Lack-of-Power Rankings

This pretty much sucks. #29? I wouldn't predict a playoff appearence just yet, but I think the local and especially national media is taking too dim a view of personnel related moves this offseason. The front office shake ups have been befuddling, though, and in the NFL it's rare for teams with so much administrative turnover to make huge leaps forward. We'll see.

One thing I am sure about though -- there might be chaos in the front office but the opening day team should be noticably better than the team that finished the 2003 season. Here are the roster-related issues that seem to be facing the team prior to training camp:

• We still are crying out for another veteran on the offensive line (guard or tackle, doesn't matter, cause there will be injuries). Even if the team blows 5 million on a talent who's on the downside of his career it will be money well spent.
  
• C Brown/Ekuban has to be a presence at DE. Both of these guys have injury concerns. We need a good season from one or both. Not sure there's much left to do in the offseason though. If Ekuban truly has a serious injury it could be an area where we see a June 1st guy get signed.
  
• Backup QB. Is Holcomb going to be ready to go? Is he going to be effective enough to justify keeping? Will he be a good fit for the evolving offense? It's likely Garcia will have his share of injuries so the #2 will get some starts. I'd be pretty happy with a long rumored Mike McMahon trade. On football terms Couch would be a fine backup, but that would probably be an untenable situation.
  
• A punter. This might be more important that people think, especially since the offense is getting a bit more grind-it-out in style.
  
• A punt returner. If not Northcutt, then who?

At the moment, there isn't anything else. We're going to go with the horses in the stable. There's decent talent and depth at LB and DB. The DL is fine and, for now, only has vague injury concerns.

The starting WRs and RBs aren't going to strike fear into defenses just yet, but there's lots of young talent there too. The OL is justifiably scaring people but the reality is it will come down to health and depth like so many seasons past. And there is an upgrade at QB, a big plus at FB, and a very big addition at TE. Don't expect soo many things to change in the next 3 months.