Man when you look at this roster, we are so young....there are so many guys you could choose who are 2nd year pros. Vinny has 24 years, second most experienced guys are Sheard, Houston and Castonzo who are entering their 9th seasons next longest in tenure are Luck and Hilton with 8.

Haven't gone through the roster in depth but i suspect 70% of our roster will be going into their 3rd season or less.

I think we may have a great coaching staff. They have all this physical talent, some from small no name (as far as the NFL is concerned) schools and the coaching staff seems to put them in situations they can mentally handle. Then they slowly add stuff. Ballard looks like he really has gotten players that are take to coaching. A winning combo

I'm not down on them. I think they will be most improved. I don't see either cracking the starters, but they should improve.

Ballard likes athletes at end, although the guys seem to need their technique improved and can be projects. He will throw numbers at the problem till it is solved. I expect to spend another draft pick on a pass rusher next draft. Turay showed flashes at pass rushing, but his run defense was very shoddy. Lewis I think will be better because I think he had better instruction at OSU and was buried among a lot of dominate players at that school. He also missed a lot of last season due to injury.

Finally, dline is a man's game within the game. It takes time for the average dline guy to reach his potential. Sure some guys come out of the gate fast, but usually it takes years to build your body, gain the strength, and master effective technique to be a good player. You have to be patient with guys. I always like a misture of vets and youth at the position.

Look at Grover Stewert, he had to retool his body to fit in this system, and he now looks like he is starting to get it. I think he will take a transition step.

Just because they accomplished so much in their rookie seasons I
wouldn't discount the possibility that Leonard and Nelson have bigger
leaps than their classmates. I look for Leonard to be more comfortable,
more instinctive with a year under his belt with an expanding role to play.
Combine that with his work ethic and he could move into the Mack class of
elite players. As for Nelson a number of people tabbed him as the best
interior O lineman to come out of college since John Hannah. He did nothing
to disprove that notion. If he follows that trajectory we'll see a lot more
pancakes and open lanes.

Fountain with another deep TD today, this time against the Browns.

I simply didn’t see anything that jumped out at me that they would be difference makers

Agreed. I just have hope that at least one of them will have the light go off. Sometimes it takes time, Wilson showed zilch his first year and a half. Now it's a different story. I think both of them have talent with a burst so I'm hopeful.

Looks like I may have gotten the right answer.

I watched the replay this morning, they said we have some #, something staggering, that were captains of their respective teams. Looks like Ballard is looking for guys that want the responsibility of being in charge, of having to hold others accountable. May be onto something very under the radar.

He said that building the locker room was the first step, but for some reason people doubted him.