Lineman

by ratenxs on Apr 5, 2008 10:49 PM EDT

I'm not sure how much anyways has talked about or noticed this, but this is the first time that I can remember that the real "stars" of any draft have been lineman. Usually all the talk is dominated by the "skill positions" (more on that term later). Reggie Bush, Matt Leinart, Calvin Johnson, Adrian Peterson, Ronnie Brown, Braylon Edwards, Eli Manning, Larry Fitzgerald, the list goes on.

But this year, look at most people's mock drafts. This draft is dominated by the most dominating forces on the field.

The Lineman.

Now, going by projections, the actual number of picks aren't that much different. McShay has 24 lineman going in the first two rounds in his mock draft. Here are the counts of number of lineman chosen in the first 2 rounds for the past 5 years:

2008 (projected): 24

But, for the first time, the lineman ARE getting more air time. I, personally, love this, because to me, the game of football is played in the trenches, every good team begins and ends with how well their lineman can control the line of scrimmage.

Look at Edgerrin James. Pro Bowl running back with the Colts behind one of the best lines in the league. Moves to the Cardinals behind one of the worst? Statistically average. I also believe that you could stick a monkey behind the Patriot's offensive line, and it could throw to their receivers enough to make them a solid playoff team .

Or look at the Giants, what is the strength of their team? Eli has become a good leader, but he's no elite QB. Their offense doesn't really have any superstar players at all. Now, given, they did have a lot of players on offense that stepped it up quite a bit when the respect card was played, but they still weren't the stars of that team.

No, it was the defensive line. Their O-line is pretty solid as well.

The fact is, all good teams MUST have solid play along both the offensive and defensive lines. With a good enough line, Samkon Gado could look like LaDainian Tomlinson (Well, ok, in that example it better be an entire line of Hall of Famers, but still). And as we saw in the Super Bowl, with a good enough pass rush, you can even make a future Hall of Fame QB look like Jay Fiedler.

Which is why I'm glad that the emphasis on the draft is finally on some of the guys that deserve it. For years lineman have gone through the league, many have even piled up Pro Bowl visits, with most people hardly even knowing who they were. 10 years ago, how many people could honestly say they knew who Will Shields was, even though he had been to 4 Pro Bowls by 1998?

Now, they're nearly the headliners. Alan Faneca was headlined as one of the biggest movers in free agency, the two Longs are dominating talks at the top of the draft, and when it's not focused on them, it's on Gholston or Dorsey.

Finally... FINALLY, we get more talk then just how strong QB1's arm is vs. QB2, or how much higher WR1 can jump then WR2.

And one last thing (since I left you dangling earlier) - I hate the term "skill positions." It implies that the only positions that use "skill" are QB, RB, WR, and TE, when, quite frankly, if you aren't skilled, you aren't playing in the NFL at any position.

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Comments

Great post

Thanks for the read & I agree.

It's funny how until the Super Bowl, nobody seemed to talk about lineman & all of a sudden "It's the new thing."

I also think that what Joe Thomas did for Cleveland helped bring out the perspective of how much difference a STUD (not sufficient) lineman can alter an entire team's season.

Jake Long, my #1 pick in 2008 Have you seen clips of this guy at the combine? He's 6' 7" and 315 lbs. of ROCK! He's not a 315 lb. beer gut on wheels that will have his knees & back fall apart in 2 seasons. This guy is something SPECIAL.

by davehowardcustom on Apr 5, 2008 11:03 PM EDT reply actions

you sir, know football

I agree completely with you on this whole post. I think the problem with the lack of coverage of linemen is that its the only position in the four major sports without a mainstream statistical measurement. Think about it. Everybody has a stat that people can use to compare different players. Except offensive linemen. If your not an absolute football die-hard, you won't know any OLinemen.

However, its the most important position unit in football. Teams have won super bowls with great QB's, good QB's and Trent Dilfer. RB's and WR's, same thing. The Rams won with an ok D, the Bears and Ravens with dominating ones. But the one commonality with all these teams is terrific OL play. NE last year may have been one of the 3 or 5 greatest teams in history, but when their line played poorly in the super bowl, they lost.

With this information, I don't know how anybody could lobby against taking Jake Long number 1. Add him to the mix on our OL, and we have 4 very good, young linemen in Carey, Smiley, Satele, and Long. Fill in a young G in the draft and we can begin to fill in the so-called skill positions to complete this team.

http://canemutiny.blogspot.com A fans view of Miami Hurricanes Football and Basketball

by Little Nicky 21 on Apr 6, 2008 1:42 AM EDT reply actions

on a side note..

I coach youth football, and finding kids who actually WANT to play OL is just about impossible. I always end up with 15 kids who want to be Tom Brady, or Vince Young. and 10 who want to be Randy Moss. Hopefully with the increased coverage of premier OL, I might get a couple kids who want to be Joe Thomas or Jake Long. Also, does anybody here coach? and if so, I'd like to chat and bounce ideas and knowledge off each other.

http://canemutiny.blogspot.com A fans view of Miami Hurricanes Football and Basketball

by Little Nicky 21 on Apr 6, 2008 1:47 AM EDT up reply actions

I love it!

