The makeup of a team evolves on a daily basis, especially during training camp. One injury can significantly alter the picture.

So we acknowledge that making a projection on the Patriots' final 53-man roster at this time is worthy of a false-start penalty. Too early. Way too early.

But there is value in going through the exercise of envisioning how the final roster might look, in part because it highlights where depth might be thin and also where some of the big position battles will unfold. It also spotlights the challenging decision of protecting a promising young player who has upside versus a veteran player who could help more in the short term.

With this as the backdrop, here is ESPNBoston.com's roster projection, 1.0: