I'm calling it now. Elijah Wilkinson has moved far enough ahead of Jalen Mayfield that Wilkinson should now be considered the starting left guard. This isn't really a knock against Mayfield. He should have had a redshirt year last year to get ready to play the swing tackle role this year. Instead, both Josh Andrews and Matt Gono got hurt, and the third round rookie tackle was pushed into immediate starting duty at left guard. I'm hoping the team will move Mayfield back to tackle this year and let him have that redshirt year. The timing would be ideal as Kaleb McGary, Germain Ifedi and Rick Leonard are all only signed through 2022. Let Mayfield practice at tackle now and groom him to step into either the RT role or swing tackle role in 2023. One other big question is whether the team will opt to keep nine linemen or ten on the roster. Never mind the rookies and returning practice squad players. The team recently signed center Jonotthan Harrison, and backups Rick Leonard and Colby Gossett returned as well. Add them to the mix with Jake Matthews, Chris Lindstrom, Wilkinson, Mayfield, Matt Hennessy, Drew Dalman, Germain Ifedi and Kaleb McGary, and at least one player on this list isn't going to have a chair when the music stops even if they keep ten linemen. Rick Leonard might be a wild card. He has gone completely unnoticed in media reports up to this point. But from what I have seen at practice, he is working as the primary backup to Jake Matthews at left tackle. That suggests to me that he's a serious contender for the swing tackle role. And that in turn suggests to me that the team might not keep McGary on the roster at all if he loses the starting right tackle job to Germain Ifedi. (The reasoning is that since they declined his fifth year option, he's in his final contract year. He's a liability in pass protection. If he loses the RT starting job, they aren't likely to trust him at left tackle, leaving him out of the swing tackle role as well. He'd be left to ride the bench as an inactive player to end his contract. If that's the situation, he'd be better off getting a chance to sign elsewhere and the team would be better off using that roster spot on someone else. Releasing him would be a professional courtesy, and if he did lose the starting role, I wouldn't be surprised to see him go in the first round of roster cuts in order to give him a headstart in landing somewhere else. With that in mind, I suspect the RT job will likely be decided after the second preseason game. The starting center job may take longer to settle between Hennessy and Dalman.) A related question is whether they keep sixth round pick Justin Shaffer on the roster or try to slip him onto the practice squad. They love him, but he's not going to be on the active list this season and needs some development time. If they do choose to keep him on the regular roster, someone else will have to go. I suspect that if McGary does win the starting job, the team is more likely to keep Ifedi because he also has experience at guard, making him a potential backup for at least three positions on the line. Things will shake out next week when the preseason games get underway, but if I had to make the calls right now, I'd say Jonotthan Harrison is the first one to face the axe. If Ifedi wins the RT spot, McGary would be next. If McGary wins the starting role, I suspect Colby Gossett vs Justin Shaffer would decide the next casualty, with the team putting Shaffer on the practice squad if necessary. For now I'll also peg Tyler Vrabel and Ryan Neuzil for the practice squad. I'm hoping they'll get Vrabel reps at multiple positions in the preseason games. He was a tackle in college, but I suspect he has a future in the NFL at guard. Neuzil has started snapping the ball this year and has drawn praise from the head coach in a couple of post-practice press conferences. He's a long shot for the roster, but I'm tagging him to return to the practice squad as the center for the scout team.
One of the Atlanta sports sites is also now calling Wilkinson the starter at left guard. They posted their article yesterday. (Ha! Mine was Thursday. I beat them to it.) I think what's getting the attention of the local media guys is that yesterday Wilkinson had 100% of the first unit snaps while Jalen Mayfield didn't practice at all. After practice, Arthur Smith noted that Mayfield was held out due to a minor back issue. I'm still big on Mayfield for the long haul, but I do think they need to get him out of the guard mix (other than for cross-training purposes) and get him back to tackle full time. That's his natural position, and the current roster mix suggests the team will have as much or more need for him at tackle than at guard in 2023 and beyond.
I read that about Wilkinson way early this morning... lol, your right, it was old news by then. Teams are coming out with their initial depth charts and thats what it was, but those charts can and will change between now and the week 1 thingy.
