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As we trundle towards the 2023 NFL season, it felt like a good time to go poking some holes in rosters or, rather, talk about one area that each team should still be looking to address.
We’ll start with the NFC and go through each of the four divisions, explaining the reasoning for the spot or unit, with a quick look at the depth chart and analysis of what certain roles entail.
For some teams, it may be a glaring need for a starter, while for others, we’re looking more so at finishing touches that are supposed to insulate them for injuries.
You’re not going to find a franchise quarterback or star pass-rusher at the end of June. However, one more piece to your offensive skill-position group, a role player in your defensive back-seven or depth in the trenches, could still be added and ultimately be key when the season rolls around.
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Below is my divisional draft and roster review series, where I broke down every single pick made by all 32 teams, laid out what role they would fulfill for their new squad, and discussed the classes as well as their approach to roster construction as a whole.
So, let’s get into it now:
Chicago Bears, NFC North - Complete/Proven edge rusher
By getting D.J. Moore from the Carolina Panthers (as part of the trade-down from the number one overall pick) as a primary target in the passing game and selecting Tennessee’s Darnell Wright to sure up the right end of the offensive line, Chicago has surrounded Justin Fields with the pieces necessary to take another step in year three under center.
Defensively, they’ve surrounded Eddie Jackson with four second-round picks to build out that secondary. In this year's free agency class, they invested substantial financial resources into their linebacker corp with Tremaine Edmunds and T.J. Edwards.
In terms of the defensive line, they bring back Justin Jones for one more year, who’s coming off his most productive season rushing the passer but also probably his worst in run-defense, and handed Andrew Billings another one-year prove-it deal for 2.8 million dollars, coming off the best season of his career in Las Vegas, as a mobile nose-tackle.
Otherwise, I thought they reached on a couple of mid-day two picks on the interior in Gervon Dexter (Florida) and Zacch Pickens (South Carolina), who I don’t believe either is ready to perform well in the pros yet. And shockingly, they haven’t invested any legit resources into the edge position. They did bring in DeMarcus Walker and Rasheem Green as alignment-flexible guys up front, who are both most effective sliding inside on passing downs.
So in terms of actual EDGE rushers, Trevis Gipson is the only somewhat proven commodity. Dominique Robinson had some pretty good success as this undersized finesse-designated pass-rusher they gambled on in the fifth round last year. Yet, I don’t see anybody with a proven track record who can win the corner consistently.
Detroit Lions, NFC North – Swing tackle
Moving on to the current favorites to win the NFC North, there’s a lot of reason for optimism in Detroit. We’ll have to see how that defense comes together, which went from Swiss cheese early in 2022 to an average unit over the second half of the season once they started taking the ball away and changed their personnel usage a little bit.
Offensively, they already finished top-six, respectively, in DVOA and EPA per play. Jared Goff, Amon-Ra St. Brown, and Jamaal Williams all had career years, and I think they have upgraded their backfield since then.
However, I believe the two biggest reasons for their success on that side of the last this past season were the services of Ben Johnson calling plays – who they surprisingly were able to bring back – and what I believe is one of the top offensive lines in the league staying largely healthy.
Halapoulivaati Vaitai missed all season due to needing back surgery on the eve of Week 1. Still, Evan Brown was available for all but three games, and both their starting tackles played 100% of the snaps. My worry is about what they have behind those guys.
Since being drafted by Seattle in 2016, I’ve said Germain Ifedi isn’t somebody you want playing extensive stretches on the edge. He’s never earned a PFF grade above 62 across his seven seasons in the NFL when playing the right tackle position, and he has never switched sides. To me, he’s an okay backup option at guard.
Otherwise, the Lions only have Matt Nelson and Obinna Eze. Proof of the former not being a solution is how much of a weak link that RT spot was when pressed into action in 2021, and Eze has yet to play an NFL snap as a UDFA from last year.
Green Bay Packers, NFC North – Backup quarterback
The Pack are making a monster switch under center, going from 30 years of first-ballot Hall of Fame play to a guy with 83 regular season pass attempts since shockingly being drafted at the end of the first round three years ago.
I think, generally, the public is underrating the support system around Jordan Love. The Packers have a defense that found its stride over the latter parts of this past season, one of the better two-headed backfields in the league, and an offensive line that should be better (if David Bakhtiari starts looking more like his former self, Elgton Jenkins finally is back at his natural spot inside, and some of their young guys take a step, whilst having some options in case of injuries).
