So
I got into a heated argument this morning on Twitter about the Washington
Redskins’ offensive line. The opinion of the person I was arguing with?
The
Redskins have absolutely no offensive line depth. The starters aren’t that
good. The backups even worse.
Anyone
who watched the Redskins last season know that isn’t even anywhere near the
truth. The Redskins started the season with somewhat solid play in the
trenches. The biggest issue on the line early in the season was veteran Right
Tackle Jammal Brown, who had apparently not recovered from his lingering and/or
repetitive hip injury. Other than that, Chris Chester struggled a bit at RG.
When Kory Lichtensteiger went down with injury, the line really shifted.
Maurice Hurt replaced him for a few games before he struggled a little bit.
Will Montgomery eventually shifted from C to LG and Eric Cook took over at C.
Cook proved to be highly incapable of the job, in my opinion, although it didn’t
help matters that the team was not running the football at all and was relying
on absolute pampered play of John Beck, and Willie Smith was in for an injured
Trent Williams.
When
Trent Williams returned for a few games, Hurt was back in the lineup at LG and
Montgomery back at C. Jammal Brown eventually went down, leading to Tyler
Polumbus cracking the starting lineup and not relinquishing the spot the final
4 games.
The
season ended with Trent Williams suspended for violating the league’s substance
abuse policy. That gave Willie Smith significant playing time alongside a young
Maurice Hurt, Will Montgomery finished the year at Center with Chris Chester at
RG, and Polumbus at RT.
The
unit played as well as it had the final 6-7 weeks of the season offensively,
and quite honestly, as well as any other line in the league. This was still
with shifts at both right and left tackle, and left guard. In the final weeks
of the season, the Redskins did will protecting Rex Grossman, as well as
springing Roy Helu, Jr. and Evan Royster to pretty big games over 100 yards
rushing every week.
With
Trent Williams returning to the lineup, Left Tackle should be much improved.
Williams isn’t the epitome of consistency, but he does very well when the
challenge is the toughest. It’s sort of the standard around here that this team
and the players play up and down to the level of their competition every week.
If they can play up and not down, they (especially Trent) can be among the best
in this league.
But
just so you know I’m not spouting off BS about where we ranked with the league,
let’s look at some stats:
The
Redskins were ranked 16th overall in total yards per game; that’s
top half of the league.
They
were ranked 14th overall in passing yards per game; and that’s with
the John Beck debacle in Buffalo.
They
also allowed 41 sacks on the year, tied for 11th worst in the
league, bottom half.
They
ranked 25th in the league in rushing yards per game, way down in the
bottom half.
But
let’s look a little deeper. The Redskins allowed a total of 9 sacks in one game
against the Buffalo Bills. One game. Cut that down to league average of 2 (when
the season high for the Bills as a team was 4)? The Redskins would only have
allowed 34 sacks on the year. I know, if’s are nice in hindsight but they’re
not realistic… but the fact is, you can still measure. Let’s also not forget
there’s maybe only one or two sacks in that game that you can actually put on
the O-Line as well, the other 7 were on John Beck himself. So realistically,
without that game, the Redskins are looking right at the league average of 2
sacks a game.
Then
let’s look at the final 6 weeks of the season in rushing, shall we?
Starting
in Seattle, Roy Helu rushed for 108 yards on the ground. 100 yards the
following week against the Jets. 126 yards the following week against the
Patriots. He was injured in a win against the Giants. Evan Royster posted 132
yards against the Vikings, and then closed the season with 113 yards against
the Eagles.
Something
to think about? The Patriots were 17th in the league in run defense;
The Eagles 16th; The Seahawks 15th; The Jets 13th;
The Vikings 11th. They’re all middle of the pack run defense teams,
but they’re not walks in the park.
The
Skins allowed just 1 sack against the Eagles; 3 against the Vikings; 1 against
the Giants; 2 against the Patriots; 2 against the Jets; and 1 against the
Seahawks. In 6 games, my math brings that to 10? That’s LESS than 2 a game, and
less than 2 a game in the final 4 weeks with the lineup of Willie Smith,
Maurice Hurt, Will Montgomery, Chris Chester, and Tyler Polumbus. Three of
those guys are backups, although Smith or Polumbus could start this year at
Right Tackle in place of Jammal Brown.
Case
in point? The Redskins were easily fielding a SOLID group in the trenches to
close the season. There’s actually more depth than we anticipated, especially
considering we’ve got 4 new offensive linemen this year, whom the coaching
staff all hold in high regard. And to further my argument?
This
offensive line was built to utilize Mike Shanahan’s zone blocking scheme, run
stretch plays and bootlegs, and create lanes based on misdirection. That’s all
dependent upon a somewhat mobile quarterback. Many would argue the Redskins
have quite possibly the 3rd most mobile quarterback in all of
football, so all the plays the Shanahan’s took out of the playbook last year to
facilitate an easier game for Rex Grossman, will be back. The stretches, the
bootlegs, the naked bootlegs…
Also
ask yourself this. How many sacks could the team have avoided had Rex Grossman
been a little mobile? Or quick enough to run the bootleg? Or quick enough to
run the stretch a few times so he could actually sell playaction and the
bootleg? What if Grossman had some footwork so he could step up in the pocket
and/or take off when nothing was open downfield instead of running backwards or
crouching into the dirt?
Yes,
more ifs… but those are questions coaches asked themselves before they went out
and traded for the rights to the #2 overall pick in the 2012 NFL Draft and
acquired Robert Griffin III. There’s a clear upgrade at the quarterback
position, which will highlight the strengths of the offensive line, rather than
put them under the microscope and making them look weak.
But
what do I know? I pulled those stats out of thin air, right?
Ayo, listen here tho....you wanna know whats a mothafuckin issue?
ReplyDeleteThem 49ers next season breh! Come at me sly! *arms up* lol
LMFAO Thizz!!
Delete