[Note by Skin Patrol, 07/21/08 7:48 AM EDT ] Let this be the Training Camp open thread of the day, as I'll be in mediation until this evening, most likely.

Poor timing as I don't really have time to comment, but per Redskins Insider:

Vinny Cerrato just announced the Skins acquired Pro Bowl DE Jason Taylor from Miami for a second round pick in 2009 and a sixth-round pick in 2010.

The Skins assume the final two years of Taylor's contract as is, Cerrato said, with no re-negotiation (Washington had about $8 million in cap space prior to the trade, Cerrato said). Taylor has talked about playing just one more season before leaving the NFL for acting/Hollywood options, but Cerrato, Washington's executive VP of football operations, said, "I'm 100 percent confident he'll play more than one year.".

Is it or isn't it overspending? Much of that will depend on how Jason Taylor plays this coming season, but if this story is true I welcome him to the team with open arms given the great need we have on the defensive line after the Daniels injury.

More tomorrow.

This is infuriating.

Hat tip to drWNC for getting the story up in this FanPost. Per multiple sources, we'll start with David Elfin at Redskins 360:

We just got a tip that defensive end Phillip Daniels tore at least the ACL in his left knee. He just came into Redskin Park with a big brace on his leg and on crutches. His wife came to pick him up and take him home.

And Redskins Insider:

Jason Reid has learned that Phillip Daniels is out for the season and, while we are still pinning down the exact specifics of the knee injury, it is indeed season-ending, according to a source with knowledge of the situation.

I don't have much time to comment other than to say this is a huge disappointment and an enormous setback going into the season. There is no way to spin the loss of your starting defensive end (and sometimes defensive tackle) well. There is no addiction by subtraction here. Furthermore, Daniels is growing long enough in the tooth where one must wonder how many more season ending injuries his career can survive.

It is good news for others competing for a spot at defensive end, but not for Alex Buzbee. Both Insider and 360 report that he went down as well. It might end up being big news for Jason Taylor as there are now rumors that the Redskins are even more interested in his services now, for obvious reasons.

My only hope is that Erasmus James plays to the expectations of the 1st round pick that he was or that Chris Wilson develops into a more complete player.

Once more, this is horrible news for the defensive line. Without having played a single snap in 2008, we're already operating at 75%.

CptChaosSidekick already has the story but it is consequential enough that I had to write up my own thoughts as well. Today is a sad, sad day in Redskins history, as the team (I'm sure reluctantly) cut the greatest backup FB who happened to play tight end in College in history. My fan-heart is broken into a million pieces as I try -- fail -- to comprehend the horror, the horror. Per the Official Site, emphasis added somberly:

To make room for Thomas on the roster, the Redskins released fullback Pete Schmitt.

This isn't actually a surprise to me, since not-too-long ago I asked a person of interest who would know something about it whether Schmitt had any chance of surviving the cuts, and was told matter-of-factly that he didn't. Deep down I knew it was always a long shot, but damn me for loving the underdog.

My support for Pete Schmitt is well documented. After this space's interview with Pete, the first Hogs Haven player interview, Schmitt struck me as a classic overachiever experiencing what many of us only dream of. He also drank Miller Lite and Gin and Tonics, which only endeared him to me more. And now, unfortunately, he's been cut.

Best wishes to Pete Schmitt and I hope he sticks somewhere. Apparently I didn't root loudly enough. I apologize.

I guess congrats are in order for Lee Gibbons of The Redskin Report. Although he didn't say anything, he could have as he called Nemo Broughton as the sure-fire starter over Pete Schmitt many months ago. As per usual, my prediction turned out to be bogus. Lee Gibbons is a reliable commenter on all things Redskins, and he's right once more.

The good news is that Devin Thomas is now signed:

The Redskins have signed rookie wide receiver Devin Thomas, the team's top selection in last April's NFL Draft.

Thomas was the Redskins' second-round draft pick, 34th overall, in the draft.

