DawgTalkers.net Forums The Archives 2015 NFL Season The NFL Draft 2015 Positions of need

Regardless of how Cameron is rated.. He's possibly one hit away from being done forever..

That's not the kind of guy you Franchise Tag and give guaranteed money too.. Even if it's "only" 6 mil for TEs..

WR - I think you just go under the assumption that JG may not be around next year. I'm not completely writing him off, but you can't write off that scenario.

TE - Whether we keep Cameron or not, I still think you could draft a really good player at TE.

QB - I don't think it's our year for drafting another one, but it's still a need.

K - They need to find someone to keep this job going forward. I don't necessarily think it has to be via the draft. I would be OK just signing someone undrafted. I'm just tired of seeing these past failures come in. Get someone young to come in.

As far as defense goes. I think we have depth on our front 7, but I think we lack anyone that teams truly worry about. Rotations are fine, but they just need a guy to kinda bring it all together. Some of these other guys could feast if they had an elite pass rusher somewhere in that front 7. Don't get me wrong, I love Kruger, but he's not that guy that DC's worry about when they sleep at night.

CB - This needs to be looked at, especially if Ray and his guys think they whiffed on Gilbert. I'm not giving up on him, but this would be a bigger thing if Manziel were not in the picture. That pic looks HORRIBLE.

My thoughts remain the same, this team can still afford to go BPA, especially with 2 first round picks this year. Just get better. Find guys who can be mainstays. Don't stretch just to fill a position of need. We are still weak in a bunch of areas.

I also believe we are very close to the point of BPA. I still think we need better offensive weapons. Our WR's with or without Gordon are serviceable, but we need weapons/threats on offense.

TE- I dont think Cameron wants to stay in cleveland and i dont think we should resign him at all. He's fast but is such a liablitiy blocking and is never healthy.

S- the reason i put safety in here is because Leonhard is probably gone. Bademosi is horrible as a safety but gret on ST. Poyer stepped up and improved this year but is still unreliable and Whitner is not a spring chicken. It would be nice to get a mid rounder to learn for atleast a year or 2 under Donte.

That's the exact kind of guy you franchise. Someone you don't want long term but want on a year to year basis.

Especially when we have tons of cap room, and need to hit the spending floor.

I have no idea why people want Cameron out so much. Because he got hurt?

Probably because he seems to get hurt a lot, and he really did not fit the Shanahan offense. Whether or not he stays would seem to be based on how the new OC uses the TE. If he wants a blocking TE, then Cameron would not seem to fit that role.

I would say that people do not want to pay him big money because he is probably our worst blocking TE and because his last concussion took him so long to come back from. It is as though 1 more concussion could end his career.

He fit the offense fine. Owen Daniels was a similar type of player in the offense. He was just injured and couldn't get involved to a large extent. Any coordinator that can't involve a talented player like Cameron in their offense is probably not all that good anyway.

One thing that people have to remember though is that his concussion this year was the result of illegally being kicked in the head. That isn't something someone can avoid, or prepare for.

BPA is fine if we are not going for a QB. But are we in that position because we have a pretty strong roster all around and no pressing needs, or because we have needs everywhere? I can't tell.

I don't want to sound like I'm diminishing your efforts here, but there isn't a single position on the team that couldn't use an upgrade. What this team really needs is quality depth at every position. We saw this when Mack got hurt. We needed a quality depth at the position and didn't have it.

We need the same everywhere. When Phil Taylor went down, our run-stopping game suffered because of it. When Tashaun Gipson and K'Wuan Williams went down, our secondary suffered.

We need to make sure that we can get through injuries and right now, we can't.

At some positions, especially on the kicking teams, we didn't even have good players. Cundiff & Lanning are subpar from the start.

I agree with about everything you said. We do value the WR position a little differently. I believe I'm somewhat on the middle ground when it comes to WR's. Last year I promoted drafting Jordan Matthews in the 2nd round. I'm very happy with Bitonio but I don't believe you can simply draft a WR just anywhere and expect a great WR. I do believe you need a legitimate big WR in todays NFL.

Matthews of course would be considered the #2 WR behind Maclin in Philly. But he had a very good rookie year with 67 receptions and 8 TD's for 872 yards. At 6'3" 212# that's something I think we could use that we simply haven't had with the exception of Gordon who seems to be a lost cause.

Other than this single point with what it will likely take to get a WR that other teams actually consider a real threat, we agree completely on everything else.

Biggest issues:
Stop the run - DT

Establish the run - RT, quality C, G depth, FB, TE

Catching the ball - WR, TE

Throwing the ball - it's been beaten to death already but there isn't an obvious franchise guy in this draft and Mariota and Winston are mistakes waiting to happen. A serviceable vet QB until we find "the guy". I think Hoyer fits that description if we can provide him a running game and not let the offense rest on him too heavily. I think we go into camp with 4 guys. Keep JM & Shaw for camp and whatever Vets hopefully emerge from the pack and cut the chaff whoever that may be.

Veteran Stability - I liked our FA pickups for the most part as much for thier leadership and stability as thier play. We need more that. More than most teams we must have high character, emotionally mature people.

Kicker

Im not sold on Winston or Mariota either.

Winston- Talent is there but I have some serious question marks on his work ethic and leadership.

Mariota- Great kid. I like him a lot but I just dont see him making throws into passing windows and he doesnt have a cannon for an arm. Not sure if he can be that franchise guy. In any other draft I see him going in the 2nd or 3rd round.