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This article once again perfectly illustrates why NFL football is the ultimate team game and how all the players must fit together well in order to produce a winning team. GM's who don't draft well or stock the team with the right players in free agency, TE's who don't block, bad QB's, and of course injuries to key players can throw everything out of balance.
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http://bleacherreport.com/articles/...the-seahawks-saints-and-others-are-in-trouble
Offensive Lines in Crisis: Why the Seahawks, Saints and Others Are in Trouble
By Mike Tanier, NFL National Lead Writer Oct 15, 2015
Offensive line play in the NFL is no worse than it has been in recent years. In some respects it may even be a little bit better.
At least, that's what the statistics show.
This table shows the sack rates, both per game and per 100 pass attempts, for the NFL over the past five years. It also shows the rushing yards per carry and the adjusted sack rate, a Football Outsiders metric that accounts for down-and-distance situations and other variables.
Offensive Line Performance: 2011 thru 2015
Year...Sacks-game...Sacks-100 pass attempts...Yards-rush...Adjusted sack rate
2015..............2.3.............................. 6.4..............................4.1............... 6.3%
2014.............2.4............................... 6.8............................. 4.2............... 6.6%
2013.............2.5............................... 7.1..............................4.2............... 7.0%
2012............2.3................................ 6.6............................. 4.3............... 6.5%
2011............2.3................................ 6.8............................. 4.3............... 6.7%
Pro Football Reference and Football Outsiders
There's nothing new or noteworthy statistically about the 2015 season. Sack rates are actually down a little bit from 2013. Rushing averages are in an imperceptible decline: Two-tenths of a yard over five years is not the kind of difference you notice when eating hot wings on a Sunday afternoon.
So the stats say "nothing to see here; everything is fine." Tell that to Drew Brees, who got battered behind a makeshift line last week and is likely to be missing several starters up front Thursday night. Tell it to Alex Smith, who has been sacked 21 times through five games.
Tell it to the Seahawks, whose offense is one long Russell Wilson scramble; or the Colts, whose Super Bowl dream has become barely-beat-the-Jaguars reality thanks to an ever-changing cast of ineffective blockers; or the Lions, averaging a league-low 2.8 yards per rush; or the Broncos, who hoped their running game would make Peyton Manning's golden years easier but have gotten mediocre performances from a makeshift cast of linemen.
If offensive lines are playing well this year, many are doing a great job of hiding it.
I contacted several experts—former players, executives and coaches—to find out if there really is something wrong with the offensive line play this season. The experts generally agreed with the statistics: There really hasn't been a sudden drop-off in offensive line play, just a few high-profile examples of line failure.
But most have seen a gradual decline in blocking quality in recent years, and all offered explanations as to why several teams that entered the season with playoff or Super Bowl expectations are being sabotaged by their offensive lines.
Bad Planning
A few teams brought their offensive line woes upon themselves. "Some teams, it's just a lack of prioritizing, which is 'shame on the GM,' " one former general manager told me via email. "The GMs that didn't focus on it deserve a lot of criticism. They have paralyzed their teams."
This former exec wasn't pointing any fingers, but it is not hard to speculate about which teams he was referring to. The Seahawks traded center Max Unger away from an already weak line, then sat out the first three rounds of a draft that was rich in quality interior line prospects. The Eagles ignored the offensive line completely in the draft for two straight years but released veteran guard Todd Herremans in February and cut guard Evan Mathis over a summer salary dispute.
Of course, not all of the teams with line woes neglected to restock the cupboards. The Chiefs offensive line is filled with recent draft picks and veteran trade acquisitions. The Lions drafted Laken Tomlinson and traded for Manny Ramirez in the offseason.
Neglecting an offensive line is always bad. Change for change's sake, however, is not much better. "I don't think teams value the continuity and chemistry as they should," said Ross Tucker, former NFL lineman and host of the Ross Tucker Football Podcast. Teams that swap out linemen just because they "need a spark"—think the Colts—aren't likely to enjoy immediate results, because the new linemen aren't used to working together.
It doesn't help that the players getting swapped in and out aren't very good in the first place.
Bad 2013 Draft
Teams that have invested along the offensive line in recent years are not getting the return they would like on that investment. "Look at the draft class [in 2013]," one former offensive lineman told me. "All those top picks should be All-Pro right now, but none of them can stay in the lineup."
