On D, our backups break down like this
Don't play Defensive reps: Vaval, Smith, Shay, Gauthier, Novak, Cadwallader, Hallett, and Ayers.
Kornelson and Lawson rotate for Adams when Griffin comes in.
That's 2 defensive DI's who don't play D, our highest upside young guys (4 of them) don't get reps, and our ends just live on the field.
On O, we bring in Eli for a handful of snaps, as well as MCI, Peterson, and Corcoran is a depth/teams guy. Wallace will come in for short-yardage pack at most.
Carrying MCI, 2 backup OL, and 2 backup NI DTs when half can sub for the other in short-yardage is crazy. I'd keep MCI, which is growing and big enough to bully small guys and talented enough to back up skill positions. But we could easily go down the big inside Canadians and dress someone who plays and has a chance to make a positive impact. When 90% of your snaps are goal-line plays and fg kicks, you don't have much of a chance to contribute. We need guys to fill those roles, but we don't need a half unit of backups for those roles.
We do need guys who can rotate at positions like DE. You can see the sharp decline in WJs production when we stopped rotating ends with Hansen/Kongbo, and when we stopped employing an imp Nose. If younger, healthier WJ couldn't succeed in that situation, how is older WJ, who has been beaten up by every OL in the league, going to?
This isn't some controversial, highly theoretical proposition here. We are talking about thinning out the crop of guys who hardly play teams, for guys who are professionals at what we lack. If Bailey and Person don't work out, air lift in more. All they've done, though, is show strong promise when given the chance. So it's pretty reasonable to believe that they would enable us to get more pressure than the virtually none our base fronts have been providing for a long while.