The one area where it’s more about a lack of experience is the receiving corp, where Josiah Deguara is the most seasoned player among the entire crew, and they haven’t been able to create a role for him through three years in Green Bay. So looking at some of the signs Love has shown in the preseason and jumping in late a couple of times this past year, there’s certainly reason for optimism.
However, if he misses any extended stretch, their season may go completely sideways, looking at their alternatives. Danny Etling has yet to attempt a single pass since being drafted in the seventh round back in 2018, and freaking Sean Clifford as the 149th pick this past draft was the one that had my jaw on the floor.
For anybody who’s watched him at Penn State over the last four years, even if you may appreciate the toughness and pure arm strength, the idea of this guy having NFL accuracy or decision-making qualities is just wild.
Minnesota Vikings, NFC North – Proven commodity in the secondary
You can’t fault them for not addressing the secondary, considering over the last four years they’ve now invested eight picks across the first four rounds into that group. That, along with bringing on veteran Patrick Peterson on a couple of one-year deals and this offseason signing Byron Murphy to a two-year, 17.5-million contract.
The Vikings probably moved on from P2 at the right time, entering his 13th NFL season after he provided some critical turnovers for them last season. They do have plenty of bodies back there now. Still, other than Harrison Smith – another one of those guys at the twilight of his career – and Murphy, you’re looking at all players that are either still on their rookie deals or were cut from the teams that initially selected them during those.
I was a big fan of both their second-round picks, Lewis Cine and Andrew Booth Jr., last year, but they combined for just 107 regular season snaps due to injury. I’m guessing Booth is in the driver’s seat for one of those starting spots on the outside, and the plan with Murphy should be to put him in the slot. So now it’ll be up to fourth-rounders from these last two years in Akayleb Evans and Mekhi Blackmon (USC) to compete for that third spot.
Yet, if there are any injuries, you’re looking at the potential of a bunch of inexperienced players contributing significant snaps in a system that needs brilliant guys, who understand tendencies, have great route anticipation, and know when they can drive on stuff (especially with Brian Flores taking over at DC, with as much cover-zero rain as he typically wants to run in passing situations, where they’re asked to play off-man across the secondary and make great decisions).
Dallas Cowboys, NFC East – Power back
I feel dirty almost for this being my pick for Dallas here, since I’ve been the number one supporter of Tony Pollard getting the majority of touches in that offense. But I didn’t mean to say they should just cut ties with Ezekiel Elliott and not address the running back position at all otherwise.
By taking Brandin Cooks’ contract off the nearby Texans’ hands, everybody on the O-line coming back and them replacing Dalton Schultz with second-round pick Luke Schoonmaker (to re-organize that almost indistinguishable three-headed tight-end room), this offense stays largely intact if not will be improved personnel-wise.
The question mark is the change at play-caller, as the Cowboys and now-Chargers OC Kellen Moore parted ways, with 25-year veteran assistant Brian Schottenheimer assuming that title and head-man Mike McCarthy designated to call the shots.
Whether that really has a chance of being an upgrade is rather doubtful from my perspective, but if Dak Prescott’s interception luck can get regress toward the mean in a positive sense, this could certainly be a top-ten offense in EPA per play for the third straight season.
With that being said, this has been a two-back system throughout – even though I thought the touches weren’t distributed appropriately – and that’s what McCarthy has run for the majority of his career. While Zeke had his shortcomings in terms of quick-twitch explosiveness at this stage, he was still an excellent decision-maker between the tackles and valuable in short-yardage situations in particular.
Yet, Malik Davis had zero goal-line touches as a UDFA last year and Ronald Jones is a less refined and probably even less dynamic version of Zeke. Especially with Pollard coming off the broken fibula he suffered in the Divisional round against San Francisco, someone to smash it up the middle in those spots and who can help them grind away games late, along with providing solid pass-pro, would make sense.
New York Giants, NFC East – Rangy safety
After bringing back almost all the names from their skill-position group and adding the profiles of Pro Bowl-level tight-end Darren Waller and Tennessee speed demon Jalin Hyatt as a third-round pick, the pieces are starting to actually fit together for the Giants. They’re actually overhauling what kind of roles those guys are about to assume.
