With time to spare, and the spring practice upcoming I thought I’d put together a quick depth chart for the offense. This is my guess as to who starts the spring, but I would definitely like to see some changes as the spring progresses. The first practice is set to start on Monday, March 15th, so just a shade under a month away from practice beginning. Here’s the schedule.

Practice #1: March 15th
Practice #2: March 16th
Practice #3: March 23rd
Practice #4: March 24th
Practice #5: March 26th
Practice #6: March 27th
Practice #7: March 30th
Practice #8: March 31st
Practice #9: April 2nd – Scrimmage #1
Practice #10: April 6th
Practice #11: April 8th
Practice #12: April 10th
Practice #13: April 13th
Practice #14: April 15th
Practice #15: April 17th – Spring Game

Now, let’s get to that depth chart.

How’s that for a opening shot! Yes, I think that Tyler Shough starts immediately and he’s the guy. And maybe the bigger shock is that I think I have Donovan Smith as the second string and the reason is because I think (stressing the word ‘think’) that Cumbie wants a guy that can do a little zone-read and throw the ball deep. That’s Shough and Smith, Smith is in theory, but Shough threw for 9.3 yards per attempt last year, so that’s fantastic. Colombi is third team because he doesn’t have the arm, but he can zone-read you, but he’s just not a big kid and doesn’t have a big arm. that means that I think that Morton is after that. Realistically, Morton will be great at what Cumbie wants, but not right now. Needs some weight and that’s okay. That’s normal. Morton doesn’t need to be the savior because that’s not fair.

At running back, Chadarius Townsend is right there too, I just decided to do a three-deep and didn’t have room for a 4th spot. Regardless, this is a talented group with Thompson, White, and Brooks leading the way. Love all of them (including Townsend).

I tend to think this staff, and Kingsbury’s staff too (and even Leach as well), the most talented receiver runs at the X-receiver spot, so Ezukanma, Sparkman, and Bradley get the nod here. Truthfully though, I really only know about the starters and the rest are guesses and that’s only because the starting receivers were so good.

I’ve added two inside receiver spots because I think that Cumbie will run with two inside receivers at times, but he’ll also use the tight end too. Price, Mannix, and Rigdon are all pretty neck-and-neck, with Price having a slight lead over Rigdon and Mannix. Rigdon and Mannix suffered injuries last year, and them being healthy would be a significant improvement for the offense. Galban has also been injured, I think he’s got excellent quickness and would think his involvement would deepen the room.

Tight end is a guess at this point with Koontz the likely starter, Holcomb the back-up and I’m giving the third spot to a returnee, Jason Lloyd, with the thought that Jed Castles and Mason Tharp could make their way up the depth chart.

The offensive line is a huge question mark for me, other than Storment at left tackle (which is also a guess) and Deaton at center. Other than that, this is me throwing darts. I would appreciate your thoughts on how this could shake out. I have a good thought about Peterson at guard, I think the staff likes him as well he was just a little green and hopefully the offseason helped him out. I don’t know how the other guard works out and could see Peterson at left guard because Verhulst and Wright graded out terribly by ProFootballFocus, but three of the five spots need to be an absolute battle. I could see Burger at guard, but that depends on how Peterson is developing, but think that Peterson is a guard. And I think that Rogers is more talented that Carde, but if the idea is to develop Rogers long-term at left tackle, then I could se him there. Long-term, this team needs tackles that they develop and they need to be higher-end athletes.