Plenty of spots up for grabs

If the first half of last week’s game showed us anything, it showed us that we are not quite there yet. I know it’s just one game, but it was the absolute worst outing, I’ve ever seen for Demar Dotson and Donovan Smith. Alex Cappa looked to have taken at least 10 steps back from all the progress he gained over the offseason and training camp. Of course, those guys will be starters, so we will have to hope they can turn things around in a hurry.

With Thursday’s game coming up against the cowboys not showcasing any of the first-stringers and some of the seconds as well, this game will be more of a tryout for the team than anything else for a lot of these guys hoping to make the team. There are roughly 10 spots available to be filled and Arians will be reviewing their live applications, Thursday, with an watchful eye. The special team’s position is going to get most of the looks from Arians, but he wants to see the guys keeping it simple, fast, and win those one-on-one battles.

“The one thing about this last game – you always want to try to keep it as simple as possible so they can play fast and show you that they’re real athletic. You don’t want them out there thinking. That part of it, you just want to see good one-on-one stuff all night and try to be as proficient as possible. Special teams, that’s where most jobs are going to be won in this game – somebody that covers a kick, maybe knocks a ball loose, does something big that gets one of those last 10 spots or maybe one of those 10 practice squad spots. There’s a bunch of spots up.

“Yeah, that’s probably the number when you’re talking about the sixth lineman, fifth backer, fifth corner, fourth corner – when you’re going around and who’s on special teams, there’s about 10 and then there’s 10 practice squad spots for the guys that clear waivers.”  –Bruce Arians

It sounds like Arians is still has his team in mind and we can easily have a close guesstimate as to who will fit where on the depth chart, at least with the first three for most positions, the hard part is going to be filling the gaps by Saturday at 4 PM.