With NFL roster’s having to be trimmed down to 53 on Friday, it’s the time of year when us media hacks attempt to project the roster (and always end up wrong). It’s easy to figure out most of the players, and there are bottom-of-the-roster guys who are easier to eliminate, but it’s the bubble guys, the ones fighting for jobs tomorrow night, who make nailing the 53-man roster a near impossibility.
One player who looked like one of those players on the bubble is safety Winston Guy, a sixth-round pick out of Kentucky. It’s not that Guy hasn’t had a good training camp and preseason, it’s just that he’s competing for a job in a very talented and deep secondary.
Well based on what Pete Carroll said when asked about Guy today, it seems like the rookie’s spot on this roster might be more secure than some of us thought.
“I’ve really liked this guy,” Carroll said. “He’s a very natural football player. In his days at Kentucky, they moved him around quite a bit, and we were able to see him do things like what we do in this package. It was the Lawyer Milloy spot, a guy we used because of years of savvy and understanding. There are so many things that a guy has to deal with that he almost has to have a real natural sense, because you can’t coach everything because of all the floating and moving around that he’s asked to do. Well Winston gets it; he just gets it. He’s a hitter, he plays the ball well, he’s really fast, he’s 216 pounds, big kid. He’s got a real knack for rushing the passer, he looks like a pass rusher when he’s coming. So he’s really been a pleasant surprise. We had hoped that he would be able to do these things, and he’s on that package.”
Carroll went on to say that Guy will see a lot of playing time Thursday night, as will many of the young players, then added that Guy will likely have a prominent role in the defense on passing downs.
“He’ll get a lot of work at safety this week,” Carroll said. “I think it’s a fantastic draft pick for us. He’s in the starting group in Game 1, maybe the first third down of the season, so that’s an amazing accomplishment for him. He’s got all of the right stuff, but he’s still a pup, so we have to deal with that, but we really have liked everything that he’s brought.”
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