That rotating oline scheme ... is it really genius?

Back in the fall there were a number of articles floating around with content similar to this:

In the NFL, most teams hope that they can start the same five players on their offensive line all season, with the hope that the unit eventually builds chemistry by playing together.

That's not the Patriots plan though, at least not this year.

This year, the Patriots are rotating guys in and out at such a furious pace that the team didn't use the same line combination once during their first five possesions in the team's season-opening win over Pittsburgh.

Florida State offensive line coach Rick Trickett, who's been coaching football for over 40 years, has been impressed with the Patriots.

"I think it's one of the smartest things I've ever seen," Trickett told the Boston Herald. "It's genius."

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"It's not done just randomly. There's a specific reason why we rotate guys when we do, where we rotate them," DeGuglielmo said. "There's a rhyme and reason to everything."

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Patriots have a new strategy, which one coach is calling 'genius' - CBSSports.com

Personally, I'm not so sure this scheme has worked for us. I know we had a lot of injury this year at oline, but I can't help but wonder if we wouldn't have been able to manage a bit better had we not had this level of complication. I know this scheme was installed to help with injury management, I'm just not sure it worked. Our guys never seemed to know who they needed to block. Assignments seemed confused. Often defenders ran right past with little or no contact, leading me to think, this problem isn't so much physical as mental.

What are your thoughts on DeGug's rotating oline scheme? Do you expect we will stick with it next season?

I think the fact that we lead the league in line combinations was due to the position getting hit heavily with injuries. Ideally, they wanted to find the right combination over the first few games and then ride that the rest of the season. Unfortunately, the injury bug hit them hard, and it had a butterfly effect that reverberated across the entire offense.

I've been thinking a lot about this.

On one hand, it made sense then and it still does. Platoon/mix in young, more athletic players. Extend the preseason. Complicated system. Steep learning curve. Hope by the end of the year you have players who know offense and are experienced enough.

I think with the injuries at the T position it was just too much for this approach to be as successful as they had hoped. The never achieved the level of continuity and consistency necessary for an oline to be really successful.

I also think that expecting 3 rookies and a 2nd year center to achieve a level of understanding and flexibility that vets need to deal with what happened yesterday was unrealistic. Hindsight is 20/20.

I do wonder if there is a bit of a issue with assessing a player's ability and potential.

For example, asking Shaq to play RG in the playoffs when he has pretty much played LG all year was a bit too much to ask IMO.

The did it last year asking Cannon and Fleming to play the G position.

I'm stopping short of throwing BB, Josh and Googs under the bus but I am absolutely watching how they fix the line for 2016.

After yesterday it is by far the #1 issue with this team.

Haley said:

Back in the fall there were a number of articles floating around with content similar to this:

Patriots have a new strategy, which one coach is calling 'genius' - CBSSports.com

Personally, I'm not so sure this scheme has worked for us. I know we had a lot of injury this year at oline, but I can't help but wonder if we wouldn't have been able to manage a bit better had we not had this level of complication. I know this scheme was installed to help with injury management, I'm just not sure it worked. Our guys never seemed to know who they needed to block. Assignments seemed confused. Often defenders ran right past with little or no contact, leading me to think, this problem isn't so much physical as mental.

What are your thoughts on DeGug's rotating oline scheme? Do you expect we will stick with it next season?

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I think it's still a sound concept if your key starters are healthy. The idea is to keep guys from wearing down while giving the reserves valuable experience for when they're needed to fill in if someone is sidelined with injury. Just too many injuries this season.

The rotation early in the year was good to a) give everyone some snaps in case of emergencies and b) hide our rookies from certain situations.

Take Shaq Mason for example.. coming from Georgia Tech had tons of experience as a run blocker but had obviously only very limited experience as pass blocker and was used accordingly.

If your offense is explosive enough to make up for errors that come with the rotation then it makes sense to do this early on and then towards the mid point of the year check where you are in terms of player development and try to settle down and have a more consistent lineup.

But with all the injuries this year it was not meant to be...

Injuries and rookies not developing hurt them most. Line looked fine with both tackles in proper position. Solder isn't the best but he certainly is a top 10 tackle. Shame our season was destroyed by injury again.

Idk if they did it, but a combo of Solder - Stork - Andrews - Jackson - Vollmer seems like it could be a good setup.