Jonathan Daniel/Getty Images
Chiefs tackle Eric Fisher, the first pick in the 2013 draft, was terrible in 2014 and has been shifted back from left to right tackle. He may be starting to come around, but Donald Stephenson has been pressed into service as the Chiefs' left tackle, and Pro Football Focus charges Stephenson with two sacks and 15 hurries allowed through five games.
Luke Joeckel, the second pick in that draft, has had two difficult years and missed three games for the Jaguars with a sprained ankle this year; replacement Sam Young outplayed him in his absence.
Fourth overall pick Lane Johnson played well for the Eagles in 2014 but has allowed three sacks already, according to Pro Football Focus. Seventh overall pick Jonathan Cooper has been plagued by minor injuries and finally cracked the Cardinals lineup this year.
There were also many fine selections that season—Kyle Long, Travis Frederick, David Bakhtiari, other capable starters—but imagine if quarterbacks who were selected 1-2-4-7 in the draft were struggling or fighting for their jobs three years later. It would be a major national storyline.
The proliferation of spread offenses in the NCAA—that favorite bugbear for NFL traditionalists—may be having a greater impact on young linemen than young quarterbacks. The former linemen I contacted spoke of top college prospects who never even had to identify the "Mike" (middle linebacker) pre-snap and were only expected to get a good initial set-and-strike on pass-rushers instead of sustaining blocks and coping with counter-moves.
"The techniques and nuances of the craft, particularly pass protection, have suffered in college," Tucker said. "It's all about tempo now."
Bad Injuries
It's impossible to watch a Steelers game and forget that Ben Roethlisberger is unavailable, but it's easy to forget the impact of Maurkice Pouncey's injury. The "Peyton Manning is old" story overlooks the fact that left tackle Ryan Clady got injured during OTAs. Branden Albert's injury in Miami hastened Joe Philbin's firing. The Saints played without starters Jahri Evans and Terron Armstead on Sunday; Drew Brees was sacked five times as a result. Teams like the Chargers and Texans have resorted to some desperate juggling on the offensive line.
When quarterbacks or star receivers get hurt, we lower expectations. When offensive linemen get hurt, we forget that they are playing short-handed or wonder why the replacements haven't stepped up. It's the nature of life in the trenches.
The replacements for injured stars lack timing and chemistry with their linemates. They may lack fundamental skills. They may also just not be very good at all.
Bad Athletes
Ben Muth, former All-Pac-10 lineman and offensive line analyst for Football Outsiders, has watched (and participated in) enough preseason football to know that things always get ugly when the second- or third-string lines enter the game. In the last few years, however, he noticed the situation got so bad that "offenses almost stop functioning" once the starters leave.
Ezra Shaw/Getty Images
Injuries, coaching preferences and the failure by executives to prioritize the offensive line have forced many of those second- and third-stringers into action already. Cody Wallace, the 30-year-old back-of-the-roster journeyman subbing for Pouncey in Pittsburgh, can often be seen getting blown backward by quality defensive tackles.
Matt Paradis, the 2014 sixth-round pick charged with protecting Peyton Manning (we're a long way from Jeff Saturday, folks), has surrendered seven hurries, according to Pro Football Focus. The NFL is full of interior linemen who just "look slow and unathletic," in Muth's estimation.
A lack of top athletes may explain why teams were so eager to draft Fisher and Joeckel two years ago. Fisher was a small-school standout who tore up the predraft process, Joeckel a physical prototype who didn't do much conventional pass-blocking while protecting Johnny Manziel. When good athletes are rare, teams draft rare athletes, despite concerns about the system or level of competition.
So where have all the fast, athletic linemen gone? Muth theorizes that athletic two-way high school football linemen are more likely to focus on defense when they enter college. College defenses now rotate waves of eight or nine linemen, making the path to playing time for a freshman quicker on that side of the ball. The second-tier athletes end up on the interior offensive line.
The Seahawks are trying to use converted tight ends as tackles (Garry Gilliam) and converted college defenders as centers (Drew Nowak), clear signs that they aren't finding the athletes they want in the draft.
