John Keim: Redskins 2014 Offensive Line Rankings, Stats And Breakdown

[McD5]

I come in peace, and in hopes of elevating the discussion on this great site.

I hope that the article below finally stops the "We have one of the worst O-Lines in the league" nonsense that plagued this site like a case of herpes last season. It was like bizarro world in here.

If nothing else, maybe those who still believe that our line is awful will at least acknowledge that a lot of other teams have it much worse--including several teams that made the playoffs.

You have been cleansed. Go forth and prosper.


NFL Redskins positional glance: offensive line - ESPN

 

[Canadian Hog]

Thanks for posting...the article does certainly provide a little bit of a different perspective.

However, I can only go by what my eyes tell me. In particular, this is a group of linemen that seemed to crumble time and time again in critical in-game situations.

In the current state that this franchise is in, we have to move beyond accepting mediocrity.

When I expected this group of linemen to fail, they usually did. That, in and of itself, is enough for me personally to seek a refreshed look along the offensive line.

Learning how to make plays in the most crucial of situations is a skill I suppose this entire roster needs to learn how to do more effectively.

 

[Elephant]

I said it the first 350,000 times you said it and I will say it again...our offensive line ****ing sucked! It was terrible! It was one of the worst I saw all season!


You want respect, stop being a troll!

 

[Shi no Tenshi]

Thanks for posting...the article does certainly provide a little bit of a different perspective.

However, I can only go by what my eyes tell me. In particular, this is a group of linemen that seemed to crumble time and time again in critical in-game situations.

In the current state that this franchise is in, we have to move beyond accepting mediocrity.

When I expected this group of linemen to fail, they usually did. That, in and of itself, is enough for me personally to seek a refreshed look along the offensive line.

Learning how to make plays in the most crucial of situations is a skill I suppose this entire roster needs to learn how to do more effectively.

To be fair, the article also said that his eyes told him there were issues. It also said the expectation is to replace 2 starters. I'd say it's pretty hard to say that the line was solid when the intent going into the offseason is to replace 2 starters.

The article gives some stats to put things in a more positive light, but once again shows how stats just aren't everything. They give you a correlation to look at, but prove nothing.

 

[Rymanofthenorth]

our issue was that when playing bad Dlines we looked great, when playing decent ones, we looked bad, when playing good ones we looked terrible.

anyone who thinks we had a good oline didnt actually watch the games, its that simple

 

[Ax]

Swing, and a miss, Brother McD.

Statistically speaking, I guess you could hang your hat on the mediocrity, and use it as salve for the herpes.
Realistically speaking, the Oline sucked rotten eggs.

And let's be real, if our linemen had herpes, and the opposing team knew it, it would do more to protect our QB's, and create more openings for our RB's, than our herpes-free line did.

 

[Boone]

There are lies, damn lies, and statistics. The pass protection stat has to be one of the most farcical stats of all time, as it's impossible to measure objectively as even Keim acknowledged there. I don't think that was some kind of ringing endorsement of our OL performance by any stretch of the imagination. At best, Keim is saying we had some players play decently.

Keim says here " I know the focus is on improved protection, but a lot of factors go into that area. My take would be: Do better on your first-down runs, set up more third-and-shorts, and watch how both the quarterback play and the protection improves. So: I’d like to see stronger run blocking for that reason."

Huh?? So, our pass protection was lacking but it's complicated, because it's not JUST about blocking. Okay - I'll buy that. But then Keim suggests, if we ran better, and if we had more positive plays before 3rd down, things would be greatly improved. Ummm....and what do we need to do to achieve those 2 goals Mr. Keim? That's right - we need better OL play - run blocking, clearing out lanes, pass protection, blitz pickups.

It's like he's saying, except for where the line play was inadequate, it was pretty good

I like John Keim a lot. He's the best of what's traditionally been a sorry lot of grumpy, arrogant, agenda-driven Redskins coverage guys. I think Keim is smart, fair, and usually has a pretty reasonable take. But he's no football genius. He's never coached. He's never been a talent scout or play caller. Hell - he may not ever have even played football. Does he know more than the average fan? Probably. But I think he's just trying to provide a balanced view in that piece, and he's certainly not claiming the Redskins OL play has been good.

Bottom line - if your goal is ensuring that we're not the worst team in the NFL in a given area, that's a pretty low ****ing bar if you ask me.

 

[Goaldeje]

If the goal is to replace two starters, the existing line isn't getting it done. Period. We have enough holes on defense especially that if the line was serviceable, we wouldn't address it. Yet from everything I've read, we're looking at fixin' the line. So... yeah.

I don't think Robert played well last year, and I think his play probably magnified the poor play of the OLine. That doesn't mean the OLine was playing well, it means they were playing poorly and he made them look even worse. Just like their poor play made him look worse as well.

 

[fansince62]

I said it the first 350,000 times you said it and I will say it again...our offensive line ****ing sucked! It was terrible! It was one of the worst I saw all season!


You want respect, stop being a troll!

don't know if I would employ the word troll...but have to agree otherwise with El.

1) the article doesn't at all support the claim you are making - and the not so covert swipes you are taking at folks (turn-around is fair play I guess)

2) I'd be interested in stats on conversion rates for 3rd and long and short yardage, average time for the right side of the 0-line to collapse, etc.

3) we all know there were QB issues (your real target)...but ignoring just how bad this o-line has been FOR YEARS....well...it secretly suggests your real home of residence is somewhere in CO!

4) the saving grace of the argument, IMO, is that defense has been even worse and is in need of more immediate rescue operations

 

[Boone]

You wouldn't use that term because anyone using it in regards to a fellow member is getting an infraction. It's not hard to address an argument we disagree with minus personal insults.

I am only addressing this so folks realize that post is not okay and was addressed, not to single out Elephant.

