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DirkG's Five-Three (plus 8)

Sorry if I'm getting a little big headed here, thinking that anyone cares who I would put out there, but after last night I feel like I know exactly what I would do with my 53, and I like it enough that I thought I'd share.

I wanted 6 WR, 5 TE, 4 RB, so it was a challenge and I had to give up Tanney to the practice squad. KD made an awesome point on twitter the other day. He correctly realized that it's not actually 53+8, but 46+15 with 7 of those 15 as protected players. But as much as I agree with KD's side on the twitter argument the other day I feel the 5th TE and 6th WR on this team add enough that it's worth risking Tanney.

Let me add the caveats that there are many possible trades that would affect this drastically. Lissemore (who I feel has been outplayed by Hayden) , Rosario, Costa, and Armstrong are all vets at positions of need around the NFL and they could be moved for a draft pick or a Guard, if the opportunity comes along. I am A-ok with trading any of them and doing so would put Tanney back on my 53 man roster (if we do trade for a guard, I think that bumps Kowalski). I also will say that if the Cowboys have deliberately not signed Waters till after Week 1 so that he doesn't have guaranteed $, I am totally ok with that. If Waters has been waiting out preseason, I do not want him.

Surprise move to watch for: If Durant is not the starter, he could be cut, saving a ton of $ for next year (and some this year as well).

So, the important part is, I managed to meet my goals for the 53, leaving $3,698,000 in cap space and with only $1.4m in dead money for 2014.

Here's my team:

PUP: Ratliff

IR: Crawford, Albright, Chappelear, Livings

IR, designated for return: Johnson

Practice Squad: Weems, Coale, Pendleton, Tanney, Magee, Bass, Gibson, Pellerin

(positions in order of depth)

S: Church, Allen, Wilcox, Heath, McCray

CB: Carr, Claiborne, Scandrick, Webb, Moore

LB: Lee, Carter, Durant, Holloman, Sims, McSurdy

DE: Ware, Spencer, Wilber, Selvie

DT: Hatcher, Hayden, Lissemore, Long

QB: Romo, Orton

RB: Murray, Dunbar, Tanner, Randle

WR: Bryant, Austin, Williams, Harris, Beasley, Armstrong

TE: Witten, Hanna, Escobar, Rosario, Smith

OT: Smith, Free, Parnell

OG: Leary, Bernadeau, Arkin, Kowalski

C: Frederick, Costa

ST: Bailey, Jones, Ladouceur

That's what I'd do. And I think it looks pretty darn stout.

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