Andy Reid has long preferred smart interior linemen to overpowering ones, so the Chiefs line is full of players like rookie center Mitch Morse (playing well early in the season) and guard Laurent Duvernay-Tardif (recently benched).
A Gary Kubiak searching for quick, technical blockers for his system may not be able to find enough of them. Teams that suffer an injury or two have no choice but to draw from an increasingly shallow pool of offensive line talent.
Of course, the offensive line is not the only position facing a talent shortage.
Bad Quarterbacks
Nothing makes an offensive line look bad like a bad quarterback. So far this season, NFL teams have started two rookies, four second-year players and at least five aging journeyman backups at quarterback, not to mention young veterans adjusting to new systems (Sam Bradford, Nick Foles), old backups who are now starters (Ryan Fitzpatrick, Josh McCown), inexperienced young starters (Ryan Mallett, Tyrod Taylor, Kirk Cousins) and the occasional top prospect who has completely lost his way (Colin Kaepernick).
Jonathan Daniel/Getty Images
Bad quarterbacks hold the ball too long, scramble themselves into trouble or allow safeties to creep up and crash running plays because they don't fear deep passes.
Inexperienced and over-their-heads quarterbacks also do little things that hurt their offensive lines—or at least fail to do little things that would help their offensive lines. "Offenses may need to utilize the snap count [more effectively]," one veteran offensive lineman told me. "[Aaron] Rodgers does a great job of using the snap count to his advantage."
A hard count can get defensive linemen to reveal their assignments. Watch Rodgers, Tom Brady or one of the other top-tier veterans at the line of scrimmage, and they often lure defenders into flinching toward a gap or dropping a foot toward coverage; much offensive pointing and adjustment ensue.
Young quarterbacks aren't ready for such maneuvers. Journeymen who bounce from system to system don't often have a good hard count in their quiver. And some systems don't offer much leeway for the hard count. The Eagles, for example, prioritize snapping the ball quickly, not letting the quarterback identify potential blitzers.
Bad Tight Ends
One former coach recently lamented the sorry state of tight end blocking in the NFL. "The fast ones don't want to block and the big ones are too slow to block s--t," he told me.
Old coaches have been complaining about tight ends' blocking since they were complaining about Kellen Winslow's blocking. But this has been an awful year for tight ends' setting the edge or providing extra pass protection. Pro Football Focus only gives 10 tight ends "green light" positive rankings as run-blockers through five weeks; 39 tight ends have "red light" rankings. Only Marcedes Lewis of the Jaguars, Garrett Celek of the 49ers and Heath Miller of the Steelers get positive grades as pass protectors.
It's no surprise that many of the tight ends with low blocking ratings are excellent receivers: Jimmy Graham, Greg Olsen, Travis Kelce and Jason Witten (usually a fine blocker, but battling injuries this year) are too important to their teams in the passing game to quibble much about their blocking (unless it makes a juicy Monday Night Football talking point, as was the case with Graham).
Second-tier and backup tight ends, however, used to stay in the league because of their blocking. Many teams now keep two catch-first, block-maybe tight ends in their rotations. True blocking tight ends have become rare, and rarely see the field when they do make rosters.
It's all fun and games until someone is expected to block Von Miller.
Good Defenses
Understaffed, undertalented offensive lines are increasingly facing more complex, dynamic defenses. "Defensive coaches are doing a better job of understanding how the offense is protecting the quarterbacks," one former offensive lineman told me.
Defensive coaches have always had an advantage in the line-of-scrimmage chess game: They can vary fronts, slide defenders around before the snap and rotate fresh legs and situation specialists into the game while the same five offensive linemen line up the same way on snap after snap.
Recent seasons have seen even more sub-packages and defensive creativity. When the Giants attacked the Patriots with four defensive ends in Super Bowl XLII, it was a novel tactic. Now, "everybody employs their own version of the 'NASCAR package,' " Tucker said. "They've all got four legit rushers on the field."
These souped-up defenses are facing understaffed offensive lines that lack continuity, fundamentals and talent. It's a wonder that sack totals have edged downward instead of flying through the roof. For all the issues plaguing offensive lines, the problem really isn't quite as bad as it appears.
