For an offseason task, ESPN’s Bill Barnwell took on the job of making the perfect NFL roster of 53 men, while adding the extra task of including at least one player from each team in the league.
With the dominant playmakers on this roster and names that would sound familiar in almost any household, names like JPP, Gerald McCoy, DeSean Jackson, Mike Evans and Kwon Alexander, it was kind of surprising in a good way to hear that M.J. Stewart made the list.
The goal of the list, besides including a player from every team, was to develop the perfect scheme with the perfect coaches and the perfect contract, while maintaining a realistic roster and staying under the $177 million cap.
Barnwell noted that M.J. Stewarts ability to play across all positions of the secondary was the main reason for his selection, and also his very cap friendly salary of approximately $924,000 this season. With Barnwell choosing Jim Schwartz as the defensive coordinator, the rush four and drop seven in coverage made M.J. Stewart’s skill set a perfect fit. Congrats to M.J. on that.
While the goal of this is to produce the best roster without loading up from a few teams or just grabbing playoff contender players, it should be noted that the average price teams spent on DB’s were just about the same as what Barnwell had spent during this exercise. In comparison, he had just over 10% of his cap into the QB group with 3 QBs, and that was less than half of what teams on average spend, just short of 21%.
I’ve included a link to ESPN’s page by Bill Barnwell if you’d like to check it out. Great way to see where the money goes. Let’s go Bucs!
If you’d like to see his pick for the perfect 53-man roster, you can click HERE.