Thomas was at Redskins Park on Friday morning, along with his agent Drew Rosenhaus, to sign the contract. It is a four-year deal, the team has announced.

Redskins Insider has the semantics:

Thomas will earn a max of $4.8 million in his deal, with $2.75 million as his signing bonus, according to a source with knowledge of the situation.

I never thought the team would have trouble signing Thomas so I'm not dancing in the moonlight over this, but good on the team for getting him under contract meaning one less thing to worry about during training camp. Speaking of TC, it hasn't received the coverage it deserves here and I apologize for that. As CptChaosSidekick pointed out, the Official Site has their own training camp battles to watch this season. It is:

PUNTER: FROST vs. BROOKS

SAFETY: DOUGHTY vs. SCHWEIGERT

THIRD CORNERBACK

FOURTH DEFENSIVE END

FIFTH WIDE RECEIVER

If I were to rank them in order of interest I'd say: Defensive end, then safety, then cornerback, then fifth wide receiver, then punter. Why?

Defensive End: I'm of the opinion, having watched the unimaginable happen when the Giants beat the Patriots in the last Super Bowl, that defensive line is the single greatest equalizer in the game. Am I relying too heavily on one anecdote that probably doesn't capture the larger scheme? Who cares, it makes for easier print. Andre Carter and Phillip Daniels are secure. The real issue is the trio of Erasmus James vs. Demetric Evans vs. Chris Wilson and how that shakes out. The good news to keep in mind is that we could end up with two solid backups plus a situational pass rusher. One carry-over from the Gregg Williams era I hope Greg Blache keeps is rotating the defensive ends in and out to keep them fresh (also we like to line up Daniels at tackle sometimes). Even if Wilson or Evans or James don't end up as the clear-cut backup DE, they still could make the roster and get some PT.

Safety: This is the Doughty show. My real interest in this is to see just how much of an overachiever he is; obviously the team didn't show tonnage of faith in his ability to be the starter as we went out and brought in some people to challenge him for position. Having said that, I thought he played reliably enough last season and would love to see him win the battle this time around. I noticed that Sean Taylor regressed a bit when Ryan Clark left town. I don't know if that wasn't just the result of a general decline in the total defense. I think chemistry at safety matters, anyways, and LaRon Landry has more with Doughty than anyone else on the team.

More Training Camp thoughts will follow this evening, but for now I'm taking the lady friend out to dinner and a movie (I am so, so cool). Get your thoughts in the comments section before I return to put you all to sleep. Cheers and thank ye Football Gods we're so close to the season.

First, apologies for my recent absence. Real life has interfered with a vengence and before I can cast it away I'll continue to be sporadically present. I anticipate return to normalcy sometime Monday.

Meantime, here's a quick update on Phillip Daniels on Shawn Springs, hat tipped to The Bog. The Times tells it:

Shawn Springs was the only player absent from the second session of the Washington Redskins' "voluntary" organized team activities yesterday at Redskin Park yesterday, and Phillip Daniels wasn't too happy about it.

"If there's no reason [for his absence] and I'm here, then be here, be a leader," said Daniels, who has been Springs' teammate for eight seasons with the Redskins and the Seattle Seahawks. "[Shawn]'s his own man. I'm a leader. I lead by example. I lead by being here. I'm not a rah-rah guy. He's not here to help us right now. ... He gotta deal with the way people perceive him. I can only say to him, 'Get here. Be involved with this.'"

I consider that pretty heavy criticism. I'm perhaps mistaken, but previously when a player was absent his teammates would overwhelmingly downplay the incident in support, saying things along the lines of, it isn't mandatory, he's keeping himself in shape, so on and so forth.

Jim Zorn can't get in touch with Shawn because, unbelievably, his voice mail is full. Even text messaging has failed, and this is the 21st century. In any event, Daniels expressed a softer side later in the article:

"I don't know if something's wrong," Daniels said. "I know he's going through a lot with his family, too. So I don't want to knock him too much until [I] get the full story, but I would love for him to be here."

