Sports blog information from USA TODAY.
Highlighting the biggest post-draft question marks for the Packers on offense.
The Green Bay Packers are transforming on offense entering 2023. The transition from Aaron Rodgers to Jordan Love is the highlight, but the Packers also rebuilt the wide receiver and tight end positions from the ground up.
While there are veterans at running back and along the offensive line, this is a young group around a first-year starting quarterback.
So, what’s the biggest post-draft question mark for the Packers offense?
Here are the answers from the staff at Packers Wire:
Kellen Moore was taken by surprise when Brandon Staley selected Quentin Johnston with the Chargers’ first-round pick.
The Chargers had work to do in the offseason to prepare for a bounce-back 2023 campaign, and with the draft behind them, their roster is starting to take shape.
After speculation surrounding whether or not they’d favor building on offense or defense first, the team elected to choose TCU wide receiver Quinten Johnston with their first-round pick to give quarterback Justin Herbert another option to throw to.
Offensive coordinator Kellen Moore applauded that decision in comments made to the media after the draft. Speaking to reporters about his thoughts on the team’s draft class, he made it clear that the team’s strategy in the annual selection meeting took him by surprise.
“Brandon [Staley] is this defensive guy and he’s drafting these offensive guys, I like this,” Moore explained. “It’s a lot of fun. Q [Johnston] really stood out for us as we went through the process. Everyone kind of sees the measurables, the size as far as the height and the weight.
“What he did for TCU from his versatility, I thought, was really, really special. His ability to kind of catch-and-run, he was a fly-sweep guy. He got the ball in a lot of different ways. You saw a lot of versatility in his game that maybe, initially, someone may not have necessarily anticipated. We were really excited that he was there and available for us.”
Johnston will have to prove himself to see a significant number of snaps in the regular season but should benefit from the mentorship of receivers Keenan Allen and Mike Williams when training camp begins in July.
For his part, Moore seems committed to converting on every ounce of promise that Johnston showed on film last season. With some time, the seasoned coordinator could unlock hidden potential in his newest offensive weapon.
Here’s an early projection of how the Dallas Cowboys’ 55-man roster will look when the 2020 season begins.
The NFL off-season continues to muddle along for most teams, but the Dallas Cowboys are still making waves. After a successful -as far as we know now- draft, the Cowboys continue to improve.
Dallas brought in another CB/S option in Daryl Worley and then the team significantly upgraded the backup quarterback spot when they signed Andy Dalton. The bottom of the roster churning by the Cowboys has been impressive and should make for some interesting decisions when the season rolls around.
Here’s an early look at the 53-man roster for the Cowboys.
Dak Prescott, Andy Dalton, Ben DiNucci
Dak Prescott will play for the Cowboys in 2020, forget any other noise. Dalton makes a perfect backup and DiNucci hopefully shows enough in preseason to stick.
Under former boss Jason Garrett the Cowboys have gone with just two quarterbacks recently, but Mike McCarthy likes to have a young QB to develop. Dallas could try to sneak him through final cuts and add him to the practice squad, but it’s doubtful they’ll temp fate. McCarthy will choose to keep him.
Ezekiel Elliott, Tony Pollard, Rico Dowdle, Jamize Olawale
Obviously, the top two guys are safe, Elliott and Pollard are one of the top combos in the league. McCarthy did utilize his FB in his time with the Packers, so Olawale seems safe. Dowdle will win the third halfback spot over last year’s revelation, Jordan Chunn. The rookie from South Carolina has some impressive tape, he just needs to stay healthy.
Great video from @MattWaldman on #Cowboys UDFA RB Rico Dowdlehttps://t.co/Koj2pDyUXS
— John Owning (@JohnOwning) April 27, 2020
Amari Cooper, Michael Gallup, CeeDee Lamb, Cederic Wilson, Devin Smith, Tavon Austin
As it is with the running backs, the top three receivers on the Cowboys rank among the best in the NFL. There isn’t much depth after the top guys, however. Wilson’s upside as a deep threat will keep him around and Smith’s pedigree helps him stick.
Dallas really could use a small, shifty WR to round out the group and it shouldn’t surprise anyone if the Cowboys brought in someone before the season. Austin is still a FA, but can be brought back and Taylor Gabriel makes sense too. For now, it’ll be Austin, but don’t dismiss the team bringing in another option.
Blake Jarwin, Blake Bell, Sean McKeon
It’s Jarwin’s time to shine, and the Cowboys believe it’s going to happen with the shiny new contract. The team will keep Bell as the blocking TE over Dalton Schultz and keep the undrafted FA McKeon out of Michigan. It feels like the days of keeping four TE’s are over.
