Clady-Hamilton-Nalen-Holland-Harris/Pears

It will all play out in camp, but I am going out on a limb and speculate the guards will be Kuper and Hamilton with Holland as back up. The Tackles will be Clady and Harris with Pears as back up. Centers as indicated. This actually gives us a great deal of flexibility as Kuper can move anywhere on the line in case two of any position go down. Whatcha think oh wise one?

the guy had a bad back last year. Give him time to develop! I think he’ll become solid at the BRAVO position. ;)

We get depth at both OT and OG this way (remember that Hamilton is a concussion possibility). As much as I thought Harris was coming along, there are too many signs (Coach promoting Kuper and CLady brought in) that Harris is not ready. Also, we just brought in some UFAs at OT. Was the big talk about Harris just a Denver propaganda trick to throw off other teams?

I dunno what to think but I think Pears is a starter. I think it will be interesting to see who ends up where for sure

Wiegmann was the KC Center, but played a lot of Guard as well. When he interviewed, he said he had no plans being a backup and would compete for a starting position at Center or Guard. If he has a good Camp, this could bump Hamilton, as I believe Nalen is a lock.

Don’t forget that K-Lich plays guard as well. As a Rookie, Guard may be the only position he will be getting any playing time on the Denver line.

Given your assumption that Kuper will start at RG or RT, and that Holland and Pears will stay at their current positions either as starter or backup, the question is who will Kuper displace? The logical answer, I think, is Pears if, as I suspect, the Broncos start their five best linemen. It’s not even clear to me that Kuper would beat out Holland, though it’s not clear that he wouldn’t, either. Pears has done better than anyone expected but I don’t know how nuch better he can get. I think it’s likely Harris will back up Clady, as you have penciled in. What I’m wondering is, how many o-linemen are we going to keep after the final cutdown? We let Myers go but picked up Wiegman, Lichtensteiger, and Clady, and have Hamilton back. Even if we carry one more than last year that probably means Harris, Lichtensteiger, and Pears are competing for the final roster spot. That means Lichtensteiger is looking at an uphill battle to make the team. If we put him on the taxi squad we risk losing him like we did Eslinger. Given how high Shanahan appears to be on Harris, at this point it looks like Pears or Lichtensteiger is going to be the odd man out, possibly both. We have to start developing a longterm solution at C soon, so if K-Lic is at all impressive they’re going to be motivated to keep him. One thing that might change this dynamic is Hamilton not being able to return to form. In that case Kuper could easily end up at LG, with Harris backing up LT and RT, and Wiegman LG, C, and RG, with either K-Lic or Pears going to the taxi squad. It’s interesting how our o-line, which recently looked so thin, suddenly looks pretty deep. Shanahan has done a brilliant job of injury-proofing this year’s o-line. If K-Lic is impressive (for a rookie) do you think Shanahan might keep him over someone who’s currently ahead in development but not necessarily in longrange potential? Wiegman has boght us time, so we can always try again next year and possibly even the year after that, but at some point we’re going to have to commit to our longterm solution at center.

The only certainty is that Nalen starts at Center if he is healthy, to be backed up by Wiegmann. Let’s call it very likely that Clady starts at LT from day one, as Shanny indicated. He has the ability to dramatically improve the offense right away, a la Joe Thomas in Cleveland, if he catches on quickly to the mental side of the game. I’ve heard he did badly on the Wonderlic, but to listen to the guy speak, you’d never think he was unintelligent, so him starting and succeeding from the jump-off seems reasonable to me.

What you have left is three positions to be filled by some combination of Ben Hamilton, Chris Kuper, Montrae Holland, Ryan Harris, and Erik Pears. I don’t consider Hamilton a sure thing, because of the concussion issue, and the fact that he hasn’t played football in more than a year. It seems pretty simple to me, without any linear programming, that you play the 3 best of this bunch, given Kuper’s versatility. You’re almost guaranteed to come out with 2 guards and a right tackle.

I think Pears is the worst player of the bunch, based on historical performance, and the odd man out. The best player historically is Hamilton, followed by Kuper, and then Holland. For now, I picture Hamilton at LG, Holland at RG, and Kuper at RT. If Harris plays well, bump Holland for Kuper potentially. In any case, the line is in good shape, personnel-wise.

As a side note, I expect Lichtensteiger to see no playing time on offense this season, and maybe a phantom injury puts him on IR, and Pears keeps his roster spot. How does a young OL group of Clady, Harris, Kuper, and Lichtensteiger look going forward, with a chance to grow together? I’ll take young players like that anyday.

Is there anything doing in a situational rotaion of our line. Some of our guys are better run blockers than pas sblockers and vice versa, do some guys come out on specific plays and such or what? My thought is Wigga whats it signed to be a starter so my thought is Clady-Hamilton-Nalen-Wigga-Pears with the rest of the group in situational backup. I think Harris backs up the T Kuper and the rookie back up the C/G rotation. Thoughts on this. I just dont see a starter signing to be a backup.

I would list Hamilton as the backup center if Nalen goes down, especially early in the season. He knows the system and the line calls better than anyone else so it seems natural that he would slide over to center (like he’s done before) and someone like Wiegmann, Kuper or Holland would move into the LG slot.

We could conceivably have five different players start 2008 than who finished 2007. Kinda doubtful, but you could have Clady, Hamilton, Nalen, Wiegmann, Harris as the 2008 opening day starters with Pears, Holland and Kuper all on the bench.