If The Golden Knights Had To Make An NFL Lineup

(Photo Credit: @GoldenKnights on Twitter)

While our eyes here at SinBin.vegas are always focused solely on hockey and the Vegas Golden Knights, the world’s focus today is on the NFL. The defending Super Bowl Champion Tampa Bay Buccaneers (literally writing this story just so I could type that line) take on the Dallas Cowboys in the season opener in Tampa tonight.

To celebrate the occasion, we’re going to have a little fun today and try to turn the Golden Knights into a football team, assigning each player a position on offense, defense, and/or special teams.

Only a few VGK players have much experience playing other sports, and from what we know, American football is not one we’ve heard of many Golden Knights giving a go. That doesn’t matter today though as we’ll sift through their skills to find the right place on the football field and build a Stanley Bowl Champion. (Yes, I meant to say Stanley Bowl, and it sure does sound stupid.)

Offense

Skill Positions

QB – Reilly Smith
RB – Jonathan Marchessault
WR – Alex Tuch
WR – Chandler Stephenson
WR – Peyton Krebs
TE – Max Pacioretty

While the obvious choice would be Mark Stone as the QB, I’m going with Reilly for a variety of reasons. Smith is the perfect combination of composure, intelligence, consistency, and skill that would make for the perfect quarterback. Behind him would be his trusty back, Marchy. A feisty little tank, I’d expect Marchessault to run with reckless abandon and hit the holes with the conviction we’ll need to have a strong ground game.

The receiving corps is absolutely stacked. A pair of Americans lead the way as Tuch’s speed/size combo would be deadly as the #1 receiver while Pacioretty would be a strong possession tight end who finds the endzone weekly. Stephenson’s speed gives him a chance to be a downfield threat and Krebs would be our classic little slot receiver who does nothing but move the chains.

Offensive Line

LT – Robin Lehner
LG – Brett Howden
C – Alec Martinez
RG – Nic Hague
RT – Zach Whitecloud

The big nasties are led by one of the most important positions on the field, left tackle. Lehner would protect the QB’s blindside and provide massive running lanes for Marchessault. Martinez and Whitecloud play the next two most important positions where we expect their blocking (get it?) abilities and IQ to shine through. Then I was just looking to fill out the line with girth. Howden and Hague both stand at over 6’3″ which round out our solid O-line.

Defense

Front Seven

RT – Keegan Kolesar
NT – Brayden McNabb
LT – Laurent Brossoit
OLB – Mark Stone
ILB – Alex Pietrangelo
ILB – Nolan Patrick
OLB – Evgenii Dadonov

The best path to success on the football field is to consistently put pressure on the QB. So, we put our best player, Mark Stone, at outside linebacker and expect his size and smarts to win one-on-one matchups coming off the edge. Pietrangelo’s experience would make him an excellent middle linebacker who would be wearing the green dot and calling the plays on D. He’d be expected to help youngster Nolan Patrick along as we take advantage of Patrick’s large frame and mobility to snuff out the run.

Upfront, I was looking for big run stuffers so I went with the biggest dudes the Golden Knights have. McNabb and Brossoit would constantly eat up double teams while the nastiness of Kolesar would help penetrate the interior line and wreak havoc in the backfield. Finally, we have our secret weapon, the Russian Assasin on the outside, Dadonov. Anything less than double-digit sacks from Evgenii would be disappointing.

Secondary

CB – Mattias Janmark
CB – Nic Roy
FS – Shea Theodore
SS – William Carrier

I was looking for speed and length to play corner and both Janmark and Roy have it. Roy would be expected to jam up the bigger receivers while Janmark can shut down the speedier guys. Theodore will roam the middle of the field making plays all over the place and he’s paired with Carrier who will be laying the wood on anyone coming over the middle.

Special Teams

K – William Karlsson
P – Robin Lehner
KR/PR – Jonathan Marchessault

The two Swedes who both have soccer backgrounds would be doing the kicking duties. Karlsson’s accuracy and calmness would be perfect for the placekicking and Lehner would be booming punts and kickoffs so high they’d be requesting teams remove their Jumbotrons.

Finally, Marchessault gets the job of returning kicks. There’s a lot of glory for a kick returner who can make big-time plays, I expect Marchy can break one loose every once in a while.

This team sure would be awful at football, but that was fun nonetheless.