Ready to move on to the 2012 season

What would your 2012 starting lineup look like ?

I don't see any changes on the 11 starters on offense, I see everyone returning with Desean at least being franchised and Evan Mathis re-signed. So we go with:

• Vick at Qb
• Desean and Maclyn at Wr
• McCoy at Rb
• Brent at TE
• Maybe there's some competition for FB
• Then the line can pretty much be Peters, Mathis, Kelce, Watkins and Herremans, unless Mathis doesn't come back or Herremans goes back to LG.

Now the defense is also pretty much set except for a couple of spots:

• Cole and Babin at D-ends
• Cullen and Patterson (if he's healthy after his surgery) at tackle
• Rolle and Chaney could still be back at LB, we would only be replacing the MLB position.
• Of course, Nnamdi and DRC at corner
• And Allen and either Jarrett or Coleman at safety (maybe they pickup someone at safety in free agency).

So really speaking you have one maybe two spots open at LB and possibly one spot open at Safety, but not much more. Am I right ? Or am I off ? Where is there room to add more starting players ? D-ends are stacked, a possible backup or two at d-tackle with the status of Trevor Laws, Landri and Dixon unknown. Definitely 2 to 3 LB's to add to what we already have, one additional safety, and our corners are pretty solid too with Hanson, Marsh, Hughes and now Lindley back in the fold.

On Offense, a 3rd back behind Lewis. TE's seem to be set with Celek and Harbor (although you can always try to upgrade on the backup). FB - who cares, I'm sure they'll put somebody in there to block. I think they probably invest one or two more draft picks on O-linemen to develop more of what Mudd likes in his linemen. A backup Qb is a MUST, unless Kafka is ready to be the backup then we can draft somebody to groom for the future. Definitely a WR just in case Desean turns into a headcase or is traded. What is the trade value of Desean, what would we get back for him ? A 1st and a 3rd or is that too much ? Not enough ? I would be open to trading him and grabbing a stud receiver early in the 1st round and still have another high pick to get a LB if needed.

So here's my scenario if we end up keeping Desean:

Draft

1st round - LB

2nd round (2 picks) - Qb and Wr

3rd round - O-lineman

4-7 rounds - I'm sure they'll pick up a d-tackle, safety, RB and another o-lineman.

Free Agency

I would go after a big time LB that would fit the scheme, re-sign Mathis and franchise Desean (as stated above). If a really good safety was available, that would be tempting. And I would definitely want another good to great d-tackle in the mix. Other than that, I don't know where we have room to bring in new guys ? There are not too many openings on the team. I like the Mardy Gilyard pickup to replace a Chad Hall as the 5th receiver and returner.

Now if we trade Desean, then we have a lot more choices. It would add at least another 1st rounder to our draft picks and maybe a 3rd or whatever bounty we can get in that trade. With the free agent Wr's, we could sign one of them with the money we were going to give Desean and still have two first rounders to play around with. The possibilities are endless, I wouldn't know what to do with the two 1's. Any ideas ? Think away and share what you would do with the draft / free agency with our needs and if it would be more valuable to trade Desean or to keep him at this point ? I'm not an expert on the draft, nor do I know college players like a lot of you do to know what to do with two 1's, give me some ideas... I can't wait for this off season to unfold, Roseman must be chomping at the bit to get to it.... I just hope he doesn't let us down.

P.S. While we're at it, let's replace Castillo with Spags and Marty with Childress.