Bad Timing
The whole NFL appears to have an offensive line crisis right now because several high-profile teams are facing an offensive line crisis. It's unusual for a two-time conference champion like the Seahawks to field so terrible an offensive line. The Eagles spent lots of money and energy signing big-name players who spend as much time moving the ball backward as forward this season.
Offensive line woes have caused the Colts' supposedly explosive offense to fizzle and may be opening up fissures in the franchise's power structure. Alex Smith is on a painful sack pace that can only get worse with Jamaal Charlesout of the lineup. The Broncos cannot run the ball, and every hit he absorbs could be Peyton Manning's last. Saints line injuries led to a Brees injury that has contributed to a miserable start to a promising season.
Ed Zurga/Associated Press
These are traditional playoff teams, most of which play in prime time and generate lots of national attention. Meanwhile, offensive line play has been good-to-excellent for teams like the Falcons, Cardinals and Redskins: small-market teams, perennial doormats or both. If the Eagles and Redskins, Saints and Falcons or Seahawks and Cardinals swapped offensive line quality this season, we might not be talking about the state of blocking in the NFL. It would just be business as usual.
Several experts reminded me that defenses are often ahead of offenses developmentally early in the year, especially now that practice and preseason reps are limited, preventing offensive lines from perfecting their timing. In a few weeks, lines that look "out of sync" now may coalesce.
"It's like having a conversation with your wife on the phone," Tucker joked. "You never step on each other, because you know when the other person is done talking. … During the course of a season, provided they stay healthy, offensive lines should always get better, because of that familiarity."
After talking with experts on a variety of NFL topics this week, I came away with a sense that offensive lines look terrible right now because everything looks terrible. Backup quarterbacks look terrible. Kickers look terrible. Injuries have taken some of the biggest stars off the field. Officiating isn't exactly stellar. Unless you are watching the Patriots, Packers, Bengals, Falcons or Cardinals, it's easy to point to something that looks lackluster and disappointing during an NFL game, often several somethings.
The stats say that offensive line play is not as bad as it seems. The experts see gradual forces at work, not an emergency. Maybe offensive line play will improve as newcomers develop and lines jell; maybe that's precisely what happened to the Eagles last week. Saints, Seahawks, Colts and Chiefs fans are hoping that happens before it is too late.
Mike Tanier covers the NFL for Bleacher Report.
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http://bleacherreport.com/articles/...the-seahawks-saints-and-others-are-in-trouble
Offensive Lines in Crisis: Why the Seahawks, Saints and Others Are in Trouble
By Mike Tanier, NFL National Lead Writer Oct 15, 2015
Offensive line play in the NFL is no worse than it has been in recent years. In some respects it may even be a little bit better.
At least, that's what the statistics show.
This table shows the sack rates, both per game and per 100 pass attempts, for the NFL over the past five years. It also shows the rushing yards per carry and the adjusted sack rate, a Football Outsiders metric that accounts for down-and-distance situations and other variables.
Offensive Line Performance: 2011 thru 2015
Year...Sacks-game...Sacks-100 pass attempts...Yards-rush...Adjusted sack rate
2015..............2.3.............................. 6.4..............................4.1............... 6.3%
2014.............2.4............................... 6.8............................. 4.2............... 6.6%
2013.............2.5............................... 7.1..............................4.2............... 7.0%
2012............2.3................................ 6.6............................. 4.3............... 6.5%
2011............2.3................................ 6.8............................. 4.3............... 6.7%
Pro Football Reference and Football Outsiders
There's nothing new or noteworthy statistically about the 2015 season. Sack rates are actually down a little bit from 2013. Rushing averages are in an imperceptible decline: Two-tenths of a yard over five years is not the kind of difference you notice when eating hot wings on a Sunday afternoon.
So the stats say "nothing to see here; everything is fine." Tell that to Drew Brees, who got battered behind a makeshift line last week and is likely to be missing several starters up front Thursday night. Tell it to Alex Smith, who has been sacked 21 times through five games.
Tell it to the Seahawks, whose offense is one long Russell Wilson scramble; or the Colts, whose Super Bowl dream has become barely-beat-the-Jaguars reality thanks to an ever-changing cast of ineffective blockers; or the Lions, averaging a league-low 2.8 yards per rush; or the Broncos, who hoped their running game would make Peyton Manning's golden years easier but have gotten mediocre performances from a makeshift cast of linemen.
