[Preds]

I'll go back to my point from earlier in the off-season when you and Bobby pushed for further extending the 3rd year TS players through the end of summer so you could have a 4th pre-season to evaluate them. They've already had 3 full seasons to show they deserve to be an active roster player. At that point if they haven't produced it's time to either have your convictions that they will do so and pay up with an active roster spot, or release them.

The same applies for your 5 player max which is usually a mix of 1st and 2nd round players and an occasional 3rd. Most 1st round picks are moved up within a year, 2nds within 2-3 years. By design the TS isn't setup to allow for you to stash multiple years of draft classes on your TS. You're forced to make decisions, the hard calls, you know, the things REAL GM's have to do every season. ;)

I'll also point out that there are far more 1st/2nd round flops like Vincent Brown and Juron Criner's who don't produce (not to mention 3rd round players who rarely produce) than there are Alshon Jeffrey's and Demarius Thomas's. And... the Browns and Criners of the world were generally higher picks than the few surprise players that emerge.

The UFA pool is depleted enough as is. Having the OCCASIONAL 3rd or 4th year player surprise in the 4th or 5th season as a UFA is healthy for the league. Nobody is forcing you to cut players off your TS, the league is structured to force you to decide whether they warrant a spot on your active roster or not in their 4th season. If you have conviction on a player, by all means stick to it and pay up by giving them a roster spot. But 4-5 years sitting on your TS is nothing but taking an easy way out and IMO not healthy overall for the league.

As for 3rd rounders, they're supposed to be a rarity for sticking with a team. Odds are they only have 1-2 seasons if that to make your squad. Think of them like undrafted FA's in the NFL.

4th rounders are even deeper reaches, though we gave teams the PS to stash truly deep sleepers to satisfy the Pastor Jim's of the world who put such a premium on their personal draft research. ;)