LT: Left behind

[Saccopoo]

Originally Posted by Wonton Prejudice

I'd be scared to ****ing death of Stephenson at LT, sorry.

Penciling him in as a solid player at this point is laughable. HUGE question mark.

Same goes with Jeff Allen.

Then you should be downright terrified of them drafting guys like Joeckel, Fisher or Johnson.

Stephenson was as good as any of those guys as a junior and got good playing time late last season. He was definitely better than Johnson on the same team. A training camp with Reid and he's going to be ready to absolutely blow up.

And Allen was a four year starter at right (freshman) and left tackle (sophomore, junior, senior) for the Illini. Second team All-American as a freshman and made All-Conference lists every single year.

Don Stephenson at left tackle is one of my least concerning concerns for next season and I think that Allen has the capability of being a solid right tackle in this scheme. He's 6'4 1/2", 315 lbs. with good power, feet and hands. I hated that they (Crennel/Pissholi) tried to shoehorn him into the guard position, but with Winston gone, I think he's got a shot at the RT spot.

It's like Geoff Schwartz said: I can play right tackle, but I'm a better guard. Allen is a better tackle than guard.

No, my stated lineup wouldn't worry me in the least.

[Hammock Parties]

Originally Posted by Saccopoo

Then you should be downright terrified of them drafting guys like Joeckel, Fisher or Johnson.

Stephenson was as good as any of those guys as a junior and got good playing time late last season. He was definitely better than Johnson on the same team. A training camp with Reid and he's going to be ready to absolutely blow up.

And Allen was a four year starter at right (freshman) and left tackle (sophomore, junior, senior) for the Illini. Second team All-American as a freshman and made All-Conference lists every single year.

Don Stephenson at left tackle is one of my least concerning concerns for next season and I think that Allen has the capability of being a solid right tackle in this scheme. He's 6'4 1/2", 315 lbs. with good power, feet and hands. I hated that they (Crennel/Pissholi) tried to shoehorn him into the guard position, but with Winston gone, I think he's got a shot at the RT spot.

It's like Geoff Schwartz said: I can play right tackle, but I'm a better guard. Allen is a better tackle than guard.

No, my stated lineup wouldn't worry me in the least.

I'll eat a bug if Stephenson AND Allen are our starting tackles next season.

Reid isn't going to war with those guys based on their rookie tape.

[Saccopoo]

Originally Posted by Wonton Prejudice

I'll eat a bug if Stephenson AND Allen are our starting tackles next season.

Reid isn't going to war with those guys based on their rookie tape.

No, he won't. But he'll go to war with those guys after a full training camp in his system.

With both of them getting good reps last season, it only helped their development if Albert gets traded prior to the start of the season.

And there are very few rookies who are forced into playing time that usually come out looking like rock stars. Neither of those guys got first team reps until they were forced onto the field due to injury.

However, both were high level players at the college level with potential for the NFL who now know what it's like to block at that level. That game time that they got was extremely valuable and an off-season/summer camp with a guy that is a pretty decent offensive mind versus a complete buffoon like Daboll is going to be Nirvana-level enlightening for not only the offensive line, but for all the players.

I think that both of those guys are going to be okay when the season rolls around.