If offensive lines are playing well this year, many are doing a great job of hiding it.
I contacted several experts—former players, executives and coaches—to find out if there really is something wrong with the offensive line play this season. The experts generally agreed with the statistics: There really hasn't been a sudden drop-off in offensive line play, just a few high-profile examples of line failure.
But most have seen a gradual decline in blocking quality in recent years, and all offered explanations as to why several teams that entered the season with playoff or Super Bowl expectations are being sabotaged by their offensive lines.
Bad Planning
A few teams brought their offensive line woes upon themselves. "Some teams, it's just a lack of prioritizing, which is 'shame on the GM,' " one former general manager told me via email. "The GMs that didn't focus on it deserve a lot of criticism. They have paralyzed their teams."
This former exec wasn't pointing any fingers, but it is not hard to speculate about which teams he was referring to. The Seahawks traded center Max Unger away from an already weak line, then sat out the first three rounds of a draft that was rich in quality interior line prospects. The Eagles ignored the offensive line completely in the draft for two straight years but released veteran guard Todd Herremans in February and cut guard Evan Mathis over a summer salary dispute.
Of course, not all of the teams with line woes neglected to restock the cupboards. The Chiefs offensive line is filled with recent draft picks and veteran trade acquisitions. The Lions drafted Laken Tomlinson and traded for Manny Ramirez in the offseason.
Neglecting an offensive line is always bad. Change for change's sake, however, is not much better. "I don't think teams value the continuity and chemistry as they should," said Ross Tucker, former NFL lineman and host of the Ross Tucker Football Podcast. Teams that swap out linemen just because they "need a spark"—think the Colts—aren't likely to enjoy immediate results, because the new linemen aren't used to working together.
It doesn't help that the players getting swapped in and out aren't very good in the first place.
Bad 2013 Draft
Teams that have invested along the offensive line in recent years are not getting the return they would like on that investment. "Look at the draft class [in 2013]," one former offensive lineman told me. "All those top picks should be All-Pro right now, but none of them can stay in the lineup."
Jonathan Daniel/Getty Images
Chiefs tackle Eric Fisher, the first pick in the 2013 draft, was terrible in 2014 and has been shifted back from left to right tackle. He may be starting to come around, but Donald Stephenson has been pressed into service as the Chiefs' left tackle, and Pro Football Focus charges Stephenson with two sacks and 15 hurries allowed through five games.
Luke Joeckel, the second pick in that draft, has had two difficult years and missed three games for the Jaguars with a sprained ankle this year; replacement Sam Young outplayed him in his absence.
Fourth overall pick Lane Johnson played well for the Eagles in 2014 but has allowed three sacks already, according to Pro Football Focus. Seventh overall pick Jonathan Cooper has been plagued by minor injuries and finally cracked the Cardinals lineup this year.
There were also many fine selections that season—Kyle Long, Travis Frederick, David Bakhtiari, other capable starters—but imagine if quarterbacks who were selected 1-2-4-7 in the draft were struggling or fighting for their jobs three years later. It would be a major national storyline.
The proliferation of spread offenses in the NCAA—that favorite bugbear for NFL traditionalists—may be having a greater impact on young linemen than young quarterbacks. The former linemen I contacted spoke of top college prospects who never even had to identify the "Mike" (middle linebacker) pre-snap and were only expected to get a good initial set-and-strike on pass-rushers instead of sustaining blocks and coping with counter-moves.
"The techniques and nuances of the craft, particularly pass protection, have suffered in college," Tucker said. "It's all about tempo now."
Bad Injuries
It's impossible to watch a Steelers game and forget that Ben Roethlisberger is unavailable, but it's easy to forget the impact of Maurkice Pouncey's injury. The "Peyton Manning is old" story overlooks the fact that left tackle Ryan Clady got injured during OTAs. Branden Albert's injury in Miami hastened Joe Philbin's firing. The Saints played without starters Jahri Evans and Terron Armstead on Sunday; Drew Brees was sacked five times as a result. Teams like the Chargers and Texans have resorted to some desperate juggling on the offensive line.
