Hatcher looking to take Spears' job

by Albert Breer

A few weeks back, Timmy Tabloid taggedJason Hatcher as "This Year's Jay Ratliff" or, in other words, the guy mostly likely to emerge from relative obscurity to become a key piece of the team. (I had Courtney Brown, if you're keeping score.)

Anyway, Hatcher, it seems, has similar goals and expressed those to the News-Star in Louisiana.

"I'm looking to have more playing time -- if not start," Hatcher said. "Hopefully, I'll be starting."

Hatcher is going to have to beat out former first-round pick Marcus Spears to do that. But -- and here's the primary difference between Spears and Hatcher -- it's not like he's coming out of nowhere the way Ratliff did as a seventh-round pick. Hatcher was a third-rounder and, truth be told, guys selected there are expected to develop into starters.

Guys taken in the seventh round, like Ratliff and Brown, aren't. So while Hatcher remains the underdog, I don't think his beating out Spears would qualify as a shocker.

Canty Siavii Hatcher

Works for me, especially if Hatcher has shored up his containment skills so our run defense doesn't lose anything.