Where did you make this up from?

That the broncos could place Baker on the practice squad, becasue I believe that other teams could sign him off of the practice squad, so he wouldn’t be protected.

The jury is still out on Baker, basically becasue he was a rookie last year, and didn’t play. But I do believe he has a great deal of upside and size (6-3 326 lbs), and is cheap as a rookie free agent. I think you need to give this guy at least 2 more years to develope/play/show what he’s got before you give up on him.

my count is the same as yours, 2 pure DL players to get us to camp, for a total of 11 primarily DLs (some of our OLBs can play DE, but this is ignored for this kind of roster math).

I have it broken down a little further however, and I have us at 4/4 for NT/DT, and 5/7 for DT/DE. I also did some overall need analysis, accounting for 2011 and 2012 projections and likely draft strengths, as well as 2010 and the likely draft strength of this year.

DT/DE is relatively solid in terms of fielding our 2010 53-man roster, but Thomas, McBean and Pedescleaux are all bubble type producers, and all have contracts running out next year, so we need to really be pushing them hard, which means high quality acquisitions, or else we could end up right back where we started. I have DE/DT as our 4th most likely pickup as the offseason continues, 4th most important roster addition (which is my measure for longterm positional health), 5th most likely draft addition, but 3rd highest “draft impact” ranking (a measure of how important it is to get one of the best at a position). It is also tied for 3rd in my draft projection where I kind of put all that together and rank likelihood of a player being drafted high (high as far as his position is considered) by the Broncos.

I expect we will go into the season with only 7 DL, but 8 may be just what the doctor ordered to get our defense into the top ten. Ideally, we should be able to go with 7, though, which just makes it all the more likely that we still are looking at adding DL impact as the offseason continues.

With 7 DL, I would expect that we can cement in Fields and Williams, Bannan and Green. Then we should see Baker in competition to force us to carry an extra NT if he has a great camp, but I don’t really see him in competition with anyone. If he is particularly stellar, Fields may be released, as he is a bit of a wildcard. If he is merely progressing very well, we may decide to keep 3 NTs on the 53. If he is struggling… I hate to think about that. We are up to 4 or 5 DL at this point. the final 2-3 spots will be battled out for by Parker (not likely), Pedescleaux (borderline), Thomas (bubble), McBean (bubble), and at least one draft pick (I would prefer a high pick on someone with the tools to impact immediately) and another addition, either draft, CFA, or an as yet unsigned FA.

My prediction for most likely (best even) scenario is a high draft pick (1st or 2nd) will make the team(1/8), the Broncos will carry 3 NT in Fields, Williams and Baker(4/8), Bannan and Green will be in for sure (6/8), and then in no particular order Thomas-New Addition-PDX-McBean. With us keeping one but likely two of them.

I like Thomas’ toolset, but if we are talking about him at NT, I think he doesn’t make it through camp. As a DT/DE, I think he is well suited, but the defensive limbo of the late Shannyassic period didn’t do anyone any favors, so I could see Thomas struggling to make the cut over the guys who were brought in specifically by McX. But my full disclosure is that I like Thomas’ toolset the best out of this bubble group. McBean is very inconsistent, a problem that has plagued him since college, so I could also see him not making the cut if the competition can be elevated.

In short, we agree on much, Papi, but my bubble guys (Thomas-McBean-PDX-NewGuy#2) will be battling it out for the last two to three spots. I leave Baker out of the equation because it feels like he is only reasonably competing against Fields, but the nature of that battle means he may be better described as competing with himself, and if he does well enough, the Broncos will carry him. (And I agree that our NewGuy#2 will likely be a PS eligible guy, and I think PDX will be as well, so we have good options there with this particular training camp roster build).

Overall I like where we are, and if we can layer in a little bit young draft impact, I will like where we are going as well.

I don’t have a feeling yet on who we’d keep. Injuries often cull the group and make a decision unnecessary.

I’m going to pose another question: do you think we would send Baker back to the practice squad in order to make room for a new rookie? I could definitely see us drafting someone like Dan Williams, Corey Wooton, Arthur Jones, Tyson Alualu, etc. This draft is a veritable buffet of 3-4 defensive line prospects compared to the few draft classes I’ve payed attention to in my few years of actually studying it, and I really wouldn’t like to see the Broncos miss out.

It’s possible that we’ll be able to use Moss’ OLB spot. We can clearly get better on the DL even though it results in some painful decisions. Baker — despite our fondness for him — has a built-in advantage in that many teams deemed him as not worthy of drafting. I don’t think we have any untouchables so anything is possible. Despite what I said, the vets are vulnerable, too.

Re: Atkins. He’s an OLB/DE. I see 7 — L-DE: Bannan, McBean; NT: Fields, Williams, Baker; R-DE: Green, Thomas. And they could still re-sign Holliday because of his pass rushing skills. I admit to be stumped on this. Going with your thought, I see that DraftTek has us taking Clifton Geathers in the 7th, so maybe that’s the way to go — keep re-stocking with marginal players and hope that you can hold on to some. And that describes Baker, too, unless he shows himself to be more valuable.