Prioritizing needs as of 3/24

[catamount]

I really do not think Gettlemen is finished in free agency. He needs more money, of course, but we are now in position to cut people. Armanti, Hangartner, and GWilliams would come to around $3 million. I would trade them all for a solid RG.

There is still some fruit on the vine, and I expect Gettlemen to sign another lineman or two. Regardless, as of 3/24, the following seem to be the biggest positions of need:

1. RG: We have Hangartner. He is a backup center. He is not a good RG at all. We have shown interest in one G this offseason, but no movement. If nothing is done between now and the draft, would we draft Cooper, a player who seems best fit for the left side? Could Warmack drop?

2. NT (DT): Fua and Frank Kearse are not scaring anyone. While I admit that NTs tend to take a few years in the NFL to develop, we cannot count on it. Not sure I like drafting a starting nose, but we gotta do what we gotta do.

3. WR: Smitty faithful are in denial if they think he will not hit the wall soon. He would be better in the slot regardless. We need a true #1 WR. This franchise has really never had one, other than the 5'9" 200 lb. converted punt returner from Utah. I think the draft has several who could be.

4. DT (Under tackle); While they are high on Chandller, I am not sure he will ever be more than deep depth. Edwards is 32, so we need a young developmental DT to rotate in with Dwan and to develop. I think this could still be our first round pick, but I hope not.

5. CB (#1): Is Josh Thomas ready to take on the best the opposition has to offer at WR? Maybe, he was that good in 2012. But I would feel better if he were at #2. I am not sure what we have at CB--How good is Moore? How good was Dockery? How much will Norman grow? I think Gettlemen might be done here.

How skewed is this thinking?

[boondock]

I agree with a lot of what you have said.

RG is a need, but it's not very high on the list. Hangartner is serviceable, he can fill in until one of the young guys step up and claim the starting role, or we move on to someone else.

Regarding DT, we do need a DT presence, whether it is a UT or NT. With the type of scheme we run along the line, NT is a fairly easy fill as long as we get someone who can hold up the point of attack, disrupt the flow of the line. I would almost rather get a big NT in the middle since we usually go with 3 or 4 DEs across the line on passing downs.

You are spot on regarding CB and WR though. No denying either one of those.

One glaring spot I see that you missed on the prioritizing of picks is OT. We need an OT pretty badly, Gross is declining, we don't have anyone to provide stability at RT. The hope would be to draft a Lane Johnson and allow him and Gross to fill the OT needs until Johnson is ready to move to LT completely.
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