When quarterbacks or star receivers get hurt, we lower expectations. When offensive linemen get hurt, we forget that they are playing short-handed or wonder why the replacements haven't stepped up. It's the nature of life in the trenches.
The replacements for injured stars lack timing and chemistry with their linemates. They may lack fundamental skills. They may also just not be very good at all.
Bad Athletes
Ben Muth, former All-Pac-10 lineman and offensive line analyst for Football Outsiders, has watched (and participated in) enough preseason football to know that things always get ugly when the second- or third-string lines enter the game. In the last few years, however, he noticed the situation got so bad that "offenses almost stop functioning" once the starters leave.
Ezra Shaw/Getty Images
Injuries, coaching preferences and the failure by executives to prioritize the offensive line have forced many of those second- and third-stringers into action already. Cody Wallace, the 30-year-old back-of-the-roster journeyman subbing for Pouncey in Pittsburgh, can often be seen getting blown backward by quality defensive tackles.
Matt Paradis, the 2014 sixth-round pick charged with protecting Peyton Manning (we're a long way from Jeff Saturday, folks), has surrendered seven hurries, according to Pro Football Focus. The NFL is full of interior linemen who just "look slow and unathletic," in Muth's estimation.
A lack of top athletes may explain why teams were so eager to draft Fisher and Joeckel two years ago. Fisher was a small-school standout who tore up the predraft process, Joeckel a physical prototype who didn't do much conventional pass-blocking while protecting Johnny Manziel. When good athletes are rare, teams draft rare athletes, despite concerns about the system or level of competition.
So where have all the fast, athletic linemen gone? Muth theorizes that athletic two-way high school football linemen are more likely to focus on defense when they enter college. College defenses now rotate waves of eight or nine linemen, making the path to playing time for a freshman quicker on that side of the ball. The second-tier athletes end up on the interior offensive line.
The Seahawks are trying to use converted tight ends as tackles (Garry Gilliam) and converted college defenders as centers (Drew Nowak), clear signs that they aren't finding the athletes they want in the draft.
Andy Reid has long preferred smart interior linemen to overpowering ones, so the Chiefs line is full of players like rookie center Mitch Morse (playing well early in the season) and guard Laurent Duvernay-Tardif (recently benched).
A Gary Kubiak searching for quick, technical blockers for his system may not be able to find enough of them. Teams that suffer an injury or two have no choice but to draw from an increasingly shallow pool of offensive line talent.
Of course, the offensive line is not the only position facing a talent shortage.
Bad Quarterbacks
Nothing makes an offensive line look bad like a bad quarterback. So far this season, NFL teams have started two rookies, four second-year players and at least five aging journeyman backups at quarterback, not to mention young veterans adjusting to new systems (Sam Bradford, Nick Foles), old backups who are now starters (Ryan Fitzpatrick, Josh McCown), inexperienced young starters (Ryan Mallett, Tyrod Taylor, Kirk Cousins) and the occasional top prospect who has completely lost his way (Colin Kaepernick).
Jonathan Daniel/Getty Images
Bad quarterbacks hold the ball too long, scramble themselves into trouble or allow safeties to creep up and crash running plays because they don't fear deep passes.
Inexperienced and over-their-heads quarterbacks also do little things that hurt their offensive lines—or at least fail to do little things that would help their offensive lines. "Offenses may need to utilize the snap count [more effectively]," one veteran offensive lineman told me. "[Aaron] Rodgers does a great job of using the snap count to his advantage."
A hard count can get defensive linemen to reveal their assignments. Watch Rodgers, Tom Brady or one of the other top-tier veterans at the line of scrimmage, and they often lure defenders into flinching toward a gap or dropping a foot toward coverage; much offensive pointing and adjustment ensue.
Young quarterbacks aren't ready for such maneuvers. Journeymen who bounce from system to system don't often have a good hard count in their quiver. And some systems don't offer much leeway for the hard count. The Eagles, for example, prioritize snapping the ball quickly, not letting the quarterback identify potential blitzers.
Bad Tight Ends
One former coach recently lamented the sorry state of tight end blocking in the NFL. "The fast ones don't want to block and the big ones are too slow to block s--t," he told me.
