Camp Battles- The journey to 53

There is an unwritten rule in the NFL that you don't sign a player a team wishes to send to their practice squad. Besides, there is nothing special about Niels Paul...he's still raw and I doubt he could make another teams 53 man roster at this point in his career.

A contending team might decide to go with the veteran Stallworth over the rookie Paul. We're not a contending team, IMO. We're building our team and I don't think that Stallworth separated himself enough during the preseason to take a spot on a building team away from a talented younger receiver. In this case, I think the younger player gets the roster spot because of the team's stage of development.

There is an unwritten rule in the NFL that you don't sign a player a team wishes to send to their practice squad. Besides, there is nothing special about Niels Paul...he's still raw and I doubt he could make another teams 53 man roster at this point in his career.

That unwritten rule has been broken about a bazillion times.

I can see some potential with Niles Paul. But I see greater potential with Hankerson. The biggest difference with Hankerson and Paul is - Hankerson's ability to separate from the defender; Hankerson, in addition to his physical skills, just has a knack for that.

I think what they were trying to determine with the Bucs game was whether or not Paul could be a definite playmaker in the redzone. Although there were only a couple of opportunities, he didn't prove that.

Bottomline is - Hankerson's greater potential coupled with his draft position - will allow him to easily make the team.

Here's the wideouts that definitely make the team, imo:
Moss
Gaffney
Armstrong
Austin
Hankerson
Banks

If they decide there should be a #7 wideout, the decision is between Paul and Stallworth. And if they think that Paul won't be signed by another team off the practice squad, then it's an easy decision.

The one caveat is that Beck really likes to target Stallworth in the passing game.

There is an unwritten rule in the NFL that you don't sign a player a team wishes to send to their practice squad. Besides, there is nothing special about Niels Paul...he's still raw and I doubt he could make another teams 53 man roster at this point in his career.

that's just it out of all the players we drafted this year, he's the least raw. He already runs pretty good routes and he's a physical presence.

There is an unwritten rule in the NFL that you don't sign a player a team wishes to send to their practice squad. Besides, there is nothing special about Niels Paul...he's still raw and I doubt he could make another teams 53 man roster at this point in his career.

I agree with Saden this exactly. Every team has their guys that they don't want to cut and are going to go to practice squad. Maybe one or two guys across the league don't make it on to the original team's PS but Paul or Hankerson will if they put them through. Now will they stay the whole year or be picked up by another team, that is a different question.

There is an unwritten rule in the NFL that you don't sign a player a team wishes to send to their practice squad. Besides, there is nothing special about Niels Paul...he's still raw and I doubt he could make another teams 53 man roster at this point in his career.

I dont really feel like thats a unspoken rule. If you cut a player you take a risk of loosing him if he could make a roster elsewhere. This happens all the time.

I think a unspoken rule is that you dont sign a PS player off someone else's PS to your PS by offering a higher salary. However, im pretty sure the new CBA makes this much less likely to happen. If you want to take a PS player from a team thats fine but you elevate him on your regular roster.

Also i think claiming a player off of injury waiver to then put on your roster or PS is one of the big unspoken rules. The pats did it last year with the intent to just "steal" a player and put on their IR and pissed some people off:

New England Patriots
On August 5, 2010, Barrett was waived/injured by the Broncos with a shoulder injury. If he had cleared waivers, Barrett would have reverted to the Broncos' injured reserve list. However, he was claimed by the New England Patriots on August 6. He was placed on injured reserve on August 31, the first day the team could do so without exposing him to waivers.

Josh Barrett - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Josh_Barrett)

Trying to predict the final 53 and debating it with you is very entertaining for me but I'm really hoping that none of us is able to predict the opening day roster. I say that because I hope and I trust that Shanny, Bruce, and their staffs will continue to work hard to improve the team any way they can whenever they can.

I don't think they're done trading or signing free agents yet for this offseason. I'm actually hoping for another trade or two because they did so well in trading for Hightower and Gaffney. There just might be some teams that match up well with us in terms of needs.

Plus, we're almost certain to add a couple of players who were cut by other teams to our Practice Squad. We might even add one to our 53 man roster.

I'm not exceedingly attached to any player; I just want to see the Skins continue to get better.