Shawn Springs has been in the NFL a long time, and I've no doubt that once he gets on a field he'll know what to do and will perform just fine. However, no amount of experience can mend the perception his teammates have of him, and whatever it is "chemistry" means on defense, you don't develop it by practicing hundreds of miles away from the rest of the team.

The Bog has an exchange between Doc Walker and Vinny Cerrato, with the latter pointing out:

Vinny Cerrato: "Yeah, you know what, because I know he's in town and he works out with the boxing guy, and he was out in Arizona. I mean, it's no different than he did last year. I mean, Doc, you know why it doesn't really, it was the same thing he did last year. And you know what, and if I'm Shawn, I would do the same thing I did the year before. He had a great year, he didn't miss any time, was healthy the whole year. So, I mean, I expected him to go back to Arizona and do all those things, and he never talked to anybody last year either....You know, he's a mature guy. When he shows up, he's going to be in as good a shape as anybody on the football team."

Involuntary team events aren't miles away, so whether Shawn's voice mail is full or not, he's going to have to show up in the not-so-distant future.

AOL Fanhouse, Redskins' Phillip Daniels Calls Out Shawn Springs For Not Being At OTA

Full quote via Star Tribune, emphasis added (except for names):

Vinny Cerrato -- the executive vice president of football operations for the Washington Redskins, and a former Gophers recruiting coordinator who grew up in Albert Lea -- is in the Twin Cities for a family vacation. He said his team is confident that Erasmus James, the oft-injured defensive end traded from the Vikings to Washington, will be ready to play in the final two preseason games this fall. "He spent the last week down with Dr. James Andrews rehabbing his knee, and he had spent the previous few weeks with our rehabilitation guys, then he'll be back for the next three weeks rehabbing," said Cerrato, who believes the former first-round pick out of Wisconsin will play this year after not doing much in his three seasons with the Vikings. "What he wants to do is, in college he weighed like 258-260 [pounds], then when he went to the Vikings they wanted him big, so he was like 275. So, we wanted him back to where he was in college."

That's big news for James, who faces an uphill battle just to make the roster. He won't supplant Andre Carter or Phillip Daniels and so will need to steal a spot from either Chris Wilson or Demetric Evans or, alternatively, hope that the team keeps 5 DEs.

I think everyone here hopes, as Cerrato says, that he looks and plays more like he did in College than so far in the NFL. He was the 2004 Big Ten defensive player of the year (and, obviously, Big Ten defensive linemen of the year) and a first team All American. In the NFL? Nothing much.

Regarding the weight, if he's playing for Wilson's spot or a 5th DE spot, I am all about it. Anything he can do to speed up his pass rush is good, since that's all we've asked Wilson to do so far. And as a backup, backup DE, I'd love him as a situational pass rusher. But I don't know if I need him lighter and leaner if he's supplanting Demetric Evans. Evans is a complete DE (even if an uninspiring one) and is serviceable against the run. I doubt Daniels will start 16 games next year, so we'll need a run stopper on that line at some point next year.

Redskins 360 takes an early stab at the defensive depth chart and notices that we're going to lose at least one deserving player on the defensive line somewhere along the way. He says:

Defensive line (9)
Set: Phillip Daniels, Cornelius Griffin, Andre Carter, Anthony Montgomery, Kedric Golston, Demetric Evans and Lorenzo Alexander.
Competition: A bunch of players for two spots -- Chris Wilson, Erasmus James or Alex Buzbee as an athletic pass rusher? Does Ryan Boschetti continue to be a survivor at tackle due to his work ethic?
Prediction: Injuries could play into how many linemen are kept for Week 1. If Rocky McIntosh and/or Carlos Rogers aren't ready, that's bad news for the D-line. James is a wild card because he's coming off knee surgery. I really like the flash Wilson showed as a third-down pass rusher so he makes the team. James will get a shot on the final roster.

