Keeping track of a team's dynamic roster gain/loss throughout the offseason is one of the keys to understanding their draft day moves and choices.  Enter Monitoring Team Needs, an at-a-glance way of checking up on your team's latest roster flux, as we count down through Free Agency, and into the days before the 2009 Draft.

Below is a table that breaks down this roster flux, showing who has come and gone, as well as updating the neediest areas of the team and some of the top names that have a good chance of being available when they pick in the Draft.  Draft prospects are linked to their Mocking the Draft Profiles and any names or positions highlighted in bold should be considered either to be positions of particular need and emphasis, or players of particular relevance and interest to the team's situation.  Below the chart we will discuss some of the names and situations described, and as always, you can join in on the discussion in the comments.

See you below the fold!

Continue reading this post »

 Seattle was as unremarkable as they have ever been in 2008, which was a tough pill to swallow for fans who saw the team return all 11 starters on defense and an all-pro offensive line.

But few teams fielded the amont of injuries that Seattle did, and felt those injuries strike so critically in vulnerable areas.  Most teams suffer the equivalent of falling down the stairs:  you're battered and bruised, you have nicks and scrapes, and you may have even broken a bone or two.  Seattle suffered a catastrophic double amputation.

 As far as overarching strategy is concerned, Seattle will be looking to address depth concerns at the two worst hit positions from injuries last year:  wide receiver and offensive line.  Beyond that they need to look at addressing the consistency and talent levels of their secondary and defensive line.  With a solid plan and a little luck, 2008 may just be a bump in the road of perrennial NFC West Domination.

Continue reading this post »

Starting Over....Again

New Rams coach Steve Spagnuolo, or "Spags," wasn't looking for the most money or the best chance to make it to a championship next year.

Obviously.  Since he went to the Rams.

But after interviewing for numerous teams, including the Broncos and Jets, Spagnuolo came away unhired, and stating that he, a man of faith and principled action,  "was looking for the right situation."

Enter his close friend, Bill Devaney, the new G.M. for the Rams.  They had met eachother while toiling in obscurity on the Redskins personnel staff, and in drawing Spagnuolo into the interview, and then into the fold, Devaney was saying the right things.  Specifically when asked about scoring the interview with Spagnuolo after the unexpected Giants playoff loss, Devany could only appeal to blind luck and faith:

Maybe the football Gods were finally looking down on us.

 Maybe.

One things was certain, and that was that Devaney was offering a situation that couldn't help but feel right to Spagnuolo, including a strident challenge, a good working relationship with the personnel department, but most of all, a situation that appealed to Spagnuolo's "higher" calling.

They will have a group that will be team-first, that will be team-oriented and will build a foundation that will help us be successful and sustain success. I think that's what it's all about.

There has to be a beginning before you can go anywhere else. I threw four words at you on the pillars. Now faith was the first one; there has to be some faith. Faith in what we're doing, faith in our philosophy and we certainly hope to have a little bit of patience. It will be a process

 If ever there were a combination of coach and front office that had the potential to meet the Rams unique challenges, it is this one, of that there can be no doubt.

But Spagnuolo is the seventh head coach in the past 15 years for St. Louis.

Its going to take more than faith and football Gods to get the Rams back on track.

  The stats above certainly aren't pretty, but what makes them particularly heinous is that the team made good free agency moves and drafted 2nd overall in 2008, and yet the team went from being the better of the worst teams to being the worst of the worst teams.

One could point at their QB play, or their star RBs lengthy and distracting preseason holdout.  The age of the WRs has been a concern, as has the age of Orlando Pace, their fixture at LT.  Injuries at key positions on offense, including TE and RB can certainly be blamed, as can a decidedly banged up defense that showed up at very few games in 2008.

But behind all of these struggles lies a common denominator:  unrealized potential.

Continue reading this post »