CHFF: New England Patriots Have the #1 Offensive Line....

[Fencer]

This is a metric of OL success.

How well it maps to OL quality is a matter of opinion.

 

[PatsChamp88]

Brady helps..

 

[goheels22002]

Three surviving playoff teams in the bottom 10: Green Bay, Seattle and Chicago. So what does it matter actually? Seattle at Chicago should be a sackfest (probably right on there.)

Besides, the offensive line stats seem to rely heavily on whether the QB gets the ball out quickly and positive yards by the RBs. If Maroney was toting the rock, the Pats would be middle of the pack to the bottom. This is actually a huge endorsement of the combination of BJGE, Woodhead and Brady with a veteran offensive line. Right?

The Jets at #6 is interesting - they have the line and the RBs to get high marks and Sanchez, while he doesn't get sacked much, throws a huge number of INTs. If he ate the ball more and took sacks, the line would look worse but he might have won or been competitive more often.

As far as using this stat to re-sign guys, it shouldn't matter as much as individual performance against specific schemes and players. Mankins for sure should be a priority but BB should look at the draft for a young stud lineman or two as many of these guys are getting a little long in the tooth or may retire (Stephen Neal).

 

[goheels22002]

One of the overlooked things about O lines, IMHO, is system continuity. It's not just talent, but how well and how long that unit has played together. Find some really great offenses, like the Rams Turf teams or the KC with Holmes teams or the Vikings with Moss and Carter teams, you'll find O lines that were playing together for a while and had time to jell as a unit over a period of years with core mainstays as big cogs.

I do think better line play is part of the reason why Law Firm and Woodhead are able to be such a good rushing attack for them.

When the Giants won the Superbowl, that was a line that had played and jelled together for a while.

It all starts in the trenches.

It is one of the struggles of the Free Agency era, that FA has sapped lines from building and staying strong together over a period of years. Joe Montana was great for many reasons, I think one is that he knew he'd have Jesse Sapolu, Steve Wallace, Harris Barton, Randy Cross and Guy McIntyre and like playing together for a long time. Aikman could rest easy knowing he had Stepnoski, Larry Allen, Nate Newton, Mark Tuinei and Erik Williams playing together for a long time.

Keeping the Patriots O line unit together, with their tenure together, is not altogether a negative thing, albeit it might mean they will get long in the tooth together en masse.

Great point about continuity. If there is a position group where players need to know what each other is doing, it's the offensive line. This group being together for an extended time with guys filling various roles so they understand one another's jobs, is critical to their collective success. Moving the Tetonic Titan, Sebastian Vollmer, around has been great for this line's continuity.

Big mean guys who seem to like one another and understand one what the other is doing is critical. That's why there was no disruption and only improvement when Mankins came back after a contentious holdout. there hasn't appeared to be any perosnality clashes as a result of his holdout and return.