I'll tentatively agree on these locks: Daniels, Griffin, Carter, Montgomery, and Golston. I do not include Demetric Evans in that list because I'm not certain he's a better defensive end than Chris Wilson. I think he's a much better complete player than Wilson in that he's better against the run. I also think his experience is a positive. That said, in 14 games last season he had one sack vs. Wilson's four in 8 games. Having made that point, I would say that Evans' statistical resume on the whole last year was better than Wilson's, especially considering his 3 passes defensed and nearly twice as many tackles in less than twice as many games. None of that factors in snaps.

Why I'm down on Evans -- and let me be clear that I'm not down on him, I just think this might be the year he gets lost in a roster shuffle -- is he hasn't shown any growth whatsoever. He's the same player now that he was in 2004 when he came to Washington. Statistically he's been remarkably consistent, that is, consistently unremarkable. Tackles as a Redskin:

17, 17, 14, 19

Sacks as a Redskin:

2.5, 3, 2, 1

Stuffs as a Redskin:

3, 0, 2.5, 2.5

Etc. Not all of that is Evans fault because he might not be getting the requisite snaps to improve those numbers. But, then again, it's his job to win those snaps away from the people in front of him.

Was Chris Wilson so great? No, not really, but he at least showed more potential last season as a remarkable pass rusher than Evans has in four seasons. The team might end up being presented with a business decision: Do you take the reliable (if nothing special) veteran in Evans but by doing so sacrifice Wilson to the practice squad and, potentially, to someone else? Wilson could end up a great pass rusher in this league and we may never have the opportunity to realize his potential here in Washington if we don't continue developing him right now.

And what's to be done with Erasmus James, who was somehow one of the most talented College d-linemen just a few years ago yet has now found his way to our roster for a 7th round pick?

Defining the "problem": We have, by my count, more than nine defensive linemen who probably could make this roster but can't spend many more roster spots at this position. This list is end heavy as well; Griffin, Golston, Montgomery are the defensive tackles that Redskins 360 lists. Phillip Daniels can line up on the inside too, but he's also our starting end. And with injuries at linebacker and cornerback won't we have to burn some spots elsewhere?

Before I offer my own solution to this alleged problem, let's hear from reader(s). How do your own lists match up with Redskins 360's?

Phillip Daniels is strong.

Is that what passes for a lead/lede (the debate rages on!) around here? I'm just following the big dogs, as USA Today's Inside Slant demonstrates:

Phillip Daniels is 35.

That is hot off the presses, nine-minute old news, I'm told.

But, unfortunately, very true. Phillip Daniels is old. USA Today might as well have substituted his actual age for a descriptive adjective like elderly, ancient, or antediluvian if they were feeling especially saucy. On the let's-keep-smiles front, battle-tested, seasoned, or familiar would have worked.

Or just old.

The reality in the NFL is that actually quite young human beings can be approaching their professional twilight by their mid-30s, especially when that person's job description says something like: Must outrun or out power a large, probably younger superhuman.

At 35 I'm not certain how much success Daniels will have outrunning his younger opponents, but on this latter challenge there is some reason for optimism. Because though Phillip Daniels might be old in football years -- he's the third oldest on the team, behind Todd Collins and Ethan Albright -- he's strong even by football standards. Really strong:

And Daniels is certainly stronger. In his first competitive powerlifting event since 1999, the 6-4, 290-pound Daniels won his weight class with a 633-pound squat and a 600-pound dead-lift at the American Powerlifting Federation Nationals in March.

"That was in March so who knows what I can lift now?" Daniels said. "I took two weeks off (after the Jan. 5 wild-card loss at Seattle) and I went right into powerlifting. I hadn't done this since just before my last year in Seattle.

Not so coincidentally, that's when Daniels had a career-high 9.0 sacks, which resulted in a hefty, four-year deal with the Bears. And Daniels had 8.0 sacks with the Redskins in 2005, the healthiest of his first four seasons in Washington.

You've hooked me, USA Today, but I learn best with pictures. Six hundred pounds, huh? Consider:

via www.all-creatures.org

I'm told the feller on the left weighs 600 lbs. (Fat ass on the right is beyond even the comic strength of Daniels; he's a 700 pound tortoise.) There are no 600 pound offensive linemen in the NFL. As of this writing, I should add.

