I like Barks but he has been anything but a true strength at that position throughout his career. Hopefully - he will be. It took him until his 4th year to scratch the opening line-up. And we're going to think a rookie just moves right into the starting LT position when we decide to use a top pick on one? Or do we pay a huge contract to lure one away from another team?
Magical # for most pro players seems to be the 3 year mark, sometimes 4. The fact that he was one of the better RT's in football is a good thing - you shouldn't try to replace that when LG is so glaring.
On the franchise low part? KC with a very inaccurate arm and virtually unable to throw even medium length passes. The inability to protect the QB for any meaningful amount of time so our passing game plan contained a bunch of stops, hooks, and comebacks - none of which allow for YAC. Our entire passing game with as few attempts as were being made, was predicated on quick release. That helped the O-line look good on sacks but not so much when it came to allowing plays to develop or even allowing longer developing plays to be called. And in a passing league that is being built defensively around the pass, would you really go so far as to say that our offense was typical of the pass happy NFL? 6 of our games being played against the likes of AZ, Seattle, SF along with what... the 3rd toughest schedule in the league?
As to who shows me promise, Stedman closed out the last 5 games averaging something like 15 yards per catch. TA flashed his big play potential and would have looked even better if not for a couple penalties. He also stopped dropping passes as he got used to the NFL game. BQ before Sam went down - same with Cook. The sudden emergence of a decent RB. The fact that Pettis is our elder statesman. Givens and Cook were on track to have 1,000 yard seasons IIRC before Sam went down after running for his life for the umpteenth time.
No - Sorry but you cannot have it both ways. Franchise low in catches yet the receiving corps was one of the top teams in drops - and that's when bradford was starting. not to mention the spread offense they were running initially w/ no running game if anything should have helped inflate their numbers. Chris Givens? 0 Td's - 104 other receivers managed to get TD's, many others playing with backup QB's. Justin Blackmon got over 400 yards and a few td's in 4 games - what's givens excuse? I wouldn't consider Gabbert or Henne to be better than Bradford. Think about that.
Blackmon got over half the yardage in 4 games than our most productive receiver did in 16 games with worse QB play.
At what point are people going to wake up and acknowledge that we don't have a #1 Receiver - why even bother drafting a QB like Bradford if we're not going to help him out?
Look at what Josh Gordon did - with 3 or 4 rotating QB's.
Guess we'll see on FA. But that O-line with the way DCs move their pass rushers around these days, strikes little confidence with me. And I have very little confidence that Wells makes it anywhere near a full season.
True but I also expect Barrett Jones to be in the mix in some capacity.
It may very well be the case that if we take a Tackle in the first round, he moves to LT in yr 2. Either via injury or as cap dictates. If not, I believe it is also not unheard of that a future LT plays at Guard or RT for a couple years. The reality of the new "pass happy" NFL is also that you better get your O-linemen early. Look at last year for example. 9 O-linemen were taken in the first round - including the two best Guards. The three best Guards were all gone by the 13th pick of the 2nd. The year before that, the 4 best Guards were all gone by that pick. What do you think that says about where the best Tackle talent went?
The problem is that anymore, you just aren't going to get top prospects by waiting until the 2nd or 3rd. Just like the RB position, draft orders have changed. So yeah - I can say that the best Guards have a very good chance of being taken before our pick in the 2nd.
Actually I think people would Argue last year's best Guard was
Larry Warford,whom the Lions took at #75 and the Rams had been considering if Ogletree wasn't there after that last trade down.
In our division, if we want to dominate, it is going to take a dominant O-line that can dictate what kind of offense we run against different teams. I just believe that a team with a shutdown corner is going to be able to take Watkins out of the game with single coverage. What about him says Fitz or Johnson to you? And yet, in 2012 & 13, we did a pretty good job containing Fitz with single coverage. Seattle made him a total non-factor in both their games last year. And yet AZ still won one of them.
Easy to contain a receiver when they don't have a quarterback.... yea, and how did Seattle lose that 2nd game? A TD to Michael Floyd, a big, tall receiver in the mold of a future #1 (or so they hope)
Possibly - but recent history suggests O-linemen will still be the hotter commodity in the first and early second.
Recent history would then show no QB's should go in the first round and you can get quality RB's later the draft.... doesn't look to be the same this year does it? how many qb's do you think go in the first this year?
that's my point -
every class is different
Not going to defend DR. I said early that I didn't see him as any kind of an answer. And before we totally changed our scheme, none of our RBs were doing well. Look it up. We had to employ a blocking scheme that employed a lot of pulling and a FB/TE. We turned to a power scheme that drastically pulled away from opening up our passing game.
A lot of it was whom was blocking and where from - you'll notice Cook was not asked to block anymore (That's huge, and he was a big problem)
Our receivers had all day? I must have missed those games.
And the website you linked. Doesn't that indicate we were 14th in pass protection and much worse in run blocking? I especially have a hard time with being 25th in power run blocking. That says to me, when you really need those few yards or that goal line score, how does your O-line perform.
Good thing this debate is going to decide everything - eh?
how is 12th in run blocking much worse? that's better
Lol if only it could decide
Come on Snead! I know you're out there reading my opinion! side with meeeeeeee!
