1. Edge Rusher - Check. Added Nick Bosa, Dee Ford, and Damontre Moore.
2. Red Zone WR - Check (sort of). Jalen Hurd looked like that guy in limited PS action. Bourne has developed into that role.
3. Single High FS - Check. Moore back to safety, shined until Ward was healthy. Ward has stayed healthy and effective.
4. OG - Check. Brunskill and Garland added depth to the position.
5. SAM - Check. Added Dre Greenlaw.
6. RB - Check. Added Tevin Coleman and increased PT for Mostert.
7. LT - Check. Skule played admirably, and Brunskill has played great. We are in good shape here going forward.
8. TE - Half-check. We drafted Kaden Smith, but lost him to NYG after injuries forced us to move players around. We did bring in Toilolo, but he's been inactive half the time and offers little receiving help. Helm is an UDFA rookie who is an unknown right now.
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In 2020 and beyond, we'll work to sustain the success we've achieved this year. We've got to keep the quality of the roster as high as we can. That means retaining as much high quality talent as we can afford, while simultaneously pushing out low quality personnel and looking for low-cost replacements. The players listed below add the least value to our team:
Lowest Quality Starters:
RG Mike Person, C Ben Garland
Lowest Quality Reserves:
DT Sheldon Day, SS Marcell Harris, DE Jeremiah Valoaga, LB Azeez Al-Shaair/Elijah Lee, TE Levin Toilolo/Daniel Helm, WR Marquise Goodwin/Richie James/Dante Pettis
Top Off-Season Needs in 2020:
1. Interior OL
We have no way of knowing how well Richburg will recover. Garland and Person are the worst graded OL on the team right now. It won't matter what our WRs are if can't protect long enough to stretch the defense vertically. Far too many times have we not been able to hit big plays because the line didn't sustain blocks long enough. It's not always been the IOL's fault, but in both the run and pass games, Person seems like the weakest link among the original starters. Solid, but unspectacular, and no upside at this point. Same with Garland, except Garland has a tendency to get beat REALLY bad more often than the others on the OL. He's a rollercoaster. Part of me wonders if we would re-sign Coleman for cheap and use Skule as an OT/OG hybrid to further boost depth here.
2. Linebacker
Elijah Lee was a practice squad guy for a reason. He is bad both on defense and special teams, if you haven't noticed. Al Shaair is decent on STs but gets abused repeatedly on defense as well. They're both UDFAs, so it's not like it's a surprise. But the team has to continue to shore up this position. We are paper thin and nowhere near prepared to handle even a single injury to one of the top three starting LBs.
3. Safety
While we met this need in the short-term, when you look beyond this year, it rears its ugly head again. While I still believe in Moore, his flaws he showed in limited action should still give the team enough reason to look for quality competition. I think Ward will want to come back, but he's no lock to do so, and Tartt would become a FA after next season. Harris is a horrendous tackler and a liability in coverage, so the team at minimum needs to add someone who can be a legitimate challenger to either safety spot this off-season. A hybrid FS/SS would be terrific.
4. Pass Rusher
Specifically, we need a speed rusher. The reason this one is not higher, is because our DE depth was NOT bad. The problem is, through no fault of his own, Thomas is being forced to play DE again due to injuries, and Valoaga for the same reason was called up as our 5th string DE now. Our depth was quality, it just all got hurt. Next to no team can handle losing their 1st, 2nd, and 3rd string DEs all in succession and expect to keep experiencing the same results from the squad. Step one: bring back Moore and Blair. Step two: give them a challenger at DE that forces Thomas permanently inside for 2020, or a less-likely scenario: to be cut or traded (roughly $4.5 dead money but $4.5 cap room).
5. Receiver
Without spending any money at all, the team would bring back one former starter (Trent Taylor) and another guy who was expected to be a red-zone threat, offensive chess piece, and possibly start down the road too (Hurd). The return of Taylor and Hurd helps, but the level of need at WR depends on whether or not we re-sign Sanders. If we do, I would not be shocked at all if the team took the approach they did with CBs and didn't invest a high pick, but developed who they had, and hoped for better health overall. If we can't bring back Sanders, we will have to find upgrades at the #5-6 WR spots, ideally finding guys who also upgrade the return game over James and Pettis.
6. Tight End
Dwelley still has a ways to go, and we lost our promising prospect Kaden Smith. Time to look for another power blocking TE that we can rely on for additional depth at the TE3 spot.
Non-Needs: CB & DT
The team has Moseley's rights locked up for at least 2 more years. It seems obvious they would extend Sherman and/or Witherspoon too. Reed is not bad at all as a dime back and let's not forget Tim Harris who looked solid in limited pre-season action. Not sure if we'll re-sign K'Waun Williams, but we have the depth to fill the gap even if we don't. Day doesn't seem like he's worth re-signing, but I think the team has faith in a healthy Jullian Taylor and I'm sure they want to see what Street can do inside. That's already 3-deep on the interior. Of course there's Thomas, as disappointing as he is overall, but is still moderately serviceable along the IDL. Add in Kevin Givens and you've got a lot of developmental potential here that doesn't cost you much of anything. We should be good at this position.
Going into the 2020 off-season, this is what our roster would look like before the draft if we tendered all our key ERFA/RFAs, re-sign AA, re-signed Ward, Blair, Moore, and Shonn Coleman to cheap deals, and then gave Sanders a decent deal while cutting Goodwin.
QB: Garoppolo, Mullens, Beathard
RB: Breida, Mostert, Coleman, McKinnon, Juice
TE: Kittle, Dwelley, Helm
WR: Sanders, Samuel, Bourne, Hurd, Taylor, Pettis, James
OT: Staley, McGlinchey, Skule, Brunskill, Coleman
C: Richburg
OG: Person, Tomlinson, Reynolds
DE: Ford, Bosa, Blair, Moore, Armstead, Valoaga
DT: Buckner, Jones, Taylor, Street, Givens, Thomas
LB: Warner, Alexander, Greenlaw, Lee, Al-Shaair, Nzeocha
CB: Sherman, Witherspoon, Williams, Moseley, Reed, Harris
S: Ward, Moore, Tartt, Harris
Bottom Line: Now that we've rebuilt the team into a contender, we *must* draft higher quality depth pieces who can become low-cost replacements down the line whenever we reach the point where we cannot afford to keep certain high-priced veterans.
[ Edited by OnTheClock on Dec 20, 2019 at 12:41 PM ]