Early 2026 Depth Chart

If Mirabal gets an elite OL out of this group he's the genius everyone claims he is. I haven't been impressed by anything McCoy, Okunlola, or Rodriguez have done here.

Meriweather, Cantwell, Buchannon will be green (not 'you green,' but green-green) as starters.
IDK man, Okunlola really started moving people at G as the year went on. He just posted a **** near 4 minute cut up on his twitter of some of his games. Like he surprised me so much at G I almost am hesitant to move him. @gogeta4 usually has good takes on OL so be curious what he says.

For Rodriguez, I tend to agree he hasnt had many WOW plays, but as old as he is I think he can give us carpenter/Brock level protection. McCoy seems hit or miss and I agree the young bucks will have lots of growing pains.
 
Advertisement
My projected two deep:

QB: Mensah, Nickel OR Coleman
RB: Fletcher, Pringle
WR: Vaughn, Moore
WR: Barkate, Jacobs OR Wingo
WR: Toney, Spafford
TE: Lofton, Gilbert OR Mueller
LT: Samson, Congdon
LG: McCoy, Ervin
C: Rodriguez, SJ
RG: Buchanan OR Meriweather, Minaya
RT: Cantwell, Wilkerson OR Campbell


DE: Wilson, Lightfoot
DT: Moten, Davis OR Blount
DT: Scott, Carter OR Blount
DE: Blount, Lowe
LB: Toure, Smith
LB: Wiley, Bonner OR Edwards
NCB: Thornton, Dunnigan OR Hussey
CB: OJ, O’Connor
CB: Lucas, Brown
S: Poyser, Day
S: Fitzgerald, Dunnigan OR Hussey
 
Last edited:
Starting OL seems to me like it'd be McCoy (LT), Okunlola, Rodriguez, Buchanan (or Meriweather, but I think Buchanan wins the job), Cantwell.
 
Gotta be honest, with the weapons we have at WR and really lack of options we have at TE, we need to use 4 wide with 4 wrs, or at worse, 3 wrs and Lofton. We make defenses defend whole field horizontally will open up the run game tremendously, especially since we have very capable and willing wrs blocking. Having 4 wrs in wide formations will open up the box for Fletcher and Pringle.
 
Gotta be honest, with the weapons we have at WR and really lack of options we have at TE, we need to use 4 wide with 4 wrs, or at worse, 3 wrs and Lofton. We make defenses defend whole field horizontally will open up the run game tremendously, especially since we have very capable and willing wrs blocking. Having 4 wrs in wide formations will open up the box for Fletcher and Pringle.
I agree with you. But I have the sneaking suspicion they over use TEs or 6th OL instead to help the young OL. We did a lot of it in the past.

We shall see
 
Advertisement
I agree with you. But I have the sneaking suspicion they over use TEs or 6th OL instead to help the young OL. We did a lot of it in the past.

We shall see
I’d argue that 4 wide would help Oline. Mensah can move in the pocket, but with 4 wide, you could run more short passes (more slants please) and force the defense to play you expecting pass, which gives you better matchups in the run game. The most they could put in box would be 7 and we would love our chances against pass in those situations.

You could still run duo out of it too.
 
My projected two deep:

QB: Mensah, Nickel OR Coleman
RB: Fletcher, Pringle
WR: Vaughn, Moore
WR: Barkate, Jacobs OR Wingo
WR: Toney, Spafford
TE: Lofton, Gilbert OR Mueller
LT: Samson, Congdon
LG: McCoy, Ervin
C: Rodriguez, SJ
RG: Buchanan OR Meriweather, Minaya
RT: Cantwell, Wilkerson OR Campbell


DE: Wilson, Lightfoot
DT: Moten, Davis OR Blount
DT: Scott, Carter OR Blount
DE: Blount, Lowe
LB: Toure, Smith
LB: Wiley, Bonner OR Edwards
NCB: Thornton OR Fitzgerald, Dunnigan
CB: OJ, O’Connor
CB: Lucas, Brown
S: Poyser, Day
S: Fitzgerald OR Thornton, Dunnigan
McCoy isn’t that great at Guard i think he has a Tackle body and is a former Te so tackle might be a better position. ( Eric Winston). Damari Brown played nickel for us before and i think he has the body to holdup against the run ! I think Thornton will be a box strong saftey like Jakobe and we will rotate a lot at saftey same as last year
 
I’d argue that 4 wide would help Oline. Mensah can move in the pocket, but with 4 wide, you could run more short passes (more slants please) and force the defense to play you expecting pass, which gives you better matchups in the run game. The most they could put in box would be 7 and we would love our chances against pass in those situations.

You could still run duo out of it too.

If we go this route, color me surprised. Mario and Dawson have broken a huge tendency.

Not arguing it's merits, I agree. We shall see
 
Gotta be honest, with the weapons we have at WR and really lack of options we have at TE, we need to use 4 wide with 4 wrs, or at worse, 3 wrs and Lofton. We make defenses defend whole field horizontally will open up the run game tremendously, especially since we have very capable and willing wrs blocking. Having 4 wrs in wide formations will open up the box for Fletcher and Pringle.
Even if we had brock bowers! We don't know what his production would be! (We would feel better I know) But, We don't lack options lofton, gilbert,carver, mueller and briggs we lack production not options!
 
Even if we had brock bowers! We don't know what his production would be! (We would feel better I know) But, We don't lack options lofton, gilbert,carver, mueller and briggs we lack production not options!

Lol we had 166 rec yards and 1 td from bauman. I think who ever rises from that group to team up with lofton will smash those bauman numbers immediately..
 
Lol we had 166 rec yards and 1 td from bauman. I think who ever rises from that group to team up with lofton will smash those bauman numbers immediately..
Te production has been down since arroyo left! Don't know if it's dawson or what but it needs to be fixed this year!
 
Te production has been down since arroyo left! Don't know if it's dawson or what but it needs to be fixed this year!
You do realize that ONE season by Arroyo is an outlier for Dawson in his offense, going back to his days at Houston. That season by Arroyo is an outlier and he was still 4th in yards that season. No other season in Dawson’s time as OC has he even come close to featuring a TE.

Dawson typically uses his TE as a blocker in his scheme. We flexed out Bauman a lot this past year to try and reduce numbers in the box.

With some of the recruits we have brought in, its clear that the goal is to have two types of TEs. One that is like Bauman/McCormick type (Gilbert/Mueller) who are solid at run blocking for early downs and then guys like Lofton and maybe Briggs that are TEs that can easily flex out and run routes (although Lofton seems more like an Hback version).

And they have potential in what they were brought in to do, but if you want to maximize talent, you put your four best receiving threats on the field just the same way you put your best 5 on the offensive line. But that’s just my .02 as I’m not married to bringing back TEU to the U at the expense of sitting a more explosive playmaking WR.
 
Advertisement
Bang! Thornton at Nickel, Hussey at Strong, Poyser at Free with Fitz rotating at Nickel and Free but he needs to bulk up. Locked and loaded secondary fellas
 
Back
Top