Thread: 3. O-line crisis?

From an article, which has other things, but I found this to be interesting:

The three NFL quarterbacks with the highest completion percentage last season were Ben Roethlisberger, Tony Romo and Drew Brees. Now, each has absorbed a big hit and been knocked out of the lineup.

"There's a legitimate crisis going on," one general manager said last week, before Roethlisberger was injured. "I'm just blown away by the shortage of quality offensive linemen."

And what makes matters worse is that the league is struggling to develop them the way it used to. There's no NFL Europe in the spring for players to experience the game. There's no offseason contact as a result of the rules implemented in the CBA. There's no extra training for a position that is vital for the protection of the league's quarterbacks and the betterment of the game.

rest on the above, plus other stuff
http://espn.go.com/nfl/story/_/id/13...manziel-padres

Originally Posted by Denver Native (Carol)

From an article, which has other things, but I found this to be interesting:



rest on the above, plus other stuff
http://espn.go.com/nfl/story/_/id/13...manziel-padres

This is an issue I mentioned last season when we decided to revamp the offense and try to run the ball more mid-season.

With all the limits on practices, and the few number of practices throughout the off-season, and during the season where pads and full contact are allowed really hampers the development and proficiency of offensive lines.

It is not a coincidence that at the same time that the NFL has severely limited full-contact practices, that rushing #'s are way down, and sacks are up. The offensive lines need those full-contact practices.

Originally Posted by NightTrainLayne

This is an issue I mentioned last season when we decided to revamp the offense and try to run the ball more mid-season.

With all the limits on practices, and the few number of practices throughout the off-season, and during the season where pads and full contact are allowed really hampers the development and proficiency of offensive lines.

It is not a coincidence that at the same time that the NFL has severely limited full-contact practices, that rushing #'s are way down, and sacks are up. The offensive lines need those full-contact practices.

That's a fair point, but it's also no coincidence the NFL made those changes at the same time it paid 10% of a years profits to settle a suit over a half-century of hiding, denying and trying to discredit proof routine parts of the game cause permanent brain damage so severe players kill themselves and others. That's the NFLs REAL "offensive line crisis:" That, while the league wets itself over revenue-generating "skilled" players missing games because they're hit a half dozen times weekly, the big uglies go helmet-to-helmet FAR more and no one cares. Except their surviving/slain families.

That's the elephant in the corner few ever discuss despite lamenting the grave harm inflicted on defenseless receivers and roughed passers: The punishment those guys absorb to their heads and the rest of their bodies is far less (though from from trivial) than the abuse LBs and RBs take, and even that pales in comparison to the beating linemen give and receive. There's no practical way to change that without eliminating blocking, but the technical term for football without blocking is "rugby." Saving the game requires eliminating the contact, but that sacrifices the game.

The pathetic part is that many say football players know and so voluntarily assume the risks factored into their huge contract demands, but that applies to no one more than QBs (even though they're hit least) and no one LESS than linemen (even though they're hit most.) Offensive linemen take the most beating and substitute least (can't disrupt fragile line chemistry) yet their nonexistent highlight reels command the least compensation. Interior linemen are never on TV outside a game except during stories on Mike Webster living in his car and dying in his early fifties with a brain that looked like cottage cheese.

Weep for the least affected yet most compensated, but ignore the most affected and least compensated. Goodell couldn't have done a better job of turning this into the National Hypocrisy League had he tried.

Incidentally, only rushing TOTALS are down, and that's because passing scores points faster and the rules favor it more than ever. Last years league rushing average was the same 4.2 yds/att it's been for decades with the monotony of a metronome (and little more variance.) Jamaal Charles (an active player) has the highest career rushing average of anyone EVER (though it's likely to return to earth as he ages; elite though he was, Jim Brown probably wouldn't have had the old record if he hadn't retired at 29, the age Charles hits next year.)

Anyway, the NFL has no SHORT TERM line problem that wouldn't be fixed by coaches rediscovering the priority guys like Lombardi and Halas placed on linemen—not just OTs to slow elite blitzers, but GENERALLY. But LONG TERM, the NFL has an existential problem because not only hippy soccer moms, but redmeat conservatives like Mike Ditka are refusing to let their kids play the game, and without todays youth football players there are no pro players tomorrow. The offensive line is, perhaps inevitably, the first affected yet least noticed.

Enjoy what remains of football (which, since Goodell, is very little) while it lasts, folks.

The Patriots can't settle on an offensive line. And that's by design.

The team has been rotating their line on the interior to a rare degree in professional football, and it's working out quite well. The Boston Herald broke down the rotation, primarily at guard, in an intriguing article this week.

The Patriots didn't use the same offensive line for two consecutive drives in their entire 50-point game against the Jaguars. They didn't use the same offensive line for the first seven drives of the season opener. In Buffalo, they used the same group for three straight series for the only time all season.

This flies in the face of conventional wisdom for offensive line play, where continuity is prized above all. The Patriots have three rookies on the interior of their offensive line, and they feel like it's advantageous to give them rest and have coaching sessions during the game on the sideline.

rest - http://www.nfl.com/news/story/0ap300...-line-rotation

Originally Posted by Denver Native (Carol)

rest - http://www.nfl.com/news/story/0ap300...-line-rotation

It helps that NE has yet to play a really good team, which allowed them to play musical linemen with less risk. The ONE time they faced a great defensive mind with a respectable unit (i.e. Ryans Bills) was also the one time they maintained the same line personnel for consecutive series. The Jags are a perennial dumpster fire that prove nothing save the woes of incompetent owners and GMs, and NE posted a fairly average 28 pts (winning by a single score) against a mediocre Steelers team whose D is transitioning to the post-LeBeau era.

Beliecheat's doing what he always does: Using September (maybe even part of October) as live fire full contact practice to prepare the many cheap rookies replacing expensive vet victims of "the Patriot Way." It's annoying because it presumes a default playoff spot is secure regardless, because NE so outclasses its early opponents that it CAN'T lose many games and/or the rest of the AFCE is so weak NE will win the division by default. The saving grace is it has made NE a playoff road team a few times (i.e. 2005 and 2013.)

Having a pretty soft schedule by the standards of defending SB "champs" helps a lot by providing a larger margin of error early. All NEs rookie linemen give incentive to get all of them playing experience and conditioning while rotating with less talented more experienced vets: Their starters need time to learn and build the stamina for 50-100% more games than in college, and rotation can't disrupt much chemistry between a bunch of rookies who don't yet HAVE any to disrupt in the first place.

Wait and see how much they rotate against Dallas this weekend, or us later on in Denver. Sadly and inexplicably, those are about the toughest opponents the SB "champs" face before the playoffs. The rest of the NFCE is pitiful, the AFCS little better and they already beat last years declining AFCN champs. Working theory: Steven Belichick was deeded to the devil at birth.

First, the Patriots seem to be more of the coach-them-up type of team than most of the NFL.

Second, the rest of the NFL doesnt have the benefit of having the single greatest Cheating and Skirting the Rules staff in all of football.

Btw, the single biggest reason for shitty OL play is the high schoolish Spread Read Zone POS gimmick offenses that's so prevalent in college.