 

[micks113]

Next to last in coverage sacks allowed. OK makes some sense. Nowhere does he mention that the main problem Griffin had (other than reading a secondary) was that he held on to the ball too long. That came through in every game he played. However, he did not play every game. When Colt came in, it was like night and day. Colt's veteran leadership showed as he slid outside the pocket, able to find receivers on the run. so naturally he made a huge difference in the line play. Whereas Robert and Kirk took the brunt of the sacks. There's alot to be said for a QB with a quick read and quick release. It will hide some line weaknesses. I'm not going to blame Griffin for the line's play any more than I would blame the line for Griffin's play. They were both equally culpable. both have to improve immensley before we see a better record. If we improve in one but not the other, we are still spinning our wheels.

 

[Shi no Tenshi]

Next to last in coverage sacks allowed. OK makes some sense. Nowhere does he mention that the main problem Griffin had (other than reading a secondary) was that he held on to the ball too long. That came through in every game he played. However, he did not play every game. When Colt came in, it was like night and day. Colt's veteran leadership showed as he slid outside the pocket, able to find receivers on the run. so naturally he made a huge difference in the line play. Whereas Robert and Kirk took the brunt of the sacks. There's alot to be said for a QB with a quick read and quick release. It will hide some line weaknesses. I'm not going to blame Griffin for the line's play any more than I would blame the line for Griffin's play. They were both equally culpable. both have to improve immensley before we see a better record. If we improve in one but not the other, we are still spinning our wheels.

You do recall that McCoy got sacked 6 times against he Colts, and about the same versus the Rams, right? Two games he started? In his win against the cowpukes, it was 3 times, but in Griffin's win against the Eagles, it was only 2 for Griffin.

McCoy did do some good things, but he still got sacked a lot behind our line. Kirk and Robert took the brunt of the sacks only because they played more games.

 

[MikeSr619]

Mccoy played one game after hurting his neck and was sacked in his first drive against the vagiants. He was put on IR from sacks.

 

[servumtuum]

I went to ESPN's NFL stats page and found both the number of sacks and then I calculated the sack rate-the percentage of pass attempts in which the QB was sacked-for all three Redskins QBs.

Colt McCoy 17 sacks in 128 attempts-13.3% sack rate

Kirk Cousins 8 sacks in 204 attempts-4% sack rate

Robert Griffin 33 sacks in 214 attempts-15.4% sack rate

Source: 2014 NFL Player Passing Stats - National Football League - ESPN

Also, anticipating certain responses, I got curious and did the same for INTs-total number and percentage of pass attempts resulting in an INT.

Colt McCoy 3 INTs in 128 attempts-2.3% INT rate

Kirk Cousins 9 INTs in 204 attempts-4.4% INT rate

Robert Griffin 6 INTs in 214 attempts-2.8% INT rate

 

[DieselPwr44]

McD5, I enjoy your takes on things but you're dead wrong on the state of our Oline.

Alfred Morris spent a lot of time dodging defenders in the backfield and making something out of nothing this past year.

It's my hope that one of Moses or Long pans out, we add a good Olineman in FA and one from the upcoming draft. That's three new starters and would hopefully be a major improvement.

The other thing no one seems to mention here about our OL? Trent Williams needs to get his crap together, both from a technical and physical/ dietary stand point. Hopefully, Callahan can stress these things and help Trent get back on the road to realizing his potential.

 

[McD5]

McD5, I enjoy your takes on things but you're dead wrong on the state of our Oline.

Alfred Morris spent a lot of time dodging defenders in the backfield and making something out of nothing this past year.

Diesel, here's the thing, that statement just isn't accurate.

The Redskins were 12th best in the league at yards before contact. 20 other teams had it worse in that regard.

20 other teams wish their RBs were hit as early as Alfred Morris.

I'm not saying that we have a great O-line. We can definitely make improvements there, just like we can in the secondary--a much worse unit in comparison to the other teams in the league.

What is clear is that most O-lines in the league are lacking. And by no means is ours the worst.

In addition, teams that have similiar or even worse O-lines than ours like Indy almost made the SB.

 

[DieselPwr44]

With all those rosy stats, I guess that's why we retained Foerster and spent two picks on smaller, faster linemen last year and signed another in Lavaou..../sarcasm

It's obvious Jay Gruden doesn't think all is rosy on the OL front and I bet Mcloughan feels that way too.

 

[McD5]

"I will no longer listen when people only blame the OL. Andrew Luck had a bad O-line in Indy. Somehow he has played well."

--John Keim

Our O-line isn't great. And everyone is entitled to express his/her own opinion. Lord knows some of mine aren't always popular.

But the crying about the O-line within our fan base has now surpassed embarrassing levels imho. (And in no way is this directed at any particular poster on this site.) I mean as a collective whole across twitter, etc....

 

[McD5]

With all those rosy stats, I guess that's why we retained Foerster and spent two picks on smaller, faster linemen last year and signed another in Lavaou..../sarcasm

It's obvious Jay Gruden doesn't think all is rosy on the OL front and I bet Mcloughan feels that way too.

I know they want to improve the O-line; I do too. It can use improvement.

I bet they also want to improve our DL, safeties, corners, LBs and ST too.

 

[DieselPwr44]

A wise man once said " Don't be afraid to see what you see".....

A lot of factors go into pass pro, from Qb,Rb and te to work in conjunction with the OL but we also have a history of sucking on short yardage and goaline situations to seeing the Qb get killed before he has time to complete his drop.

We saw our Qb,no matter who he was, get killed on three step drops with too much regularity.
I'm sure you can pull a stat or set of stats to explain away what the film and eye test says but the film and eye test get profoundly backed up by this thing called win/loss record,which says 4-12.