A lot of people are disturbed by the things that the front office has done that seem to indicate that we are looking at drafting a QB. I'd like to go on record as saying that there is no way that we are drafting a QB high this year. The reason that we are looking at these guys has to do with the reformatting the draft, as well as who is ahead of us on day two. More after the jump.

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I'm not crazy I get who they are, but that really is the essence of why I think we'll beat them. They are Manning's team and they've been built with that in mind. It's also why I think we can beat them.

Of course keep in mind a couple of caveats. 1) We have to be healthy at the very least get back the people we had for the last game. 2) Special teams has to be better. I don't know enough about them to say why we might prevail here.

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In the discussion of my other post there were some comments about this that didn't seem to agree with what I've been seeing. When I was playing sports ( a long time ago) I learned that when a team is playing over it's head it tends to make dumb mistakes, especially trying to hard mistakes like over pursuing. As I've been watching the team this is what I've seen.

It seems that the D-line is just not dominate, so they tend to bite on things. It seems to follow from there that the LB's are trying to hard because they've got a lot to make up for and they have to deal with o-linemen that should be occupied by the d-line. Because of this I think the way to correct the problem is to bring in at least one guy preferably to replace Peterson as starter who can truly dominate. You need at least one dominate guy on the D-line, and we don't have anyone that you could say is dominate. That's my reading of the problem. What have you guys got?

My Roster analysis in preparation for draft talk.

Let’s go ahead and start on the offense

O-line: I think that we have to start here so that we can take an honest look at the rest of the positions.

Center: Wiegmann is old, and he’s looked it this past year. With center however there is the question about making line calls, and that’s where he hasn’t dropped off. The line has been overpowered but they don’t look chaotic. I would like a brand new center that can step in and anchor the middle. I think that gives us the best versatility on offense. One who could take on NT and switch to whichever 4-3 DT needed it. But that’s a tough one to get, and this draft doesn’t seem to line up well for us to get theoretical that guy. The other problem here is that we don’t really have a back-up. Currently Hamilton is the only one listed and he looks done. I wouldn’t be too surprised if this is a place they bring in a FA and draft a guy a little later.

Guard: I think Kuper is fine, Hamilton is done, and Hochstein is a back-up. So what I would be looking for is a starter at Left Guard. The question that we can’t answer is whether Olsen is that guy or not. Maybe he’s third on the depth chart because Josh doesn’t like rookies, or maybe he just hasn’t shown much. So we either need a starter here or we need a back-up we’ll find out which one the FO wants.

Tackle: Clady is set, Harris is a question mark. I think it’s a small question mark I know that turf toe has ended careers but he’s young and he’s got plenty of time to get better for next year. Polumbus is a good back-up so I wouldn’t expect much more than reshuffling the 3rd string on this one.

RB: I think the biggest help we could get here would be interior line. Contrary to what some people think our stats are pretty good. We should be set with a starting duo of Buck and KM. It might be nice however to look for some kind of Darren Sproles type third stringer.

WR: I think we are set here, if we can resign Marshall. I know that there has been a drop off in production, but I don’t think that the guys have suddenly forgotten how to get open.

QB: Opinion is pretty split on Orton, a lot of people are arguing that he’s not the problem. That may be true but he’s pretty clearly not part of the solution either. It’s not just problems with the deep pass either, it’s the medium pass where his accuracy drops to sub 50%, and his pocket presence. He sacked himself in the Raiders game. Simms is gone. Brandstater is a question we can’t answer. Maybe he’s the heir apparent maybe he’s not going to make it out of camp next year. So when you have a QB who isn’t winning games but isn’t losing games I think you draft some kind of project QB in the third round or so, don’t break the bank and fill the other holes on your team.

Switching to Defense:

D-line: I think this is where we need the most help. We couldn’t stop the run in Oakland and we can’t keep our LB’s clean. Peterson at RDE is the big weak spot here and we could use an upgrade badly. I think people would be amazed at the change in our D with that upgrade. I would also like to see a dominate NT. Fields has been a bargain, but a dominate NT would change the game and let us do a lot more. McBean was just flat out a great find.

LB: I think that we are set at OLB. I think Ayers would be very impressive if we had a better d-line ahead of him. He get’s double teamed out of plays and that just shouldn’t be happening. Dumerville of course should be resigned. I think at ILB we should be set as well. I know that a lot of guys would like someone better in coverage than Davis, but he’s the guy who’s coming out in the nickel anyway. I also think that we would lose too much in leadership at this point. I think here’s a place that we put off addressing until next year. Maybe move Larsen full time to FB and get a back up there.

Safety: I think we are pretty set here. Hill and Dawkins are getting old but we won’t need to bring in guys to replace them until McBath and Bruton step into the starting roles.

Cornerback: Goodman and Bailey are doing great but like the safety position are getting up there. Law is a one year guy. Smith is a question because of the ankle sprain. Carter has played great…in one game. It just depends on what the FO thinks about the young guy’s ability to step up.

Okay it's a slightly inflammatory headline but I figured that for my first fan post I would make a splash. With that said it's still true. The game against  Baltimore highlighted some weaknesses that we'd been covering for, I don't however think that the world is ending just that other teams are going to try to do what Baltimore did.

On offense we are weak on the interior of the O-line and facing the B-more d-line was just too much for us. Ngata and Gregg was just too much for us. Orton is smart and good but he's not going to win the game with that kind of pressure. I think that other teams are going to really try to pressure us up the middle, I don't however think that other teams have Ngata and Gregg so I think we'll see it, but it won't work as well for other teams. There was just too much pressure to take advantage of their secondary.

On Defense our d-line is just not good enough to demand the double teams that are going to keep the Tackles off of the OLB. But let's be fair about this Gaither and Oher are a good tandem, even with that there were times that we were getting pressure it just wasn't quite fast enough. A better d-line might have meant blocking the OLB with a RB or TE which would have made a huge difference. Again the Ravens have a pretty good tandem in Gaither and Oher so other teams aren't going to be able to nullify DOOOOOOOM with just their tackles like this, so even if other teams try it I don't think they will succeed quite this well.

Really I don't think I'm saying anything that people here didn't already know and I still believe that we are going 18-1.