Mac daddyo

Gilbert is listed as doubtful. Not much chance he'll play Sunday.

 

I am not positive but I am thinking his replacement will do as good of a job ?

 

I have a good feeling about Adams, I believe you're right.

 

Mac, I cannot provide you with the proof you need to justify my statement. I will say with Gilbert down Adams is the RT. If Beechum also goes down Adams stays put and the Best OL we have moves to protect Ben's Blindside which has been made an easier decision with solid play by Wallace at C. LT is TOO critical to let Adams play there until he puts on film improved OT play. In fact, if he fails to show he can play RT competently this week he may be finished here come next year. Remember when M. Smith went down and Big red moved to LT and did so well he was named to the pro-bowl? Now if Beechum is the only OL to go down Gilbert moves to LT and replaced by Adams @ RT. Adams is NOT our swing tackle in the sense he'll play both spots any/everytime. Colbert may be our top personnel man but I guarantee he IS influenced by Tomlin to some level. Tomlin loves some wil Allen and DHB which is why Johnson was cut in hope no-one would pick him up. Honestly, this is poor roster management. DHB should have been cut instead. At the time of the cut he had recorded zero catches. He was kept on the 53 due to his ST skills yet he has zero ST tackles also. A total waste of roster space. Allen should have also been on the block before Wesley. Until Sharks injury he had zero snaps at safety this year and he needs the reps if he's going to have a bigger role next year. Cajun-

 

adams has replaced beachum at LT and gilbert isn't good enough to play the left side. we saw that last year in camp when gilbert was tried over there to start camp. it didn't last long for a reason. just because big red moved there under cowher for a game doesn't mean we will do that with pouncey. red was also a guard and not a center. it was also a different blocking scheme at the time. no use weakening two positions by moving MP to tackle. he's to important with his mobility to the middle, left and right to pigeon hole to one side. adams would be the guy moving to the left if beachum goes down. foster would go to RT and Wallace to guard. maybe even hubbard if he dresses with gilbert out. don't forget in a pinch hubbard was a 4 year starter for UAB at left tackle. it may not be ideal, but if it came to that i'll bet a dollar to a doughnut that's what would happen. foster also played some limited LT in college. the only other scenario if it came to that would be Wallace to center and pouncey to guard. maybe in the worst case scenario.

I agree will allen should have been the guy to go instead of Johnson. we brought up a safety so why not replace a safety with one, or even Justin brown. I think there would have been a better chance we could have had him clear waivers than Johnson. also at that time we still had moye on the PS if he didn't. just a bad move by Colbert yet again.

 

Mac, I think it was Tomlin in his post game last week that said we almost saw Pouncey at left tackle when Beachum got dinged.

 

I hope Mike continues to depress me lol

 

Big red played the rest of the season @ OT and made the pro-bowl as a OT that year. But this isn't about him, it's about Adams. Please please don't tell me you feel comfortable playing Adams at LT. We all know he is a decent run blocker and we're all quite happy he played well though he had some help in a fill-in role at RT.

Cajun-

 

if beachum goes down we don't have a lot of choice. adams is the guy we kept as the backup swing tackle. not my choice Cajun.

 

And so far we were right..

 

Heath didn't have much of a passing game you say, actually Heath had a monster game catching 7 passes for 112 yards and a TD averaging 16 yards a catch, that is big time production, if they didn't use him for blocking as much as they do, he could be up in the top 5 leading tight ends in receiving yardage and TDs......

 

this was referring to the Houston game not the colts game. I agree if we had a line we could depend on week to week heath would have even greater TE numbers in his career.

 

Left Tackle would be the last position I would've predicted Johnson to play. I thought that he would be more of a LG starter who could play C and RG effectively, and RT in a pinch. There will be other Wesley Johnson's chilling in the late rounds of future drafts... I doubt we will really miss him. Undersized and versatile are the qualities of many late round OL prospects. Every once in awhile they turn out to be pretty good (Beachum), though most of the time they don't.

I'd be totally shocked if neither Adams or Gilbert went to LT if Beachum went down. I'd prefer it didn't go that route, but I think either are capable in limited duty.

 

If he keeps playing on a consistent basis,
he will.

 

Johnson gave us a lot to work with was my trouble about the situation. he was playing some LT throughout camp as well as the other spots. he played that position in college pretty well so he had some tools to work with. he was a 5th round pick and we have very little here to even draw from down the line. having to start over every year doesn't really help us evolve any of these positions so we spin our wheels every year and scramble to find people. cb the same way. we keep cutting our draft picks so they never do learn the system. we are always starting with new guys that are green.

 

Since this seems the place to go with our current OL questions,I have one or two of my own. How long is Gilbert's leash tonight? Adams has been playing well and we can ill afford any pressure on Ben especially from just their front four. I expect them to try and pressure with just the front four to protect their secondary. So it is very important we shut that notion down right away and force them to send more.
Also what are the chances we start to maybe use a unbalanced line replacing Spaeth with Adams especially seeing that we never pass to Spaeth anyway. Just think how good our blocking would be then....thoughts?

 

takes away a receiver from us for one thing. only makes them have to cover 4 guys. leaving in a back or even using will Johnson would seem like the smarter play. if gilbert can't handle the edge adams should get a shot to do so before ben would get killed but I'm not sure our coach would do it. now if we run out of that unbalanced line and do it well when using it that also could free up some receivers, but it still limits us. kind of a catch 22 scenario if we go that route.

 

Thanks. I kinda figured the catch22 as well. I would love to see Will J in that role. I think he can block as well as Spaeth and his athleticism makes him a much bigger threat in the recieving game. I also think they will have a hard enough time just covering 4 of our guys and the added protection from Adams should give Ben all day to throw. Tonite might be a good night to see Bell and Blount on the field at the same time,even if only for a few plays.