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4.
Presenting the NFL's 2021 survivor squad |
|
For the second straight
year, Jared Dubin is giving us his survivor squad. If you don't have
any idea what a survivor squad is, don't worry, I didn't either until about
five minutes ago. Basically,
the goal is to make something similar to a Pro Bowl roster, but with one huge
catch: You can only use one player from each team. |
|
The Chiefs might be the best team in the AFC, but you can't put
both Patrick Mahomes AND Tyreek Hill on the Survivor Squad because Kansas
City is only allowed to have one player on the team. |
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With that in mind, let's check out the offensive players on Dubin's
survivor squad: |
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QB: Aaron Roders, Packers |
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If you want to see the defensive starters and the coaching staff
from the survivor squad, be sure to click here. The one thing about the
defensive starters is that none of them can come from the 13 teams listed
above. |
2021 NFL Survivor Squad: Building a 32-man juggernaut with one pick from every single team
Our second annual survivor squad is here with a caveat
By
August 5, 2021
Last offseason, we unveiled our first NFL Survivor Squad, trying to build the best possible roster using one representative and only one representative from each of the 32 NFL teams. Well, we're here to do that again -- but with a twist this time around.
To make things more challenging on myself and avoid just
reprinting the same article we ran this time last year, I unilaterally declared
every player and coach that made last year's roster ineligible for this year's
exercise. That means none of Bill Belichick, Greg Roman, Robert Saleh, Patrick
Mahomes, Christian McCaffrey, DeAndre Hopkins, Mike Evans, Michael
Thomas, Zach Ertz, Darren Waller, Kenny Golladay, Jake Matthews, Quenton
Nelson, Brandon Linder, Zack Martin, Jack Conklin, Von Miller, Khalil
Mack, Aaron Donald, J.J. Watt, Kenny Clark, Kyle Van Noy, Bobby
Wagner, Eric Kendricks, Tre'Davious White, James Bradberry, Chris Harris Jr.,
Minkah Fitzpatrick, Jamal Adams, Tress Way, Randy Bullock, or Adoree' Jackson
were considered for the team.
Obviously, that opened things up considerably. Eliminating the
best quarterback (Mahomes) and best defensive player (Donald) forced us to get
much more creative in our roster-building, and doing so led to many more
players than there were last year in consideration at almost every position. It
also led to a lot of different roster configurations, which was fun as part of
the exercise but probably not so good for my sanity.
In an exercise like this, it's important to know exactly how you
want to build your team. To compete in the modern NFL, you have to
recognize that the passing game is king, and build the roster accordingly. So,
in all toss-up decisions, the tiebreaker was whichever would help our offense
throw the ball and our defense stop the opposing offense from doing the
same.
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our team of NFL insiders, plus news from our team of experts, as well as data
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Once again, we wanted our team to be as flexible as possible --
especially on defense, where the ability to disguise what you're doing and have
players fill multiple roles depending on the snap is paramount. So,
pass-catching running backs, receivers who could play on the perimeter or in
the slot, defensive linemen who could flex to the edge or inside, linebackers
that excel against the run and the pass, and safeties who could drop down into
the box, play up high, or slide to the slot were all things that we looked for
in building the roster.
All that said, a few quick notes before you get to the reveal of
the full roster:
·
The players selected at each position are not necessarily the best players
at that particular position, but those that made the most sense on a roster
where you can only (and have to) take one representative from each
team. Laremy Tunsil isn't the NFL's best left tackle, but he's the
only Texans player even remotely worthy of consideration for this
exercise so he made the team.
·
The same is true of the players listed in the
"also-considered" section.
·
Tunsil was the only "must-have" player this year. All
31 other teams had players or coaches in consideration at multiple positions.
Without further ado, let's walk through our squad.
Tight Ends
Tight ends: George Kittle (49ers) and T.J. Hockenson (Lions)
Last year (ineligible): Zach Ertz (Eagles)
and Darren Waller (Raiders)
We gave serious consideration to putting Kittle and Travis Kelce
on this roster. In that construction, we would have gone with Frank Ragnow at
center, John Harbaugh as head coach, and Derwin James as our flex defensive
back. This version of the roster seems better, though. Hockenson is a solid fit as the second tight end,
and we'd rather an offensive head coach at the helm than a CEO type like
Harbaugh. Kittle is going to be on the field at all times anyway, given his
facility as a blocker and pass-catcher, and Reid doesn't even have to change
much about the way his offense works to incorporate a star with his
talents.
Also
considered: Travis Kelce, Mark Andrews, Hunter Henry, Jonnu
Smith, Dallas Goedert, Noah Fant, Mike Gesicki, Logan
Thomas, Kyle Pitts, Robert Tonyan
Offensive line
Right guard: Brandon Scherff (Football Team)
Last year (ineligible): Zack Martin (Cowboys)
Scherff is an excellent
all-around guard and it's hard to believe the Football Team has yet to find a
way to come to an agreement with him on a contract extension. Like Martin, he
is a success story for the "take a college tackle and kick him inside to
guard" development path. In addition to being a really solid run and pass
blocker, he's had only 23 penalties accepted across his six NFL seasons. Nice work.
Also considered: Elgton Jenkins, Gabe Jackson, Shaq
Mason, Wyatt Teller