Old coaches have been complaining about tight ends' blocking since they were complaining about Kellen Winslow's blocking. But this has been an awful year for tight ends' setting the edge or providing extra pass protection. Pro Football Focus only gives 10 tight ends "green light" positive rankings as run-blockers through five weeks; 39 tight ends have "red light" rankings. Only Marcedes Lewis of the Jaguars, Garrett Celek of the 49ers and Heath Miller of the Steelers get positive grades as pass protectors.
It's no surprise that many of the tight ends with low blocking ratings are excellent receivers: Jimmy Graham, Greg Olsen, Travis Kelce and Jason Witten (usually a fine blocker, but battling injuries this year) are too important to their teams in the passing game to quibble much about their blocking (unless it makes a juicy Monday Night Football talking point, as was the case with Graham).
Second-tier and backup tight ends, however, used to stay in the league because of their blocking. Many teams now keep two catch-first, block-maybe tight ends in their rotations. True blocking tight ends have become rare, and rarely see the field when they do make rosters.
It's all fun and games until someone is expected to block Von Miller.
Good Defenses
Understaffed, undertalented offensive lines are increasingly facing more complex, dynamic defenses. "Defensive coaches are doing a better job of understanding how the offense is protecting the quarterbacks," one former offensive lineman told me.
Defensive coaches have always had an advantage in the line-of-scrimmage chess game: They can vary fronts, slide defenders around before the snap and rotate fresh legs and situation specialists into the game while the same five offensive linemen line up the same way on snap after snap.
Recent seasons have seen even more sub-packages and defensive creativity. When the Giants attacked the Patriots with four defensive ends in Super Bowl XLII, it was a novel tactic. Now, "everybody employs their own version of the 'NASCAR package,' " Tucker said. "They've all got four legit rushers on the field."
These souped-up defenses are facing understaffed offensive lines that lack continuity, fundamentals and talent. It's a wonder that sack totals have edged downward instead of flying through the roof. For all the issues plaguing offensive lines, the problem really isn't quite as bad as it appears.
Bad Timing
The whole NFL appears to have an offensive line crisis right now because several high-profile teams are facing an offensive line crisis. It's unusual for a two-time conference champion like the Seahawks to field so terrible an offensive line. The Eagles spent lots of money and energy signing big-name players who spend as much time moving the ball backward as forward this season.
Offensive line woes have caused the Colts' supposedly explosive offense to fizzle and may be opening up fissures in the franchise's power structure. Alex Smith is on a painful sack pace that can only get worse with Jamaal Charlesout of the lineup. The Broncos cannot run the ball, and every hit he absorbs could be Peyton Manning's last. Saints line injuries led to a Brees injury that has contributed to a miserable start to a promising season.
Ed Zurga/Associated Press
These are traditional playoff teams, most of which play in prime time and generate lots of national attention. Meanwhile, offensive line play has been good-to-excellent for teams like the Falcons, Cardinals and Redskins: small-market teams, perennial doormats or both. If the Eagles and Redskins, Saints and Falcons or Seahawks and Cardinals swapped offensive line quality this season, we might not be talking about the state of blocking in the NFL. It would just be business as usual.
Several experts reminded me that defenses are often ahead of offenses developmentally early in the year, especially now that practice and preseason reps are limited, preventing offensive lines from perfecting their timing. In a few weeks, lines that look "out of sync" now may coalesce.
"It's like having a conversation with your wife on the phone," Tucker joked. "You never step on each other, because you know when the other person is done talking. … During the course of a season, provided they stay healthy, offensive lines should always get better, because of that familiarity."
After talking with experts on a variety of NFL topics this week, I came away with a sense that offensive lines look terrible right now because everything looks terrible. Backup quarterbacks look terrible. Kickers look terrible. Injuries have taken some of the biggest stars off the field. Officiating isn't exactly stellar. Unless you are watching the Patriots, Packers, Bengals, Falcons or Cardinals, it's easy to point to something that looks lackluster and disappointing during an NFL game, often several somethings.
The stats say that offensive line play is not as bad as it seems. The experts see gradual forces at work, not an emergency. Maybe offensive line play will improve as newcomers develop and lines jell; maybe that's precisely what happened to the Eagles last week. Saints, Seahawks, Colts and Chiefs fans are hoping that happens before it is too late.
Mike Tanier covers the NFL for Bleacher Report.