I must acknowledge that Daniels hasn't exactly been the sackmaster recently. His sack totals have steadily declined since 2005 from 8 to 3 to 2.5 last season. His tackles haven't moved in the right direction, either, from 48 total in 2005 to 37 in both '06 and '07. But tackling and sacks (and the latter requires the former) is not the only thing a defensive end can do to help the defense.

Sacks aren't some glorious end in and of themselves, even if fans love watching them. They're great because they kill the opponent's down while also taking from them some yards. Even when they fail to accomplish the yardage decrease by any substantial amount, sacks are still extremely valuable for the defense. A negative inches sack is still a useful means towards the ultimate end of forcing the other poor bastard to die three times then punt. Another, comparably debilitating means towards that end is swatting the ball down. It doesn't get the yards, it isn't nearly as sexy a stat as the sack, but it always kills the opponent's down and sometimes leads to an immediate possession change; batted passes sometimes get intercepted.

Phillip Daniels is a ball-hawk. At least in so far as the term can be used for defensive linemen.

See for yourself: Daniels can claim that he had more passes defensed than LaRon Landry last year. Only Shawn Springs, London Fletcher, and Fred Smoot had more. If you combined all the passes defensed by other defensive linemen last season it would be nine, or, the same amount Daniels had. Nine passes defensed.

I am not certain that all nine were swatted balls, but it's doubtful that the Redskins were often putting a 276 pound, thirty-something linemen into coverage. I also know that many of those passes defensed were balls swatted at or near the line of scrimmage, because I watched him do it. (CNNSI says 8 of them were, in fact, batted down at the LOS.)

Would I trade every sack for a ball swatted at the line of scrimmage? No, but it's close, or at least a lot closer than most fans would be willing to admit. And if you counted them as comparable than Phillip Daniels goes from an over-the-hill defensive end in steady decline in 2007 to similarly disposed towards ending the opponent's play as Andre Carter. Carter had 10.5 sacks and 2 passes defensed. Daniels very nearly swapped, with 9 defensed passes and 2.5 sacks.

Admittedly, none of that takes into consideration hurries or pressures or simply presence. At some point trying to turn Phillip Daniels in 2007 into Andre Carter in 2007 is asking reader(s) to deny what their eyes told them; Carter was the better defensive end. But I'm saying it's close, or at least closer than your eyes said.

Phillip Daniels is old. He does have twelve years, almost certainly his best years, of NFL experience behind him. Somewhere in the future a younger player is going to have to supplant him as the starter. But that doesn't mean he's finished tomorrow; the man still knows how to rush a passer with his head up, focused on the only really important thing in dispute, which has been, and always will be, the actual football. Also:

Phillip Daniels can lift a hippopotamus.

Hat tip to ReggieBullits for posting the news in this FanPost, but in case you weren't aware, Erasmus James is now a Redskin and, pending his physical, his former Vikings are now the proud owners of the Redskins 7th round draft pick in 2009. Per the Official Site:

"We really liked Erasmus coming out of college," executive vice president of football operations Vinny Cerrato said. "He's young and talented, and he has a great deal of potential. We like the fact that his defensive line coach at the University of Wisconsin--John Palermo--is our current defensive line coach."

This quote tends to confirm my suspicion that Palermo was the driving force behind this move. The article quotes Palermo as well, who calls James "an every down player." That's high praise for a player who has spent the majority of his young career not playing 1st, 2nd, or 3rd down; James has been plagued by injuries since joining the league. His best year, as the article notes, was by far his rookie season in 2005. Numbers (per NFL.com) in '05: 15 games, 9 starts, 23 solo tackles, 5 assists, 4 sacks, 2 passes defensed.

Numbers remainder through '06 and '07: 8 games, 3 starts, 7 solo tackles, 2 assists, 0 sacks, 0 passes defensed.