"Teams have won super bowls with great QB's, good QB's and Trent Dilfer."

Oh man, that's freaking classic. I'm in tears over here.

The thing about lineman not having a mainstream statistic is very, very true. That's one problem that we're having right now, actually, in getting my brother noticed by the "scout factories" like rivals.com, scout.com, etc. They ask you to fill out this long questionnaire, then at the bottom, they ask for your season stats. There is absolutely NOTHING for offensive lineman. What's most depressing about this is that #1 When reviewing the hundreds of questionnaires they receive daily, they mostly just cherry pick based on stats. No stats mean it's harder to be seen. #2, If they did have stats for O-lineman, the few that are recorded at least, my brother's would really surprise them. 30+ pancakes, 0 sacks allowed, 0 tackles for a loss allowed, 0 fumbled snaps (he's the center). Did I mention he's also a junior and playing in one of the toughest districts in 4A in Florida?

But that's besides the point. Although it does show my bias towards lineman, I want to point out that I've always been a trenches guy, even before my brother started playing. The chess game in the trenches has just always been more interesting to me then anything else.

And yes to both of you, Jake Long is my #1 pick. He's been my #1 since the Outback Bowl, when he absolutely shut down Derrick Harvey, and I could see that even among other lineman, he looks like a freaking giant. He's big, has great measurables, is a very hard worker, has a mean streak on the field, plays technically sound/penalty free football, and he's smart. Quite frankly, he's the embodiment of a "Parcells guy." Probably the #1 thing that sells me on Jake Long though, is the way he finishes every play. He'll knock you down, then if you start to get up, he'll knock you down again. It doesn't matter if the ball is 20 yards away, he's going to finish his blocks, and he's going to do it on every play. It doesn't matter if it's the first play from scrimmage or the final kneeldown to end the game, Jake Long is going to go 100%. In a day and time where many O-lineman in the NFL can be accused of standing and watching, that's a very important quality in a player.

Finally, pertaining to youth football: I've assistant coached a few teams over the years, never really been able to get into it as much as I would've liked. My brother started playing center when he was 8 years old (he's 17 now), and I have two brothers behind him (8 and 10) who kind of go back and forth between baseball and football, and even one more 2 year old behind them who I swear is going to be a linebacker. For one, he's bigger then many 4 year olds, and two, he'll run at you full steam from the across the room and slam headfirst into your knee for fun.

So yeah, there's plenty of youth sports experience here, we should talk sometime :) My e-mail is my username if you stick @gmail.com on the end of it.

by ratenxs on Apr 6, 2008 2:44 AM EDT up reply actions

definitely will do that

I appreciate it I'll definitely be in contact with you in the next couple days. I want to wish your brother good luck, maybe he'll be a Dolphin one day haha. About the stats, I think Sacks allowed is the most telling about pass blocking skills, and pancakes is good measure of run blocking, but they leave alot of stuff out. Here's some linemen stats somebody should start to keep track of...

Sacks/Pressures allowed - like I said sacks allowed is pretty telling for pass protection, but guys blocking for the VY type guys will have better numbers than they should due to his mobility. So I think if you add in pressures it will be more accurate. And turn them into percentages like for example.. Vernon Carey SPA% was 12% meaning every 12 out of 100 pass attempts he gives up a sack or pressure. SPA% is even a cool acronym lol. The next one is better though.

Rushing yards gained behind player - I'm sure somebody can calculate how many rushing yards were gained behind each linemen, say to their inside and outside gaps, and the two linemen making up those gaps each get credit for the yards. For example, Steve Hutchison's YUHA score was 77 in the last game. (YUHA - Yards Up His A$$) :) It could even be broken down per carry.

Baseball has 10 billion stats, somebody should be able to keep track of OL stats.

http://canemutiny.blogspot.com A fans view of Miami Hurricanes Football and Basketball

by Little Nicky 21 on Apr 6, 2008 3:41 AM EDT reply actions

sorry

this was in response to ratenxs response to me.. forgot to click the reply thingie

http://canemutiny.blogspot.com A fans view of Miami Hurricanes Football and Basketball

by Little Nicky 21 on Apr 6, 2008 3:42 AM EDT up reply actions

Oh yeah, absolutely

I'm not sure if you're familiar with it, but the guys at this website:

http://www.footballoutsiders.com/book.php

put out the "Pro Football Prospectus" every year that contains a lot more stats then are officially recorded by the NFL. The have a huge team that watches every game to record those little stats that the NFL doesn't. They haven't really gone into the lineman as much yet, but there are a lot of other stats that make for a great read.

I love the idea of the YUHA stat, for sure. Again, going back to my brother, the teams favorite play last year was 22-Jet, a simple dive to my brother's right side. We had two running backs combine for about 1700 yards this season, and we estimate that at least 800 of those were gained on 22-Jet.

I really do think that we'll start to see more football stats over the next couple of years. Even ESPN has started keeping track of a few more, and there's guys like KC Joyner going in depth into the metrics and statistics of the game, not to mention footballoutsiders.com that I pointed out before.

Some people try to find things in this game that don't exist but football is only two things - blocking and tackling. ~Vince Lombardi

by ratenxs on Apr 6, 2008 12:53 PM EDT up reply actions