For the last couple of years our staff has been throwing around the idea of doing a Mailbag or Q&A type series on this blog and with the start of the new season, we thought it was a great time to actually commit to it. Yesterday we opened it up on Twitter to ask us anything. Here are some responses to some questions that you all had.

Expectations on Reggie Cannon

#AskBDS What is the realistic expectation of Reggie Cannon? Is he ready or is he being thrusted into the starting lineup due to lack of personnel? — Nick Sanguino (@NLSanguino) February 27, 2018

This is a great question to get us going. I would be willing to gage that most of 2017 most of our staff and fans wanted to see more minutes for Reggie. In the end, all we got was one minute of actual league play and a couple Open Cup games. We all saw the potential in those limited minutes but for whatever reason Oscar Pareja wasn’t ready to trust him over a veteran like Hernan Grana.

Enter 2018 and Reggie is the man at right back. I know some of you think I am crazy for saying that he can be an All-Star caliber right back for this team if all things go well. I still believe that even though I have seen some shaky play out of him in the preseason. I do believe he is ready for the spotlight and the minutes. Oscar has put full trust in him from the get-go this season as he recommits to the youth movement. To be fair, it is really him or rookie Homegrown Kris Reaves at this spot. Sure, Ryan Hollingshead could start over him but I think Pareja knows he has to give Reggie his due here until he succeeds or fails.

New formation time for FCD

Will the 3-5-2 work? — David T (@gatortex) February 27, 2018

I believe it will take some time before we actually see a 3-5-2 from the start of a game and used for 90 minutes as well. Pareja is still very comfortable in his 4-2-3-1 and his main starters are equipped for that formation too. But what I like about the eagerness to switch formations is the fact that Oscar has the depth to actually make it a reality this season. You look at all the players brought in this offseason and most of them can play in different spots. I don’t believe he had this luxury before.

But will it work in the end? I believe so, but it is something we have to be patient with as it will have some growing pains involved.

Reasonable expectations for 2018

Which tier of the conference do we find ourselves in this year? I don’t think are much stronger than a bubble playoff team.. if even that — Kaleb Schumann (@_K_schu) February 27, 2018

Kaleb I am with you on that line of thinking. When I look at the Western Conference right now, there really are only a couple teams that I feel good about in predicting as a contender to win the conference but all teams have plenty of questions surrounding them. Will Portland’s defense be there? Can Seattle truly wait until the summer this time around to add another DP? Are either LA teams going to actually be good? Will Houston find ways to win on the road?

In the end, I see this FCD squad finishing somewhere in the 3-6 spots. I don’t think they’ll be a top two team in the West just yet. I’ve said it a few times already this winter but I will say it again, this team will go where Mauro Diaz takes it. If he stays healthy and plays fully committed for even 28 of the 34 games (let’s be honest, he’s going to miss a couple games along the way, we just know he is), this team could go far. But if he misses some games to injury and a few more to general boredom like we’ve seen in the past, this group could struggle into that sixth or seventh spot in the West yet again.

Come on now Jared

is it true some of y'all are Un-American and don't like hamburgers? — Jared Tilley (@Jtilley02) February 27, 2018

Okay, a little personal confession time here. I don’t eat hamburgers. Or ground meat in general. The BDS staff knows that and loves to give me crap about it.

We hope you enjoyed our first round of Q&A. Be sure to use the hashtag #AskBDS on Twitter to submit your questions to us for next week’s post.