The 2022 Offseason Thread

[JoeyFlex5]

Mike Davis is a mad underrated signing for us. Don’t be shocked if he challenges Gus and maybe even becomes rb2. And I’m a BIG Gus fan. He’s lowkey a really talented rb who’s got breakout potential by going to the right system, and this dude is tailor made for this system

 

[rossihunter2]

Mike Davis is a mad underrated signing for us. Don’t be shocked if he challenges Gus and maybe even becomes rb2. And I’m a BIG Gus fan. He’s lowkey a really talented rb who’s got breakout potential by going to the right system, and this dude is tailor made for this system

Davis adds some value with his play out of the backfield - but i watched far too much of him last year and he was... not good - better than anything we had on the roster healthy but idk that this guy necessarily beats out justice hill, let alone Gus or Badie

 

[Davesta]

I follow Kahlil cause he likes the UFC and anime. He’s probably a PS player at best with him transitioning to OL, but bruh… look at this dudes calves. Dudes a unit

 

[allblackraven]

Nothing to do with contract but funny.

 

[UPennChem]

Anyone want to meta analyze this?

 

[UPennChem]

If you think about it, whether it's Tyree or Cleveland or even Mekari at LG this year, presumably we're gonna get a decent increase in quality of play there.

You have the potential to have LT significantly improved.
You have the possibility of C being improved.
You have Nick Boyle
You have Lamar! (Cleveland played the last 4 games with Snopp)
You'll have the running backs

This just means the line is going to be better in and of itself, but every piece around it will be better too. If Cleveland as a rookie was not awful in an absolutely terrible situation, imagine him in his second year, with better guys around him at every position. And with teams actually having to fear the run unlike last year.

Even if it's Phillips or Mekari, LG play should improve.

 

[rossihunter2]

Anyone want to meta analyze this?

i mean coach evans in the beginning even prefaces the fact that this is a slightly flawed way of looking at his play - was merely looking at it in did he lose his assignment yes or no way which is highly over-simplified

that being said i do agree that the steelers game vs heyward was easily his best game of the 4 to finish the season - and definitely understandable why the rams game vs aaron donald would be his worst

i do think it's pretty telling that ben powers was seemingly the 1st team LG in the offseason so far with Tyre the 2nd team LG with Cleveland the backup RG... obviously lots of time to change that up and it's most likely going to be an open competition but i think it's somewhat indicative of how they feel about Cleveland that he didnt keep the job despite playing 100% of the snaps the final 4 games as a young guy... if he'd truly done as well as the percentages and "success" in the video, he'd be the clear incumbent and not just 1 of the 3 or 4 guys competing and not even seemingly getting first (or second) crack

i think it's definitely worth saying though, that if he continues to progress, that he's a better natural pass protector than ben powers already... plays with good awareness and looks for work when uncovered and processes decently well - i just dont think he's got that nasty or finish in him and i think that's why ultimately ben powers was preferred to him last year

 

[rossihunter2]

If you think about it, whether it's Tyree or Cleveland or even Mekari at LG this year, presumably we're gonna get a decent increase in quality of play there.

You have the potential to have LT significantly improved.
You have the possibility of C being improved.
You have Nick Boyle
You have Lamar! (Cleveland played the last 4 games with Snopp)
You'll have the running backs

This just means the line is going to be better in and of itself, but every piece around it will be better too. If Cleveland as a rookie was not awful in an absolutely terrible situation, imagine him in his second year, with better guys around him at every position. And with teams actually having to fear the run unlike last year.

Even if it's Phillips or Mekari, LG play should improve.

i dont know that it's guaranteed to get better - it likely will just because all the options are back and healthy and a year older (and hopefully better) - but i'd say it'd be very difficult for the play to get worse on that left side than it was last year

 

[UPennChem]

i mean coach evans in the beginning even prefaces the fact that this is a slightly flawed way of looking at his play - was merely looking at it in did he lose his assignment yes or no way which is highly over-simplified

that being said i do agree that the steelers game vs heyward was easily his best game of the 4 to finish the season - and definitely understandable why the rams game vs aaron donald would be his worst

i do think it's pretty telling that ben powers was seemingly the 1st team LG in the offseason so far with Tyre the 2nd team LG with Cleveland the backup RG... obviously lots of time to change that up and it's most likely going to be an open competition but i think it's somewhat indicative of how they feel about Cleveland that he didnt keep the job despite playing 100% of the snaps the final 4 games as a young guy... if he'd truly done as well as the percentages and "success" in the video, he'd be the clear incumbent and not just 1 of the 3 or 4 guys competing and not even seemingly getting first (or second) crack

i think it's definitely worth saying though, that if he continues to progress, that he's a better natural pass protector than ben powers already... plays with good awareness and looks for work when uncovered and processes decently well - i just dont think he's got that nasty or finish in him and i think that's why ultimately ben powers was preferred to him last year