I think this is one of those scenarios that the heavy Belichick critics will point to as a sign of his arrogance, when in reality the only people calling this genius are people other than Belichick himself. I'm willing to bet if he was asked candidly, Bill wanted nothing to do with this heavy of a rotation. It was a necessity early on due to inexperience and the injury to Stork, and then continued to be necessary late due to injuries to everyone else.

In general, continuity on the 0-line is one of the biggest keys to success late in the year. This is especially true on the road where communication becomes more difficult. I highly doubt that Belichick tried to re-invent the wheel here. He tried to make the best of a non-ideal situation. If you want to find blame, do so in their inability to find a veteran guard to help ease the transition of the rookies. But once the roster was set, this strategy was inevitable.

Sicilian said:

I think this is one of those scenarios that the heavy Belichick critics will point to as a sign of his arrogance, when in reality the only people calling this genius are people other than Belichick himself. I'm willing to bet if he was asked candidly, Bill wanted nothing to do with this heavy of a rotation. It was a necessity early on due to inexperience and the injury to Stork, and then continued to be necessary late due to injuries to everyone else.

In general, continuity on the 0-line is one of the biggest keys to success late in the year. This is especially true on the road where communication becomes more difficult. I highly doubt that Belichick tried to re-invent the wheel here. He tried to make the best of a non-ideal situation. If you want to find blame, do so in their inability to find a veteran guard to help ease the transition of the rookies. But once the roster was set, this strategy was inevitable.

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If there is any arrogance to be found in the entire situation it is that him, DeGuglielmo and Caserio misjudged how much the loss of Wendell and Connolly would affect the team. It was made worse because early in the season a lot of those issues were masked by having a player like Dion Lewis.

The first cracks started to show in the Giants game after we lost Jules as well. And from then on we never really recovered to being the offense of the first 9 games.

I'm not sure why anybody would blame this on the limited preplanned substitutions early in the year as opposed to the massive week to week adjustments in the middle of the year. They trusted Kline on both sides and Cannon on both sides, which is a lot easier to do than putting Fleming at LT, Stork at RT, having to move Stork to guard midgame, or suddenly playing Wendell after he missed so much time.

It seems like most of our guys are LARGE enough but need to drastically improve their quickness and foot speed.

I think the approach was monumentally stupid. Sure, injuries eventually forced different line combinations. But before the injuries really hit it didn't allow any starter or backup to really master anything. There's a reason every other line coach in the history of the league has the exact opposite approach.

Just because the FSU O-line coach calls it "genius" doesn't mean squat. FSU's O-line consistently underperforms.

Sciz said:

I'm not sure why anybody would blame this on the limited preplanned substitutions early in the year as opposed to the massive week to week adjustments in the middle of the year.

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I'm not sure why these are mutually exclusive.

It would be genius if every olineman was (coached to be) competent. I see this and I hear, "quantity over quality. "

Peachhead said:

I think the approach was monumentally stupid. Sure, injuries eventually forced different line combinations. But before the injuries really hit it didn't allow any starter or backup to really master anything. There's a reason every other line coach in the history of the league has the exact opposite approach.

Just because the FSU O-line coach calls it "genius" doesn't mean squat. FSU's O-line consistently underperforms.

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The team has been operating with the philosophy of having positional flexibility accross the line for 15 years.

The change this year was that instead of throwing the kids into the fire and making them full-time starters Day 1 they eased them into it.

People can call it a rotation but I liken it more to a rookie playing in the NBA. In the early part of the season you play him 20-25 minutes a game. As they learn and demonstrate that they can handle the stage and the complexities of the game, they earn more time.

Same thing happened here.

the rotation is genius until they find the right mix and then stick with it

but they didn't.....losing Solder hurt too much and Wendell's lost year didn't help, either.

love the team and their attitude........all things considered, it was a good year

I think the only way you can call in to question the early season pre-planned substitutions is if you believe that actual lead to more injuries. I think there is something to be said about growing familiar with your linemates, which could allow for better muscle memory and better understanding of each others expectations. If you have different players popping in and out of the rotation, there could be a higher risk of overextending yourself and putting yourself in an uncomfortable position if you dont fully trust the person eside you to hold their responsibilities.

That is all guesswork, but really the only thing that could be questionable. After the injuries, it became imperative that everyone got on the field, and created a far higher need for more experience from all participants.

If the players in the O-line were consistent in their positions then the O-line wouldn't have been rotating at all.