Kevin Thomas at the rookie camp
This was extremely difficult to try and predict. For starters nobody has any idea what’s going on with Kevin Thomas. He appeared to have suffered a season ending knee injury a few months ago, but is now on the active roster. He was recently seen at training camp in high spirits signing autographs and had no knee brace and wasn’t limping or showing any favoritism to the injured leg. He has said he’s still doing rehab and that it’s getting better and better every day. Reports like that don’t sound to me like somebody who will be missing the entire season. Actually, on the contrary, those are typically things you hear about somebody who is aiming to be ready to play by the regular season. I don’t think that’s the case with Thomas by any means but it certainly makes me optimistic enough to think that we could have him ready to go before the end of the year.
Brandon James
Though speaking of players who have injuries and will hopefully be healthy before the regular season starts I’m still listing Charlie Johnson as the starting left tackle. The recent injury reports (or lack of them) with regards to him make me nervous but the rumor mill is pointing at it being a sprain which are typically injuries that take four to six weeks to recover from. So I’m hoping that if he does have to miss any of the regular season that it won’t be much. On a less happy note, I’m being forced to conclude that Brandon James will be making the final 53-man roster. He will primarily be a return man, and the last time we had a former Gator as our return man his name was Keiwan Ratliff and he fumbled a whole lot more than I wanted him to, especially considering that with this offense all you need from the return game is to get the ball back, you don’t need a great return. Just secure the ball and let Peyton & Co go to work.
Reggie Wayne being awesome
Finally, I realize I have 12 offensive starters. This is because I have no idea which three of the four receivers will end up being the top three. Reggie Wayne has locked up the starting spot wide left and most believe that it will be Pierre Garçon lining up wide right, but as for if it will be Anthony Gonzalez or Austin Collie seeing the most action as the third receiver, I just don’t know. It seems both are playing very well in training camp and neither is pulling away from or falling behind the other in the competition for that spot. So to simplify my life I’m just listing all four as starters. Either way, here’s the roster as well as my best guess at the players that will make the practice squad:
| Offense | Defense | ||||
| Starters | Starters | Special Teams | |||
| QB: | Peyton Manning | LE: | Robert Mathis | K: | Adam Vinatieri |
| HB: | Joseph Addai | RE: | Dwight Freeney | P: | Pat McAfee |
| TE: | Dallas Clark | DT: | Antonio Johnson | LS: | Justin Snow |
| WR: | Reggie Wayne | DT: | Daniel Muir | KR: | Brandon James |
| WR: | Pierre Garçon | OLB: | Clint Session | ||
| WR: | Anthony Gonzalez | MLB: | Gary Brackett | ||
| WR: | Austin Collie | OLB: | Philip Wheeler | ||
| LT: | Charlie Johnson | SS: | Bob Sanders | ||
| LG: | Tony Ugoh | FS: | Antoine Bethea | ||
| C: | Jeff Saturday | CB: | Kelvin Hayden | ||
| RG: | Kyle DeVan | CB: | Jerraud Powers | ||
| RT: | Ryan Diem | ||||
| Backups | |||||
| Backups | DE: | Jerry Hughes | |||
| QB: | Curtis Painter | DE: | Eric Foster | ||
| HB: | Donald Brown | DE: | Keyunta Dawson | ||
| HB: | Mike Hart | DT: | Fili Moala | ||
| TE: | Brody Eldridge | DT: | Mitch King | ||
| TE: | Jacob Tamme | LB: | Pat Angerer | ||
| TE: | Gijon Robinson | LB: | Ramon Humber | ||
| WR: | Taj Smith | LB: | Cody Glenn | ||
| WR: | Brandon James | S: | Melvin Bullitt | ||
| OL: | Jacques McClendon | S: | Mike Newton | ||
| OL: | Jamey Richard | S: | Jamie Silva | ||
| OL: | Mike Pollak | CB: | Jacob Lacey | ||
| OL: | Adam Terry | CB: | Deshea Townsend | ||
| OL: | Chris Marinelli | CB: | Kevin Thomas | ||
| Practice Squad | |||||
| DB: | David Caldwell | ||||
| DB: | Ray Fisher | ||||
| QB: | Tim Hiller | ||||
| WR: | Blair White | ||||
| WR: | Sam Giguere | ||||
| LB: | Vuna Tuihalamaka | ||||
| DL: | Ricardo Mathews | ||||
| HB: | Javarris James | ||||
Let me know what you think in the comments.
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