The concern with James' injury history is what prompted the team to condition their traded 7th round pick on the successful passage of a physical by Erasmus. That said, there really isn't much of a concern of James failing the physical here, at least per Redskins Insider:

The Redskins are not concerned about his ability to pass the medical tests and are viewing the deal with the Vikings as a completed trade even though James failed his physical with Minnesota. They aren't worried about it, and these physicals are often highly subjective as well with the standards varying by team. If you really want a guy to pass a physical and he has all his limbs then it can pretty much happen

The physical was supposed to take place yesterday but was moved to today. You'll only read about the physical here if Erasmus James fails the test, which I consider unlikely.

The good news on James is that he has a huge, huge upside. The former Big-Ten Defensive Player of the Year was the 18th player selected overall in the 2005 draft by the Minnesota Vikings out of Wisconsin. He's still just 25 years old and, despite missing two years to injury, has a lot of football in front of him so long as he recovers. His experience under new defensive line coach (formerly DC Greg Blache) John Palermo is also a big positive, as Palermo understands -- indeed, understood at Wisconsin -- how to get the most out of Erasmus. This is a good opportunity to revisit Palermo's bio:

Palermo spent the majority of his coaching career at the University of Wisconsin where he earned the title of assistant head coach-defensive line (1991-2005).

He produced four first-team All Americans, and his players were named first-team All-Big Ten nine times.

In addition, all four defensive linemen from Wisconsin's 2004 season were chosen in the 2005 NFL Draft.

And James was the first among them. The others? Jonathon Welsh, Anttaj Hawthorne, and Jason Jefferson. Haven't heard of them? Me either; Jonathon Welsh is no longer in the NFL, in any capacity as far as I can tell. Anttaj Hawthorne fell in the draft because of a positive test for marijuana, but he probably didn't fall far. His professional career included some actual game time but ended last year when the Raiders cut him; he's currently a free agent. Jason Jefferson is currently with the Bills but his days could be numbered. Lest it concern you that these last three all turned out to be fizzles, none of them were drafted 18th overall. Wels, Hawthorne, and Jefferson were all selected after the 5th round, which hardly guarantees a player a roster spot, let alone a successful NFL career.

Even if one granted the argument that James is sufficiently similar to Welsh, Hawthorne, and Jefferson, and that he was probably coached over his ability at Wisconsin, he happened to be coached up by current Redskins defensive line coach John Palermo. So, with James, we either have a steal at defensive end for a 7th round pick (that, as often as not, doesn't pan out anyways) or a chronic underachiever who happens to prove that our defensive line coach really knows what he's doing. Not a bad spot.

In the good-for-print version of this trade, Dan Steinberg has the notes on James' interesting past:

2) His father, Erasmus Williams, is the longtime press secretary for the prime minister of St. Kitts, leading to this excellent 2004 sentence issued from the Office of the Prime Minister: "BASSETERRE, ST. KITTS, NOVEMBER 9TH 2004 (CUOPM) - St. Kitts and Nevis Prime Minister Dr. the Hon. Denzil L. Douglas has congratulated Kittitian-born Erasmus James for his achievements in the Big Ten College Football Conference now underway in the United States." I'm pretty sure Dr. the Hon. Denzil L. Douglas is in line for an ESPN.com writing job.

He also plays Madden, probably as himself, as James is a respectable 82.
That would make him higher than all Redskins defensive ends but Andre Carter on our '08 Madden roster, thus supplanting Phillip Daniels at end. So we've got that going for us.

As good as this deal was for us, though that's only one man's opinion, I can't say it was bad for the Vikings. They were ready to cut James but ended up getting a 7th rounder for it, which helped us avoid having to duke it out on the wires for him in free agency. Per The Daily Norseman:

[T]he Vikings were able to recind their waiving of Erasmus James and, instead, trade him to the Washington Redskins for a conditional seventh-round pick in 2009.  The "condition," apparently, is that he makes the team.  Well, it's better than nothing. . .I don't see how he's going to pass another team's physical if he couldn't pass Minnesota's (you would think they'd be similar), but that's not for me to decide.

