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

[Boone]

We can't fill every hole McD5. You continue to comment as if that is and should be the goal. The key is getting youth, ability, and value with who we do bring in. 'New' is not better, better is better. McLovin has never been a big Free agency proponent and we're seeing what is typical for him, big bodies who are young and have upside. We may draft a safety, bring in a placeholder, or defer that need to future drafts. We can't possibly fill even the majority of needs in one offseason.

 

[McD5]

There's no question about that Boone. I agree. We may just have to grab a few of the Taylor Mays types, and then draft one down the road.

The only problem with that plan though is that safeties and many linemen are kind of unique.

RBs can be thrown right into a system and start day 1 without a problem. That's rarely the case with a safety.

By not drafting one in the early rounds this year to groom, we are agreeing to not have one on the field next season either.

A young (27) guy like McCourty, who is just now starting to come into his prime, would have seemed to be an attractive option. He also signed for a very affordable price. I'm sure we would have had to pay a premium.

 

[Boone]

Draft the wrong one and time for growing and seasoning doesn't matter. It's all about adding the RIGHT guys, not when we do it. Drafting the wrong players sets us back for a decade, not a year or two.

 

[GSF]

What I don't understand is that the same fan base that witnessed the Hogs, also witnessed Sean Taylor and D Green. Where are the secondary comments? For every "fix the secondary" comment I've seen, I've literally seen at least 100 "fix the O-line" comments. 100-1 ratio. That's way out of whack.

You really don't understand that? The answer is so obvious I can't believe you don't see it. Safeties and corners aren't responsible for protecting the Quarterback. The fanbase has been dying for a franchise QB for so long, we trade the farm to get one, and we put a bunch of scrubs in front of him. Ane we've seen this before with Campbell and Ramsey. Granted all 3 QBs caused some of their own problems, but all 3 of them spent way too much of time running for their lives and taking a beating. How much that affected their developments will never know, but it damn sure didn't help.

Does the secondary suck? Hell yeah it sucks, but I think when you have a 4-12 team your not going to fix everything at once. The first priority is always going to be QB. If you have one of them, or at least hope you do, then second priority has to be protecting him. I would be ok watching the defense getting torched all season again for another year if RG3 was well protected, playing well, and the offense was consistently moving the ball and scoring points. Then you really work on the defense next off-season.

 

[Bulldog]

Signing McCourty and paying him what he got from NE would have been counterproductive for the Redskins in their attempt to rebuild the 53 man roster.

A rebuild is about more than a single player. No single player in the NFL is going to win anything by himself.

The signing of Suh has set the Dolphins team back 5 years. Just watch. He may produce early results in 2015 but over time his cap number will prevent Miami from keeping core players who reach free agency.

There will be tough decisions to make and you will then have a 31 or 32 year old Suh who is no longer what he was at 27 or 28.

 

[Elephant]

Signing McCourty and paying him what he got from NE would have been counterproductive for the Redskins in their attempt to rebuild the 53 man roster.

A rebuild is about more than a single player. No single player in the NFL is going to win anything by himself.

The signing of Suh has set the Dolphins team back 5 years. Just watch. He may produce early results in 2015 but over time his cap number will prevent Miami from keeping core players who reach free agency.

There will be tough decisions to make and you will then have a 31 or 32 year old Suh who is no longer what he was at 27 or 28.

Cap number? From reports...the 60 million guarantee is paid out in the first year. I have no idea how they plan to do that, but hey...who knows?

 

[Shi no Tenshi]

I'd guess a big chunk of bonus that is spread out.

 

[McD5]

PFF's 2014 Final Offensive Line Rankings:

12. Washington Redskins

Pass Blocking Ranking: 9th, Run Blocking Ranking: 21st, Penalties Ranking: 13th

Stud: Even playing banged up*Trent Williams*still looks like a class act.

Dud: Former 2012 sixth-round pick*Tom Compton*had his chance to shine and failed to take it. It would be a mild surprise to see him back with the team.

Breakdown: A lot of changing parts with Korey Lichtensteiger making a good switch to center and Chris Chester having one of his good years (which likely means a bad one is around the corner). There are still a few question marks out there and you get the feel this unit is in transition as they transform into something more of Jay Gruden’s liking.

 

[fansince62]

Signing McCourty and paying him what he got from NE would have been counterproductive for the Redskins in their attempt to rebuild the 53 man roster.

A rebuild is about more than a single player. No single player in the NFL is going to win anything by himself.

The signing of Suh has set the Dolphins team back 5 years. Just watch. He may produce early results in 2015 but over time his cap number will prevent Miami from keeping core players who reach free agency.

There will be tough decisions to make and you will then have a 31 or 32 year old Suh who is no longer what he was at 27 or 28.

every team has to manage cap...so that management problem isn't limited to any one team. and, as we all know, there are the quieter moves that get made all the time with restructures, guarantees, incentives, etc., etc. also, the cycle keeps narrowing. look at NE - they basically bought the SB this year....one of the few teams to succeed employing that strategy in such a short turn-around cycle. it can be done - just not in DC!!!

 

[Om]

The Patriots have a Mt. Rushmore QB in Tom Brady. If we had that guy, we'd be buying used parts to fit in around him as best we could, too.

