“Now you have some flexibility at some positions where A, you have more people to practice with, which is good,” Taylor said. “Often times you have offensive linemen playing D end and tight ends playing D tackle and vice versa you have D tackles playing offensive line. So from that standpoint you’ve got a healthier team where guys aren’t playing out of position as much on the scout team.
“It also allows you to carry maybe an extra guy at a position that you’re a little deeper where normally the guy wouldn’t have been able to make it around because of the reasons I just mentioned. You need people to be able to practice, but now you need a guy who maybe didn’t get a chance to show as much in training camp, he’s a younger player, now you can keep him around a little longer and get a better evaluation of him.”
Saturday night is going to be a long one at Paul Brown Stadium for the personnel department. They’ll come back from dinner and stare down the wire, knowing they can have any player they want. They’ll cross-check with the coaches and the thing could go to midnight. Then they’ll meet with the coaches and ownership Sunday morning to put it all together.
If the opener is going to test the mettle of Taylor’s coaching staff, Saturday night puts a hot scouting staff on display after drawing raves for its work in free agency and the draft this offseason.
“They’ve been tracking this for weeks now on what they see as potential cuts, teams that are maybe deep in certain positions, who can become available,” Taylor said. “And at the same time passing those names along to the coaching staff to get their opinion as well.
“We’ve got reports with those guys from college and pro teams that we’ve tracked, and some of the names that pop up, you tracked last year during the cut-down process. And so we feel like we’re familiar with some of these guys and we’ll continue to beat on it, you know, over the next 24 hours and make sure we’re making the right decisions. “