That should help Brian Daboll and Mike Kafka not constantly have to create schematic advantages for them through the air and gives them more flexibility with what they can do in the first place.
Defensively, last year’s fifth overall pick Kayvon Thibodeaux flashed in a way that has me confident he could turn himself into a force off the edge, the G-Men quietly added some underrated pieces on the interior line and swapped out their linebacker duo, which was a major weak-area that opponents specifically targeted.
This year's first-rounder, Maryland’s Deonte Banks, presents an impressive athletic and IQ profile at corner, who should start alongside Adoree Jackson and Darnay Holmes in nickel sets. I believe they look at Xavier McKinney as a franchise cornerstone on the last year of his rookie deal, but who do they want to start next to him?
After letting Julian Love move on to Seattle in free agency, Jason Pinnock would be the most logical candidate to play deep safety, even though he actually played corner throughout his time in college and took a slight step back as his snaps doubled, coming over from the other New York team.
Bobby McCain and Dane Belton to me are best suited in the slot, depending on if they prioritize man-coverage skills or run defense from that spot. And seventh-rounder Gervarrius Owens probably is more so a designated special teamer this year.
However, they could still use a rangy player on the back end, so they can let the X-man roam around a bit and drop down when they bring pressure, so you still have somebody help clean up if one of the receivers finds some early separation.
Philadelphia Eagles, NFC East – WILL linebacker
This may be the most complete roster in all of football and it’s hard to poke many holes in it. Other than injury concerns throughout the running back room and a drop-off at safety, the main question marks are less based on personnel, but rather on swapping out both coordinators.
Quarterbacks coach Brian Johnson is being elevated and asked to simplify the attack in a similar way to Shane Steichen, which allowed the talent to flourish last season. Sean Desai takes over the defense, which shouldn’t look too different schematically.
Up front, that unit should be pretty nasty, but I believe Philly’s linebacker duo from last year in T.J. Edwards and Kyzir White was the most underrated part of the Eagles’ Super Bowl run. The former provided a lot of stability between the tackles with his ability to diagnose and fit against the runs, while the latter provided plus range on that second level.
I was very high on Nakobe Dean in last year’s draft, thanks to the instincts and intelligence he showed for the position at Georgia. However, he spent ten times as many snaps on special teams as defense, where he had just 34 total during the regular season. So in terms of the pros, he’s a fairly unproven asset. And they don’t really have anybody next to him I’d feel too good about.
Nicholas Morrow is currently slated to start on the weak side, but looking at his PFF grade of just 54.0, that ranked 86th among the 116 LBs who played at least 100 snaps this past season. Across just over 1,000 career snaps for Shaun Bradley, about 87% of those were spent on special teams, with zero on defense in 2022.
Christian Elliss has combined for just 29 defensive snaps in his first two seasons and Davion Taylor is barely on the roster anymore, due to poor play and injuries, that originally got him released after his first two years as a former third-round pick.
Washington Commanders, NFC East – Left guard
And finally, in terms of the NFC East, this is a team that sort of feels like it’s at the calm point of an upcoming storm. Washington has now put together three straight seasons with seven or eight wins under Ron Rivera and moved on from Carson Wentz and Taylor Heinicke, in order to see what they have in last year’s fifth-round pick Sam Howell at quarterback.
For whatever reason they didn’t give Howell any playing time until the season finale – when he looked damn good in a win over the Cowboys. So if he can take advantage of that opportunity and from a broader perspective, if the team can take a step forward, this will decide if the new ownership completely overhauls the decision-makers within the organization.
Meanwhile, Howell is certainly set up to make a strong case for himself, with one of the top WR trios in the league and Eric Bienemy coming in at offensive coordinator. How high he may fly will depend on the stability up front, where EB brought along Andrew Wylie from Kansas City to probably take over at right tackle and move third-year man Sam Cosmi one spot over.
The Commanders also drafted Ricky Stromberg out of Arkansas at the end of the third round, who I believe is the favorite to start at center. That would probably lead to Nick Gates sliding over to left guard, where he’s been a below-average starter when asked to move there. Washington also drafted Braeden Daniels out of Utah as a guy with tackle/guard flexibility, while the other options in Saahdiq Charles or Tyler Larsen are more so fringe roster candidates.
