Guys we need to keep:
1. HHCD-We picked up his 5th-year option. Need to extend him mid-season for as many years as we can on top of the 5th-year option to lock him up.
2. Morgan Burnett-It makes no sense letting him go next year from a football standpoint. He's producing, smart, and not only a vet leader but a key communicator in the back end/glue connecting the LBs to the secondary as a "moneybacker". Is super valuable on-the-field and in the locker room. We should make provisions in order to retain him, regardless of if the market tries to pry him away from us. Losing him could have a similar effect in the safety unit that losing our experienced corners did a couple years ago.
3. Letroy Guion-I think that if he shows up to TC and plays well, cutting him due to the suspension/cap savings would be a mistake. I believe we're gonna need a 7-man DL rotation to effectively function defensively this year w/out the "elephant" position at our arsenal anymore. Nick Perry IS NOT an elephant end/OLB. He is a sturdy, plodding, standard OLB. Guion has quicks off the snap and could be very productive in a reduced role. I like having him, RJF, and Mike be the vets, while mixing them in with Kenny, Dean, and Adams as the young bucks. Throw in Price as the 7th man and the DL could be pretty nice.
Guys we could/should let go:
1. Christian Ringo-I don't see why he should make the roster this year. All of the 7 guys I mentioned earlier to me are better/have shown me something. Ringo=JAG. And not very much of that tbh.
2. Josh Hawkins/Demetri Goodson-I don't care about their measurables. We signed a slew of corners with good measurables as UDFAs this offseason, and I expect that we keep two of them and stash 'em on the P-Squad. These guys have been burned in live action. They're not good corners. Camp bodies only, and early cuts if necessary.
3. Joe Thomas-I actually like Joe. BUT-if we are going to be playing Morgan Burnett and Josh Jones as ILBs often-I think that we should consider letting him go. The reason isn't just because of the safeties, though. I believe Clay should be playing inside, rotating between the WILL or MIKE positions based on down, distance, offensive personnel, and defensive alignment. If we were able to do that, I'd think that a healthy Clay inside-with Jake Ryan and Blake Martinez-would be more than enough to cover the normal ILB duties. Joe isn't much bigger than Josh Jones, and Josh is faster/will eventually be better in coverage (considering technically he's not taken a live snap in a real NFL game yet). Letting Joe walk before the final 53 are announced would allow us to, for example, keep 7 OLBs on the roster, which I think makes a ton of sense given how injury-prone some of those guys have been that are penciled in for us. It would also allow Thomas to catch on with someone else. And who knows, maybe we have to sign him back like we did before? The possibility of, say, Nick Perry, Jayrone, Kyler, Reggie Gilbert, Vince Biegel, Johnathan Calvin, and Elvis Dumervil molding into a productive OLB core-with Jake, Blake and Clay as the ILBs (plus Josh & Morgan helping out inside)? I would be willing to be optimistic about the defense then...
