Offense is playoff Caliber but Defense is the question

While last year was a disaster this year is very promising as far as the offense is concerned. There is no reason we will not return to being a high powered offense as long as we remain relatively healthy. The offensive line has size, experience and depth which hasn't been the case recently.

RB is healthy and we now have a power back in Michel for short yardage or who can be used to just pound the ball.

WR might be thin but Kupp is back, Jefferson his healthy and Tutu and Skow now have experience and both can play multiple WR positions.

TE is strong with Higbee and we now have good depth at TE and the ability to play with more 2 TE alignments..

Best of all we have a really good QB who is healthy and has all of training camp to get in sync with the WR crew.

Defense is going to be a challenge and will determine if how good this team will be.

DL lost 2 starters but at least has some experienced young guys that hopefully are ready to step up. We also invested a 3rd rounder in Kobe Turner who got positive reviews in OTA. The DL has questions marks but hopefully the young vets are ready to step up and contribute.

Edge: I thought Hoecht played great though he did seem to get sucked in on play action and was out of position to make plays in the running game at times. But given a full training camp there is a good chance he will emerge as a good FT edge player. On the other side you have 3 rookies and 2 second year players all who are totally unproven. We have quantity and hopefully a couple of them will emerge. However with all the youth and inexperience on both side we should expect some blown plays but hopefully that is somewhat offset by an improved pass rush.

ILB: Jones is solid and Hummel showed some skills. I expect we will see less defensive alignments where 2 ILB are on the field at the same time so this position seems to be okay IMO.

Safety: Fuller is okay when he is available which has been a problem the last few years. Yeast is a 2nd year guy who at least has some experience and Lake is a 2nd year guy who missed training camp and most of the season. We also have a 7th round draft pick in Taylor. Can't really feel to good about this position especially if we are looking at having to play 3 safeties when we pull on of the ILB. Thin, Injury Prone, Inexperienced is how I would categorize this group.

CB: Gotta love Cobie Durant but I like him most as the 3rd DB playing inside. Kendrick did get a lot of playing time so he has experience but he also sucked most of the time. Still I think the Rams must see something in him or they would have invested a high draft pick in a CB rich draft. Rochell was most relegated to ST after getting on the field regularly as a rookie. Not sure what the story is but hopefully a new position coach can fix him and getting him ready to play. I love the pick of Tomlinson who I see as an inside guy. After those guys we have Jolly and a bunch of UDFA. Thin and inexperienced.

Special Teams: Coverage units should be good as we have lots of young fast and powerful guys who are fighting for a roster spot. Rookie Kicker, Punter and Holder???? Should be interesting but expect some youthful issues.

Overall: Defense and Special Teams are huge questions and we need a lot, a real lot of things to go right and a huge bunch of players to step up and show that they can play in the NFL The odds of that happening, despite are low when you consider that we need probably 12 or 13 guys to step up and be real positive starting level contributors that have never done it before and many of them are rookies. If we can end up middle of the pack on defense and special teams the offense can carry us to the Playoffs.