A proven starter would move everybody else down one spot on the depth chart and allow you to only carry guys on gameday that you actually feel okay about.
Atlanta Falcons, NFC South – Proven edge rusher
There’s a lot to like about the Atlanta Falcons heading into year three under head coach Arthur Smith, even though purely by the win-loss total they’ve posted back-to-back 7-10 records.
This could be one of the most interesting offenses for football nerds like myself, because of their return to a ground-heavy approach. They don’t mind handing the ball off on third-and-three, yet they bring the new-school flair of this incredibly interchangeable usage of personnel among their skill-position group.
Meanwhile, they’re moving on at defensive coordinator from the retired Dean Pees to former Saints D-line coach Ryan Nielsen, so we should see a shift in terms of their front dynamics to a certain degree. Signing Jessie Bates in free agency as rangy safety capable of playing center-field and trading minimal draft capital for former third-overall Jeffrey Okudah would indicate that we may see more single-high structures and man-coverage on the perimeter.
I actually outlined the Falcons' D-line as being one of the most improved position groups across the league. This is due to the additions of veterans David Onyemata, Calais Campbell and Bud Dupree, along with third-round pick Zach Harrison (Ohio State) and a UDFA I believe has a chance to stick on the roster in Ikenna Enechukwu (Rice).
With that being said, while we may see more even fronts with Campbell as a six-technique defensive end, the only proven guy rushing off the edge is Lorenzo Carter, who they brought back for two more years at a nine-million-dollar price tag (but he’s below the 10% rate I’d like to see for any primary rusher in terms pressures per passing down opportunity). Last year’s second-round pick Arnold Ebiketie did flash as a rookie, but played just below half of the defensive snaps and also didn’t clear that mark.
So unless Bud Dupree can suddenly find some flexibility in his banged-up body to shorten the corner without relying on power, they don’t really have anybody to do so in-house currently.
Carolina Panthers, NFC South – 4i-/5-technique
A breath of fresh air is swirling around Carolina these days, with a completely new coaching staff. With already one of the best young offensive lines in front of first-overall pick Bryce Young and Frank Reich’s highly experienced staff around him, we should finally see that unit be competent in both facets of the game.
Defensively, they’ve already played at a very high level for stretches, with several underrated pieces in the front seven. What they’ve been missing most of, as opposing offenses started figuring out how to defeat their blitz packages former defensive coordinator Phil Snow threw out there (and just in general what they’ve needed to close out games) is that guy across from Brian Burns, who can win rushing off the edge.
However, Yetur Gross-Matos has been an excellent early-down run defender and they just traded up in the middle of the third round for substantial resources in order to bring in Oregon’s D.J. Johnson (who I don’t believe is ready to contribute in a significant way yet, but has tremendous athletic potential).
So, as I think of the rest of the NFC South using a lot more heavy personnel offensively than you see across most of the league, I expect that to force Carolina to match with base quite a bit, even if new DC Ejiro Evero in principle wants to live in light boxes.
Derrick Brown really came into his own last season as a top-ten pick from three years ago, and they stole Shy Tuttle from within their division, to give them more flexibility on the interior. However, that base D-end spot you’d find in a 3-4, that asks players to play head-up or shaded inside of the tackle is where they lack quality options.
DeShawn Williams is currently slated to start there, but he’s had back-to-back seasons with PFF grades around 56 only. Beyond that, Henry Anderson has been plagued by injuries lately as a journeyman player and then you’re looking at UDFAs from the last two years in Marquan McCall and Jalen Redmond (Oklahoma).
New Orleans Saints, NFC South – Nickelback
Looking at the crowd that insists “the cap isn’t real,” what Saints general manager Mickey Loomis has done throughout his tenure in the Big Easy is the first thing they can point towards. They’ve just continued to roll over money to future years and restructured contracts, in order to maintain a competitive roster.
The latest of those moves was handing quarterback Derek Carr a four-year, 150-million-dollar deal despite being nearly 60 million in the minus to begin the offseason in terms of effective cap space.
Last year’s first-round pick Trevor Penning needs to step in at left tackle coming off an injury, but more importantly, that defense needs to continue being one of the top units in the league. Especially if they are to have a chance at competing with the elite teams in the NFC.
