy Zach Miller and Luke Willson would be all the TE's we could possibly need.
So where would that 1 extra TE spot go to? I was thinking Keiro Small, but admittedly I was maybe riding the hype train a little bit just because of a few highlights I watched of him from college, and everyone here seems to be in love with him. He looked decent but I don't agree in the slightest bit he should make the team over Coleman. I think Coleman is extremely underrated.
Coleman caught 8/8 passes last season and I can't think of him making one single bad play, every time I notice him he's doing great... so not sure what's with all the Keiro > Coleman talk honestly.
I thought Keiro should make the team but keeping 3 TE's I'm guessing knocked him off which seems like the only bad move to me on our 53-man roster. I really don't know enough about Helfet, maybe he'll prove me wrong but at this stage I'd much rather have Keiro Small.
Everything else looks great to me except I have no idea about this guy:
NB2 Marcus Burley, 5'10, 189 (via trade)
It also seems a little excessive to me to keep 9 DB's, do we really
need that much depth? Maybe these guys are just the most injury prone or something, this is the first off-season I've really followed closely so maybe 9 DB's is just standard business?
All in all I'm really loving our final 53, literally the only change I would make is to remove Helfat for Keiro Small.