An interesting and extremely early look at the 2009 football roster

I posted this in the FanShots on Christmas Eve, but I don't know how many of you saw it. Vince Grippi took an early look at the 2009 football roster and came up with his 22 starters in this SportsLink blog post.

Most interesting to me, besides his prediction that Marshall Loebestaal is the starter at QB? That he thinks Andy Mattingly might be Greg Trent's successor at middle linebacker:

This is just a hunch. Mattingly has always played on the outside, but there really isn’t an obvious choice to replace Greg Trent. Mattingly is a straight ahead guy who just might blossom here, though there is some question whether he can cover sideline-to-sideline. The coaches also like Mike Ledgerwood, so he may start here and Mattingly may stay outside.

I've always thought this actually made a lot of sense. I just don't see him as the type of quick on the outside backer Wulff's staff seems to prefer, and he really was just too small to play defensive end full time. Although he's probably going to have to drop a little weight to stick at MLB, he's a downhill runner who likes to hit. I'd love to see him meet up with a running back at the line of scrimmage, wouldn't you?