More than in years prior, they’re relying on young players up front to give them quality play, as two top-40 picks from this past April may end up starting for them eventually. The back seven stays pretty much intact, although there will be a battle for that second starting outside corner spot between Paulson Adebo (who took a step back in year two) and Alontae Taylor (who I don’t believe the grading or pure numbers represent how well he performed over the latter half of his rookie campaign).
Regardless, neither of them spent any extended stretch in the slot, where they let a long-time veteran in Chris Harris Jr. walk and now his former Denver teammate Bradley Roby is currently slated to be the starter. That’s not super encouraging, however, as he’s coming off the worst season of his nine-year career and has an overall missed tackle rate of nearly 18%, which doesn’t compensate for his declining quality in coverage.
As for alternatives, Lonnie Johnson Jr. played less than 200 snaps for a banged-up Titans secondary last season and Ugo Amadi spent time in three different cities in 2022.
Tampa Bay Buccaneers, NFC South – Receiver depth
We are just about half a year away from the Bucs winning this division somewhat by default. They took care of business down the stretch with Tom Brady at the helm, but they seem to be the clear fourth team in this NFC South equation.
While the early signs of a battle at quarterback between Baker Mayfield, Kyle Trask and maybe even John Wolford have not been too encouraging (and I wonder who starts at nickel for them defensively), you could argue that a lot of the key pieces from that Super Bowl run just two-and-a-half years ago are still there.
That includes wide receivers Mike Evans and Chris Godwin, while that third slot has transitioned from Antonio Brown (who threw up the deuces to his NFL career mid-way through the following season) to Russell Gage on a 10-million-dollar per year contract being signed in free agency last March.
We can argue if Big Mike’s prime is finally winding down to some degree and if Chris Godwin can return to the type of physical pass-catcher he was prior to damaging multiple ligaments in his knee in December of 2021. But in theory that is still a very likable trio of weapons, especially if Cade Otton can build on a strong late-season run as a rookie.
Where things look a bit bare is beyond those starters in 11 personnel. Looking at the collection of wide receivers currently on the roster, Deven Thompkins had five catches as a rookie (primarily contributing in the return game) and Kaylon Geiger didn’t have any.
David Moore had a nice three-year stretch in Seattle, but after signing a two-year in deal in Carolina ahead of 2021, he was released before that season started and was only active for three games (with no catches) across four other teams since then. Otherwise, it’s all UDFAs.
Arizona Cardinals, NFC West – Center
Unless you are a hardcore NFL fan like me – and maybe even then, if you haven’t really studied rosters across the league this offseason – I would like to challenge you to name the current starter at center for the Cardinals. Nothing? Well, don’t feel bad for not getting Hjalte Froholdt’s name right.
He was another one of those New England fourth-rounders three years ago, considering they just drafted three guys in that range this past April. Since then, he’s been waived by the Patriots, the Texans and the Browns, in part due to ultimately landing on the reserve list for all of them.
This offseason, a week after releasing Rodney Hudson – who was already contemplating retirement at that point – Arizona signed Froholdt to a two-year, 2.6-million-dollar contract. And looking at the five games he started at the pivot in Cleveland last year, his average PFF grade across those was just 55.8.
The reason a player like that, who hadn’t started a game until the Browns were dealing with injuries, can even get a deal above the veteran minimum, is that the Cardinals didn’t have a single schooled center on the roster. In fact, the only interior O-linemen other than Will Hernandez currently under contract, who didn’t get drafted on day three in either of these past two years is journeyman Elijah Wilkinson.
I did like Lecitus Smith and Marquis Hayes as late-round flyers for this group from 2022, but you better hope Froholdt can step up his game and is able to stay healthy. Even then, I would not be comfortable with that being plan A.
Los Angeles Rams, NFC West – Defense around Aaron Donald
I know this sounds a bit excessive, but please look at the Rams depth chart on defense and tell me you didn’t either smirk or raise your eyebrows reading through all those names. If you do so on ourlads.com, the amount of green (indicating rookies) across the second and third strings is wild.
Overall, the fact that Sean McVay and Raheem Morris are coming back to lead both sides of the ball forward are major benefits, looking at where their strategy of stars and scrubs-oriented roster construction has led them. However, there’s a lot more to work with offensively, if the O-line can come together with some young and hopefully healthy pieces.