They'll squeeze as many years out of that formula as they can, as they should. Once he's finally gone, NE becomes just another team trying to catch lightning in a bottle now and again ... and hoping to have another all-timer fall from the sky.

 

[McD5]

Seriously, McD5, are you still saying our o-line didn't suck last year? That three qbs were the real reason for our suckage on offense?

That's what PFF is saying. That's what our HC and most of the analysts have been saying. And based on our FA moves, that may also be exactly what McLovin is saying.

Now it's possible that McLovin is just waiting for the draft. But based on his comments that he uses FA sparingly, and "only to address our biggest needs" I think it should be obvious by now that O-line wasn't even close to one of our biggest needs in his opinion.

I would have ranked our biggest needs as:

1. Safeties
2. Defensive Line
3. Cornerbacks

O-line would have been 4th or 5th on the list.

McLovin seems to believe that our biggest, most glaring needs were:

1. Defensive Line
2. Safeties
3. Cornerbacks

I'm interested to see what happens in the draft.

 

[McD5]

I also find this ranking interesting, to put things into perspective:

23. New England Patriots

Pass Blocking Ranking: 31st

Now imagine what Tom Brady and Belichick would have done with our O-line.

 

[Om]

I've been trying to read the tea leaves on the OL, too ...

Hard to imagine Scot plans to head into 2015 with Chester and Compton starting on the right side ... but, we've brought in zero FA veteran options. Which appears to mean that unless he's targeting such a vet or two from training-camp cuts in July and August, as of today is he's comfortable heading into camp with some combination of guys currently on the roster and whoever we pick up in the draft.

Hard to imagine we'd plan to start a rookie out there--I mean, it can happen (read: Jansen), but you can't head into a season counting on that.

All of which means is that outside of the play of our star QB, the biggest remaining question mark hovering over our team heading into camp is what our new GM thinks he needs to/can do about the OL in Year One of his watch.

 

[McD5]

Agreed Om, with one caveat.

FS still seems to be the biggest hole on the roster. We may not even be able to line up 11 men until that's addressed.

As of this second, we have only Phillip Thomas, and possibly D-Hall as our options there. I do believe we'll fix that in FA.

 

[Goaldeje]

McD, I admire your stamina.

Or stuborness.

The other possibility might be that the FA crop of OLinemen were either a) overpriced or b) under-talented or c) both. Look at the deal Scot got for the D. Nothing jumps out as a desperation, crazy out of market move, does it? The SF guy (not even going to try to spell that) graded out poorly in pass blocking if memory serves, but ARI (I think) still gave him an incredible contract. Scot doesn't do that. If he can find some gem here and there to help fill in some holes and make the OLine better, I have to imagine he will do it.

He must be very confident in his ability to draft, I'll give him that. Then again, looking at his record, it appears his confidence is NOT misplaced...

 

[McD5]

You may be right Goal. That could be some/all of it.

With that said, we did bring in a SS (Tyvon Branch) for a serious look whose health only allowed him to play a total of 5 games over the last two seasons combined.

That sounds like a serious attempt to fill a need. On the O-line? Not so much up to this point.

 

[Goaldeje]

Did we sign Branch? No way to know if bringing him in was leverage for Jeron or something else. Who knows?

I know the OLine isn't as sexy as the skill position players and thus doesn't get a lot of press anyways, but I cannot remember any FA signing this year on the OLine that I was bummed we didn't get in on. Now, I don't have time to follow that closely so it is possible, and even likely that I missed something. But regardless, I'm thinking Scot saw the same gametape the rest of us did and would like to upgrade a sorry unit for 2015, but just didn't have the pieces available in FA to make it happen.

The draft will tell us a lot.

 

[Boone]

As Goal alluded to but didn't say, this isn't a ONE YEAR rebuild. McLovin is going to get value/talent (as he assesses it). If it's not there, he's going to wait. Using our relative inactivity on the OL to date as evidence our OL is fine - honestly, I think that's a pretty weak argument.

 

[fansince62]

I've been trying to read the tea leaves on the OL, too ...

Hard to imagine Scot plans to head into 2015 with Chester and Compton starting on the right side ... but, we've brought in zero FA veteran options. Which appears to mean that unless he's targeting such a vet or two from training-camp cuts in July and August, as of today is he's comfortable heading into camp with some combination of guys currently on the roster and whoever we pick up in the draft.

Hard to imagine we'd plan to start a rookie out there--I mean, it can happen (read: Jansen), but you can't head into a season counting on that.

All of which means is that outside of the play of our star QB, the biggest remaining question mark hovering over our team heading into camp is what our new GM thinks he needs to/can do about the OL in Year One of his watch.

my take:

- not many FA options & the one(s) they liked (Iupati) priced out too high; plus

- combination: they have a draft target or two + they have an idea on how cuts (for other teams) are gonna work out through training camps/contract renegotiations

 

[McD5]

As Goal alluded to but didn't say, this isn't a ONE YEAR rebuild. McLovin is going to get value/talent (as he assesses it). If it's not there, he's going to wait. Using our relative inactivity on the OL to date as evidence our OL is fine - honestly, I think that's a pretty weak argument.

Only time will tell.

I do think it's pretty clear where our emphasis has been on FA. All defense so far.