Guard may be a good starting spot for Safford, which would give Goldberg or someone else the starting RT position. But either way I trust what they are doing and just because he is starting out there for camp doesn’t mean he will finish there.

Rodger Saffold

Wow, that is really changing positions ;-)

There’s nothing unusual about a college T playing G for a little while.

Tackle is often more responsibility for the individual, especially in the passing game.

G’s play with help on each shoulder making it easier to cover up mistakes and lapses in mental play.

Some coaches (rightly or wrongly) think that a prototype T will have longer arms, maybe taller, and if he can play T he can make the switch to G a little easier than other way around. I don’t necessarily think that but a lot of the better players get “stuck” at T in college.

I would prefer my rookie to stay on the side he is familiar with (right vs left) but wouldn’t mind so much if he played inside where he can occassionally think the wrong thing and not have it impact the QB so drastically while he figures it out. But hey, that’s just me.

A four-year starter at left tackle for Indiana University, Saffold (6-5, 315) anchored an offense line that paved the way for the 35th-ranked rushing attack and allowed just 16 quarterback sacks in 2009.

Only the last sentence, and that’s just my little preference.

Playing time is critically important. It makes sense to me that they would get him some playing time inside where he has help all around and not subject the (aslo rook) QB to whatever devastating mistakes a rookie OT might make.

All it takes is one big mental screw up by an OT and Bradford will be doing his best Matt Stafford ’09 impersonation: on injured reserve.

I think a lot of fans seriously underestimate the risk/impact of having all these rooks playing together (I include J Smith even though he has half a year in), and when it comes to knowing the Pro defenses and how to handle them, I don’t know if Saffold is really ready to have that much responsibility, 2nd rounder or not. The risk is huge, the reward undoubtedly is not.

really?

I read a press conference statement from the offensive coordinator

This staff already has a history of drafting dudes and trying to transform them (Smith, Fells, Scott Darell). They changed Smith to a right tackle, Fells from fullback or H-back to TE, Josh Brown to QB (Which won us our only game) then they changed Scott Darell’s name to Darell Scott. Lots of changes……Let’s not forget the move Bulger made from QB to cheerleader after the big contract. Hahahahaha!

… Let’s not forget Chris Long either.. if I recall correctly, isn’t he playing out of his natural position?

An ESPN analyst had similar comments on how all these players are not playing their natural positions, and that’s just, “… not smart football”