So what's really going on though with Powers? Is he a legitimate option for Week 1 starter? We keep acting like he isn't, but idk Iif we should be so confident that he won't. Especially as you stated he's been LG1 so far.

Also what is up with Mekari? Does he have a chance to win that job? As you'll see in my other post, I'm not too worried. Whoever it is, I think will have a better season than last.

 

[UPennChem]

i dont know that it's guaranteed to get better - it likely will just because all the options are back and healthy and a year older (and hopefully better) - but i'd say it'd be very difficult for the play to get worse on that left side than it was last year

Exactly! And that's a good thing. I think we're really going to see a pretty well oiled offense next season.

It's never gonna be the Bills or Chiefs offenses, but I think it's gonna hum

 

[JoeyFlex5]

i mean coach evans in the beginning even prefaces the fact that this is a slightly flawed way of looking at his play - was merely looking at it in did he lose his assignment yes or no way which is highly over-simplified

that being said i do agree that the steelers game vs heyward was easily his best game of the 4 to finish the season - and definitely understandable why the rams game vs aaron donald would be his worst

i do think it's pretty telling that ben powers was seemingly the 1st team LG in the offseason so far with Tyre the 2nd team LG with Cleveland the backup RG... obviously lots of time to change that up and it's most likely going to be an open competition but i think it's somewhat indicative of how they feel about Cleveland that he didnt keep the job despite playing 100% of the snaps the final 4 games as a young guy... if he'd truly done as well as the percentages and "success" in the video, he'd be the clear incumbent and not just 1 of the 3 or 4 guys competing and not even seemingly getting first (or second) crack

i think it's definitely worth saying though, that if he continues to progress, that he's a better natural pass protector than ben powers already... plays with good awareness and looks for work when uncovered and processes decently well - i just dont think he's got that nasty or finish in him and i think that's why ultimately ben powers was preferred to him last year

Plausible to me that they just don’t give Cleveland an incumbents position because they wanna see him earn it, Cleveland doesn’t strike me as being the hardest worker.

 

[UPennChem]

I wanna see Justin Houston in MM defense. He had 4.5 sacks but led the team in pressures and hits. If we see an overall improved defense from the infusion of new talent, returns from injury, and updated scheme, look for a slight uptick in performance from JH. Maybe 6.5 sacks.

Oweh had 5. You'd really hope for him to take a step and get towards 8 or 9.

If you get what you got out of Bowser last year and anything between Hayes and Ojabo pans out, we could see an improved pass rush.

I wouldn't expect a ton, but I would expect to be better.

 

[rossihunter2]

So what's really going on though with Powers? Is he a legitimate option for Week 1 starter? We keep acting like he isn't, but idk Iif we should be so confident that he won't. Especially as you stated he's been LG1 so far.

Also what is up with Mekari? Does he have a chance to win that job? As you'll see in my other post, I'm not too worried. Whoever it is, I think will have a better season than last.

i dont think we've seen nearly enough to make any concrete judgements

what i think is clear is that ben powers is very much still in the conversation at worst and more likely he's the guy who gets first crack this offseason

with mekari, it's tough to know what's going to happen - we'll get more clarity in training camp if/when we see what his role is - but he seemed to be repping at both C and LT in the limited things we saw during OTAs and minicamp and both with the 2nd team - but he's had so many starts at so many different positions it's possible that they dont necessarily think they need to see him at LG all the time for him to be in that competition - my guess is that they want one of Phillips or Cleveland to take the job and if they don't they'll probably be defaulting to either Powers again or Mekari and feel ok

worth noting there's been no contact practices or any training in pads - much more clarity to come from training camp especially with fans being allowed at practices

 

[rossihunter2]

Plausible to me that they just don’t give Cleveland an incumbents position because they wanna see him earn it, Cleveland doesn’t strike me as being the hardest worker.

