(07-28-2024, 06:36 AM)Caldrac Wrote:

(07-28-2024, 12:39 AM)JagFan81 Wrote: Damn I like that starting lineup. Suddenly we have a roster with quite a lot of experience on it.

Agreed. Hopefully it all comes together this season. There's still some question marks out there that need to be answered. 

1. Can the offensive line finally gel and get it together in one summer to complete the offense and balance it?
2. Can the interior of the defensive line finally get penetration and maintain the point of attack?
3. Can the kicker, whether it be a rookie or veteran, be trusted to make the kicks in crunch time?
4. Can Pederson show a little more restraint and a little less gambling when the probability of three points is there?
5. Can Lawrence scale down his turnovers while elevating his touchdowns?

The other thing is the depth. Again, we're entering another season where the team will be relying heavily on inexperienced players. Bigsby and Strange have to be able to spell Etienne and Engram when needed. The expectations on Brian Thomas Jr? 

Smith and Jefferson are going to have to fill in immediately when needed and not blow their gap's, get over zealous and jump the line early, etc. The secondary will be relying on guys like Antonio Johnson from last year along with newcomer's in Jarrian Jones & Deantre Prince. 

Special teams could very well likely be leaning on Little as a rookie Kicker and Robinson as a Return Specialist with the new rules to make some crunch time plays. 

In a game where the margin of error is small most of the time on a weekly basis? Any one of these rookie or second year players above could make or break this team's chances in the W/L column. One bad kick, one fumble, one blown assignment. That's all it takes. It'll be a fun season either way. 

I expect double digit wins in 2024. Whether they make the play-off's or not will be decided on how the rest of the AFC plays and whether or not this team was able to overcome it's injuries from the previous year and whether or not their depth pieces did the job when called upon.