plus i just dont see Jason Taylor having more of an impact than an unmentioned guy by the name of Yeremiah Bell.
plus I think Ted Ginn is going to be up there. Then there is Ronnie Brown. He is an elite player. Fully recovered from the injury, he has the speed of the nfl down, he is ready to be a force.

my list

1. Cp/Henne (if cp goes down…then Henne immediatly fills this spot)
2. Ronnie Brown
3. Crowder – leader, agressive
4. Jake Long – sure grove is paid the big bucks, but Long protects our qb and is a Force on offense
5. Grove – Our inside run game must be improved. and that is what he is there for
6. Ferguson – Sure he’s old, but without him we just arent as consistent with Solai
7. Ted Ginn – has the skillset, limited with cp, but improving and should provide much excitement
8. Yeremiah Bell – he really makes this defense go. A leader in the secondary and simply makes plays
9. Will Allen – right now our starting corner, has the experience and is always able to contain dolphin killer lee evans. Plus he’s gathering his interceptions…
10. Tossup – Vontae, Smith, Langford. – Langford silently excelled last season. For Vontae and Smith they are young but we have a lot of big, and physical recievers in our division and we face many more throughout the schedule so we will have to call on these guys to help contain them. Good for us is that they are both big, fast, and they are playmakers.

X-Factor – Peezaylor – If they can apply the pressure…our defense is going to be that agressive, fiery, in-your-face kind that is going to be exciting to watch

we didnt address the DT position. ferguson was out for a lot of the snaps and out run def really suffered when he wasnt in there.

Kickers need some love, too!!!!!!!

I actually agree with pretty much everythign you said.

I would have put Ricky in the Honorable mention. Ronnie needs Ricky to step up and give him a spell so Ronnie can be the stud RB we all know he can be.

I’m probably most concerned about Grove, because we gave him a ton of money to come be what we all hope he will be. He has to prove he was worth it.

I would probably have added Wake on there. We need him to prove he is worth coming to the NFL and we need the LB help. I know we are stacked up with a lot of guys at the LB position, but we need it to stop the run. With Ferguson plugging up (all of the (cause he’s a big dude, get it?!?)) holes, we need the LBs who can get in there and shut down these RBs.When you take into account that Peezy and JT are pass rush specialists (yes, I know they can do more, but generalizing), we need Crowder, Wake, Ayodele, Torbor, and the other 7 (look at the roster, I counted) LBs we have to be run stoppers.

Okay, this was long enough. Great job Matty. And, this should be a great way to get some conversation going before the season!

Very good as always! I’m hoping the rooks do good but I’m not expecting to much because they are rookies. I’m wondering about Cameron Wake, Wilson, & Grove.
Thanks,
Emmett Dove

Power Rankings: Who we need to perform there best by importance.

1. CP10- The Captain of our much-improved offfense.
2. Jake Long- vital for our Run and Pass Game, he needs another great season to solidify a top 5 OL status.
3. Grove- A healthy, solid O-line is the difference if we can make the playoffs or not. I can guarantee that.
4. Ted Ginn- Will need need to be a leader to our young reciever core with TONS of potential.
5. Channing Crowder- Probably the one guy on our defense we will miss most due to an injury.
6. Jason Taylor/Joey Porter- They need to collectively wreak havoc or one needs to stand out and show that the older vets still got it.
7. Ronnie Brown- I’m not too worried about #23. If he stays healthy all season, expect alot of touchdowns and even more highlights.
8. Gibril Wilson- Could become that missing piece we needed. The difference between misreading/getting scorched by the AFC East receivers and becoming that big hit presence in the backfield is crucial for our success!
9. Vontae/Smith- 2 rookies. 2 completely different playing habits. They need to either compliment each other or collectively work to contain names such as Moss, Owes and Welker.
10. Ferguson- Without him I can see backs easily slipping by the linebacker position on every carry.

Agree? Think I’m an idiot? Both? lol

… my reasoning is because of the battles at these positions, and need for someone to imerge as the prominent player. The team needs these positions settled in a big way.

At #6, the “other” corner… whether that be Green(?), J. Allen(?) Vontae or Smith.

At #7, the “other” safety… whether it’s Wilson, Culver or Clemons.

At #8, the “other” outside linebacker… whether it’s Taylor, Moses, Wake or Roth.

Putting a name rather than the position suggests that they are already the starter. While I agree with the other names as starters, I don’t think we can name Smith, Davis and Taylor as the starters at this time.

my most anticipated FA pick up.

but i might substitute Roth for Taylor on your list, since Roth taking the “next step” would be bigger than Taylor taking a step back, which is what he will do in the best case scenario as a pass rush specialist only.

though I might have worded it a bit different so perhaps there is a matter of semantics at work.

Taken strictly in a purely literal sense I would say the top 5 most ‘important’ players to this team’s success might be (and this can be argued):

Chad Pennington
Jake Long
Ronnie Brown
Joey Porter
Jason Ferguson

If Jake Long can’t protect the QB, then we are in a world of trouble. In addition, he was drafted #1 overall a mere year ago so he’s obviously a player of paramount importance – much more so I think than JT, the rookie corners, etc. If Ronnie Brown goes down for the year in game 1 then again, we’re in trouble.

The assumption with Matty’s list though – as I read it – is more along the lines of the most important players with the added caveat: most important guys for which we are less sure of their performance, whether because of past injury history, age, etc.

That would explain why the rookie corners make his list as we obviously have no idea what they’ll perform like – they could be total flops, so-so, or pretty good. Whereas most of us would bet that Will Allen will be at least solid if not better. Even though Allen continuing his play as our top corner, I think, is more important than whatever Smith & Davis do initially.

If they aint cohesive as a team, then it does not matter how well any one or ten of ’em play individually. Sort of like a season-long hook & lateral