Tyron Smith, Connor Williams, Connor McGovern, Zack Martin, La’el Collins, Joe Looney, Tyler Biadasz, Brandon Knight
The Cowboys have one of the deeper, more versatile offensive lines in the league, which allows them to keep just eight so they can o heavy somewhere else. The fight to become the starter at center could have ripple effects throughout the group. Dallas will see who wins the job this summer and figure out where all the pieces fit; it’s a good problem to have.
Continue for the defense and special teams…
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How good are the Cowboys? How difficult is their schedule? An ESPN analyst went about a post-draft handicapping the league, position by position and determined the Cowboys should emerge victorious in the NFC East. Here’s the pseudo-science behind it.
The Dallas Cowboys have been widely heralded as having a great 2020 draft. They augmented a strength with their first pick, getting a third No. 1 receiver type in Oklahoma’s CeeDee Lamb. They attempted to replace the departed Byron Jones with a press-man corner who they saw as a first-round talent in Trevon Diggs. Other picks addressed several other needs with what is considered talent worth selections higher than where they were eventually plucked.
Following the draft, Dallas went out and got another starting corner in Daryl Worley and a starting-caliber backup QB in Andy Dalton. Combined with a strengthening on their defensive interior with the additions of Gerald McCoy and Dontari Poe, the club has done well to answer the majority of their question marks. It’s difficult to fill all holes for a club that was just .500 a year ago, but Dallas seems to have solidified the more important areas of their team. So much so that they have been predicted by ESPN’s Mike Clay to now win the NFC East.
Clay uses his formula, scoring the club position by position and placing those rankings against their schedule to predict points for and points against, and uses that to predict number of wins on the season. Dallas comes in with 10.1 wins, third-best in the NFC behind New Orleans (11.2) and defending-NFC champion San Francisco (10.4).
It gives them more than a one-game margin over 2019 NFC East champion Philadelphia.
Clay actually looks at Dallas as the whole being lesser than the sum of their parts.
When scoring the offense and defense, the Cowboys actually come in as the second-best team overall, with a 2.9 score out of a perfect 4.0. Only the Saints are better at 3.3; but other factors have them finishing with just the league’s sixth-best win total.
Breaking down Clay’s positional rankings adds to the impression of how solid Dallas’ overall roster should be in 2020.
Their best unit is the wideouts, which scored a 3.9 out of 4.0. The trio of Amari Cooper, Michael Gallup and Lamb rank only behind the Buccaneers triple-threat of Mike Evans, Chris Godwin and rookie Tyler Johnson (Minnesota).
The Cowboys QB tandem of Dak Prescott and Andy Dalton ranks seventh (3.4), the running back duo of Ezekiel Elliott and Tony Pollard comes in fourth (3.6) and the offensive line ranks fourth in the league as well (3.6).
The tight end position weighs Dallas down the most, coming in with the fourth-worst grade in the league at 0.5.
Their overall offensive score of 1.8 (out of 2.0) is third in the league behind New Orleans (2.0) and Kansas City (1.9).
Dallas’ defense was an issue last season, but it appears they’ve put together a group that has one special group with the others all ranking middle tier. That level of consistency is apparently hard to find across the league. In the day and age where offense is king, the Cowboys strategy of having expensive talent on that side of the ball appears set to pay off.
Linebacker is the standout group for Dallas, with Jaylon Smith, Sean Lee, Joe Thomas and most importantly an expected-to-be-healthy Leighton Vander Esch scoring a 3.9, second only to Seattle’s unit.
The defensive interior (2.1), safety (2.3) and corner (2.1) are all middle of the road. The weakest link on defense is the edge position, where there isn’t any confidence at all beyond DeMarcus Lawrence.
The group scored a 1.9, good for just 18th in the league. Fans are still hopeful the team will look to ink a player such as Everson Griffen to augment their reinstatement hopefuls of Randy Gregory and Aldon Smith.
Overall, Dallas’ defense graded out as a 1.1 (again out of 2.0), just outside of the top 10 at No. 11. Again, this shows that while several other teams have strong units that outpace the Cowboys, few teams are able to trot out a defense without any major deficiencies, which Dallas can.
Finally Clay takes these rankings and applies them to each team’s schedule. Based on these grades, Dallas has the 13th-most difficult schedule overall.
The Cowboys face the NFC West, where all four teams are predicted to have at least a .500 record and the AFC North where three teams are projected to be above the even line. Atlanta and Minnesota are the other non-division clubs on their schedule and the Falcons have a 7.4 win projection.
The Vikings are seen as NFC North champs, but winners of a weak division with just an 8.8 win projection.
The other NFC East teams are predicted to finish in the order of Philadelphia (8.9 win projection), New York (6.4) and Washington (4.1).
Both the Redskins and Giants are predicted to be in the top-10 of the 2021 draft, with Washington having the best shot at the No. 1 overall selection; which will be up for sale if Dwayne Haskins emerges in 2020, or will go to a QB pick if he doesn’t.
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