The defense is experiencing a complete overhaul though, as the only three players even left from that championship run are Aaron Donald, Ernest Jones and Jordan Fuller (the latter two are on the third and final years of their respective rookie contracts). Cobie Durant had some nice flashes as a play-making slot cornerback and Quentin Lake showed some of the high-level instincts and intelligence I liked at UCLA late in the year, after missing almost his entire rookie campaign with a knee injury.
Beyond that, there’s very little to hang your hat on, with major question marks at all three levels. If I had to choose one specific position, it would be boundary cornerback. I think with a guy like Derion Kendrick, who they selected out of Georgia in the sixth round last year, you really limit what you can do schematically, considering he ran in the high 4.7’s at his pro day.
I believe a fourth-rounder from two years ago in Robert Rochell presents a pretty high-variance profile in terms of coverage and tackling. And the one guy I’d feel okay about getting an extended run for them is this year’s sixth-rounder Tre Hodges-Tomlinson (TCU), but at 5’8”, 180 pounds he’s probably a pure nickel in the pros.
San Francisco 49ers, NFC West – Proven right tackle
First and foremost, this 49ers roster is loaded, and if you really go through it, there aren’t many weaknesses or even question marks that you can find. Of course, we will need to see how this whole triangle of quarterbacks plays out and they’re probably depending on their third-round pick Ji’Ayir Brown to give them quality play as a starting safety right away, but I do think he’s a great fit for that defense and the reports out of camp have all been great.
So even right tackle I’d say isn’t like a position that I look at as a definite hole for them. If Matt Pryor is more so looked at as the designated backup at left tackle and they want to let one of their young guys earn that gig on the opposite end, it'll just be filled with an unproven commodity, as Colton McKivitz, Jaylon Moore and Nick Zakelj are competing for it.
The first among those names is the one whose been part of the system the longest, entering year four in San Francisco. He did play 300 snaps at right guard as a rookie but has only logged 29 total at right tackle so far, with underwhelming results overall.
Moore is somebody I really liked as another fifth-rounder two years ago and he’s filled in pretty well for Trent Williams on the left side when needed, but literally, his two worst-graded PFF games among the eight in which he played 10+ snaps came when he lined up on the opposite end.
Finally, Zakelj was looked at as a transition candidate to guard anyway, considering he only has 32 ½-inch arms. And he only played 12 snaps as a sixth-round rookie last year. The way Kyle Shanahan can mask weaknesses across the O-line should mitigate the worries that spot may bring along, but if they fall behind in a game and any of those dudes have to protect against some top-flight edge rusher, that could spell trouble.
Seattle Seahawks, NFC West – Nose-tackle
And the final team of this edition is one that is kind of being slept on I believe, when looking at the betting markets. The Seahawks were looked at as a rebuilding program last offseason, once they traded Russell Wilson to Denver. However, that offense actually improved under the new leadership of Geno Smith and with the additions of Ohio State wide receiver Jaxon Smith-Njigba and UCLA running back Zach Charbonnet, they’ve really built out that skill-position group.
Defensively is where things kind of fell apart for them last season, as they really struggled to stop the run and get home with a fairly unproven group of pass-rushers. They handed free agent Dre’Mont Jones $51.3 million over the next three years, as a guy who can play some base end in even fronts and be a versatile piece on passing downs.
If Uchenna Nwosu can replicate what he did over the second half of last season (as one of the more consistent pressure players off the edge) and they collectively get quality play on the opposite end between the three second-round picks they’ve now spent on that position, I think we could see that unit be a lot more disruptive, especially with a tremendous young duo of corners in Tariq Woolen and now fifth overall pick Devon Witherspoon.
Where I’m still worried is how they get to those longer down-and-distances and in particular the very middle of their defense. Bryan Mone is the only true nose on that roster, who has an average PFF grade of 53.3 across his four seasons in Seattle, where he’s combined for just under 1,000 snaps, in large part due to injuries to their front-line starters.
Cameron Young as a fourth-round rookie was a part-time A-gap defender for Mississippi State, but optimally plays 3-4 end and I recently outlined Jonah Tavai as a potential impact UDFA, who did line up as a shade one-technique at times, but in a role where he just crashed through the center’s shoulder rather than ever having to read-and-react.
If you enjoyed this breakdown, please consider checking out the original piece and feel free to check out all my other video content here!
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