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.