That's a big "if" and we cannot keep crossing our fingers and hoping that happens. We have major injuries every single year, especially on defense, including our best player, Matthews. I would love to see them healthy but I'm not counting on it. Without a doubt, we need to shore up the middle of our defense, our ILBs and Safeties. We can get by with Hawk and Burnett (at SS) but we need to address FS even if Hyde makes the move because we have no depth at all there. Banjo is not the answer, he made the team simply because we had no other options. I'd rather get a FS in rounds 1, 2 or 3 and have Hyde as a security blanket and allow him to keep moving around and play multiple positions.
As for ILB, we need to replace Jones, plain and simple. He is horrible against the run, makes no plays in coverage and looks lost most of the time. He has zero instincts for the position, which is probably why he was not an inside backer in college or in the pros up to a year or two ago. We chose not to address this position in FA so it has to be done in the draft with a guy like Mosley, Shazier or even a Borland/Skov type if necessary.
Building on that, I agree with other posts about a deep WR class this year. I do not see the need to take a WR in the first round because the WRs in the 2nd, 3rd and 4th, IMO, offer as much talent. We could get a WR with one of 3rd rd picks and/or in the 4th and adequately address our need. As for TE, I think we need to be careful about overreaching for someone and do not see it as being as big of a need as most people. To me, we can get to the Super Bowl with Quarless as our starting TE, we cannot get to the Super Bowl with Brad Jones at ILB and/or a failed-Hyde experiment at FS with Chris Banjo in the on-deck circle or some 5th-6th round pick.
