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With the conclusion of the NFL Draft this weekend we now pretty much have our 90 people that are going to training camp in Flagstaff Glendale. We addressed a bunch of holes in our team from last year, with players that if they had been here last year we probably would of gotten into the playoffs.
The one position that most people thought was a need position was OT and OG going into this draft. I am not sure why people were thinking this as currently we are pretty sure we know what the left side of our line is going to be, and we currently have two positions under battle this coming training camp.
Locked up: Jared Veldheer is going to be our starting LT because he is, barring a injury, Jonathan Cooper is going to be our starting LG, and Lyle Sendlein is going to be our Center. There is no way that this lineup is not going to happen (again barring injury). The ironic part of this is out of all of our 13 linemen on the roster right now Sendlein is the oldest of all of them at a still young (for linemen) 30 years old.
Battle #1: For the position of starting Right Guard we are going to have a Earl Watford ( 4th round pick, last year) vs. Paul Fanaika battle in training camp. Fanaika a sixteen game starter last year who was a former 7th round pick has the leg up on Watford but I feel that if Watford is able to play even with Fanaika then the position is going to go that way as its Keim's guy and BA's pick. Loser gets to back up both guards.
Battle #2: Bobby Massie vs. Nate Potter vs. Bradley Sowell. The last open position on the line is going to go to one of these three men. Second place is backup, and third place is likely cut by the team. For Massie it is time to put up or shut up as I understand from sources that he is incredibly talented and lazy. (*cough Levi Brown *cough). Nate Potter has the skills to be a very solid backup and possible starter if he can beat out Sowell that I think would fare far better on the right side than he would of on the Left.
Surprise Upgrade: No matter what people say we actually did draft a lineman, a 6'6" 270 pound linemen that randomly goes out for a pass. TE Troy Niklas is a beast of a run blocker on this line that will make the job of our starting RT that much easier. I know we will have plays that he is going to be athletic enough to help seal the outside contain and allow us to get outside more as well as being able to "reach" someone to allow us to pick up blitzing backers or double a Tackle.
We didn't need to draft a lineman this year because at the Guard position we have a pick from last years team already on the roster, drafting another one would of been Keims admission that well that's a wasted pick when I don't think that is the case. And at Right Tackle we actually have three people up for that job. One of them is going to get cut if they don't make it so why put another person in that mix and waste another draft pick?
What do you guys think about our O-line. Did we need to draft later in the day or do you think we should continue to look at the people already on our team?