Though I disagree about the physical, if I were told that we were effectively ready to cut a player but instead got a 7th rounder for him, I'd be of the same tune; it is better than nothing. Which is precisely what the Vikes got for former Redskin turned former Viking turned current Redskin Fred Smoot, when they cut him last March. One year later, as CptChaosSidekick pointed out, Fred Smoot was considered the fifth best cornerback in the league last season ($) by KC Joyner. That's a precedent: give us your tired, your poor, your physical failing, your Vikings.

In sum, the bad news is that he certainly didn't do much in Minnesota to convince the peanut gallery that he had or ever would meet expectations, but then again he wasn't with the man who made him an 18th overall pick. Now he is. Even if he does fizzle out, it only cost us a 7th round draft pick. I think it's a great move to shore up a need position.

Football Outsiders has their post-draft analysis of the NFC East up, go enjoy. Author is a guest, one Mike McGibbon, and all seems to be in order in the story. I found no glaring errors, though I'm not sure the Redskins got, as McGibbon wrote, 10 draft picks as a result of our 1st round draft pick trade (I thought we gave up a 1st, 3rd, 5th ro a 2nd, 2nd, 4th. It's been a minute, though, so maybe my memory doesn't serve).

Either way, McGibbon knows a lot more about our undrafted free agents than I do, and thus I direct your attention to some guys to watch, per him:

Undrafted Free Agents

In all, the Redskins brought in 13 undrafted rookie free agents. Of those 13, four were offensive linemen. And of those four, Florida State’s Shannon Boatman and New Mexico’s Devin Clark may have the best chance to make the team, given that both started for most of their final two seasons. Dorian Smith, an All-Pac 10 first-team defensive end from Oregon State, will also challenge for a spot.

Quick look at the roster reveals that Shannon Boatman has already been lost. He, uhh, failed a physical. Tough break, guy. But both Dorian Smith and Devin Clark are, as of this writing, still with the team. The team has a lot of defensive ends (nine) and certainly more than we will by final cuts. Locks would be, in my opinion, Phillip Daniels and Andre Carter as starters with Demetric Evans and Chris Wilson backing up. Let's speculate that the team keeps 9-10 defensive linemen, and you have to imagine Kedric the Barbarian, Mt. Gomery, and Cornelius Griffin, with Lorenzo Alexander and Ryan Boschetti both in good position to make the team (although Alexander could make the team in any number of his superhuman capacities, so maybe he wouldn't even count as a D-Linemen). We're in need of upgrade on the defensive line, but that doesn't mean any rookie can just step in and take the spot of one of the more established veterans. That might've been the case a few years ago, but young linemen Anthony Montgomery, Chris wilson and Kedric Golston have started a youth movement at that position. Until Griffin and Daniels take the long walk, the Dorian Smiths of the world will have to earn a place on this team.

At offensive line I think recent injuries may encourage Coach Zorn -- a former expansion team quarterback who knew a thing or two about the perils of a bad offensive line -- to keep a larger than normal contingent of offensive linemen on the roster. Locks are the starters, obviously, in Jon Jansen, Randy Thomas, Chris Samuels, Casey Rabach, and Pete Kendall. I think Fabini and Stephon Heyer will probably be around as well. I hope Chad Rinehart makes the team, and he should. On Todd Wade I'm indifferent, as he hasn't done much to impress. We'll need to keep someone about to backup Casey Rabach at center; with versatile Mike Pucillo gone, the spot as of now belongs to Kyle DeVan, unless there is someone else on the team who can snap the football and block effectively.

Question to readers is: We've got a good crop of undrafted rookie free agents. These things are remarkably difficult to predict, and we are really at the mercy of the team in telling us who has impressed thus far, but is anyone willing to go on record on who will or will not make the roster? Who will be this year's Stephon Heyer (acknowledging that his position was aided in large part by factors outside control or prediction: injuries)? I'm aspecifically soliciting commentary on players local to reader(s) markets that maybe the rest of us haven't seen play so much.