it's certainly possible - but if that were the case i'd have assumed he'd be the 2nd team LG and Phillips would be the backup RG in those early offseason practices

at least put the young guy you're trying to develop in a position to work on the side he's competing on - also because there's gonna be a rookie C so even more important that there's someone next to the rookie who he can rely on

 

[JoeyFlex5]

it's certainly possible - but if that were the case i'd have assumed he'd be the 2nd team LG and Phillips would be the backup RG in those early offseason practices

at least put the young guy you're trying to develop in a position to work on the side he's competing on - also because there's gonna be a rookie C so even more important that there's someone next to the rookie who he can rely on

Fair enough

 

[rossihunter2]

I wanna see Justin Houston in MM defense. He had 4.5 sacks but led the team in pressures and hits. If we see an overall improved defense from the infusion of new talent, returns from injury, and updated scheme, look for a slight uptick in performance from JH. Maybe 6.5 sacks.

Oweh had 5. You'd really hope for him to take a step and get towards 8 or 9.

If you get what you got out of Bowser last year and anything between Hayes and Ojabo pans out, we could see an improved pass rush.

I wouldn't expect a ton, but I would expect to be better.

I think Oweh's so close - looking for more consistency with his snap timing (good luck to tackles if he consistently gets off the ball first) and his rush plan

what i really liked was how he hand-fights through the rep and finds adaptive secondary disengages through the rush - and i think that disengage is a tool to work

he also flashed some really intelligent and varied rush moves throughout the year - just want to see him be more deliberate with his rushes and continue to improve and i think he will

and i think houston is going to help him a lot - i also think Ojabo will help him if/when he gets back to the field because Ojabo was really intelligent and explosive with his pass rushes at Michigan (and notably improved over the season)

and you know im excited about Hayes who i think, with a good camp and preseason, can make himself a dangerous cog in this rush unit and allow us to get creative with Tyus again just like when we had Tyus and Judon on the roster together (which was a nightmare for OL to sort out at the OL in our blitz/stunt games)

 

[UPennChem]

i dont think we've seen nearly enough to make any concrete judgements

what i think is clear is that ben powers is very much still in the conversation at worst and more likely he's the guy who gets first crack this offseason

with mekari, it's tough to know what's going to happen - we'll get more clarity in training camp if/when we see what his role is - but he seemed to be repping at both C and LT in the limited things we saw during OTAs and minicamp and both with the 2nd team - but he's had so many starts at so many different positions it's possible that they dont necessarily think they need to see him at LG all the time for him to be in that competition - my guess is that they want one of Phillips or Cleveland to take the job and if they don't they'll probably be defaulting to either Powers again or Mekari and feel ok

worth noting there's been no contact practices or any training in pads - much more clarity to come from training camp especially with fans being allowed at practices

This makes sense. If neither big country can take it, would you prefer Powers or Mekari?

 

[UPennChem]

I think Oweh's so close - looking for more consistency with his snap timing (good luck to tackles if he consistently gets off the ball first) and his rush plan

what i really liked was how he hand-fights through the rep and finds adaptive secondary disengages through the rush - and i think that disengage is a tool to work

he also flashed some really intelligent and varied rush moves throughout the year - just want to see him be more deliberate with his rushes and continue to improve and i think he will

and i think houston is going to help him a lot - i also think Ojabo will help him if/when he gets back to the field because Ojabo was really intelligent and explosive with his pass rushes at Michigan (and notably improved over the season)

and you know im excited about Hayes who i think, with a good camp and preseason, can make himself a dangerous cog in this rush unit and allow us to get creative with Tyus again just like when we had Tyus and Judon on the roster together (which was a nightmare for OL to sort out at the OL in our blitz/stunt games)

Would absolutely love all this

 

[rossihunter2]

This makes sense. If neither big country can take it, would you prefer Powers or Mekari?

no real preference tbh - but if powers doesn't win the starting job, got to think he's either cut or traded for the cap space given he offers no positional flexibility and no developmental upside at this point in his career

 

[rossihunter2]

Would absolutely love all this

i think long-term, drafting Ojabo might help us because it meant we still had to bring in Houston but also opens up opportunities that may otherwise not exist for someone like Hayes

and also because we get a top 15 prospect in the 2nd round if we're able to stomach some delayed gratification... that doesn't hurt either