Agreed. But it was....enough, wasn't it? Yes it was.
Huh? We aren't talking about the 2014 OL. That one is gone. It was barely good enough, it was still the weak link of the team. You seem to want to put in Canton as the OL everyone should aspire to.
I did. And here's what I saw:
- I saw a quality LT (Solder) being replaced by a couple of guys who couldn't get out of their own way, and it got so bad that they had to bring Vollmer over from RT, not his natural position.
- I saw Vollmer forced to play out of position, hobbled on a bad ankle.
- I saw the right tackle position being played by maybe the worst RT in football (Cannon).
- I saw a practice squad guy (Fleming) being forced to play significant snaps.
- I saw a guy who was a good center last year forced to play all of the line, including right tackle at times - a position that he'd never played before.
- I saw a couple of rookies struggle (Mason/Jackson).
- I saw the team endure the most line combinations in the entire league, due to so many injuries across the board.
Well that is a lot of excuses.
By the way Stork didn't 'play all over the line' he played T part of ONE GAME.
So Fleming and Cannon should be sent far, far away.
Mason and Jackson are allowed to suck because they are rookies?
No mention of Kline.
We cannot have an injury or we become the worst OL in the NFL?
By the playoffs, we were missing one guy.
That all adds up to the OL sucks.
Still cant figure out how all of that crap is your justification that the OL doesn't need to be improved.
No, those are the excuses you made. What you saw was an OL that caused the GOAT HC to take a knee with 2 minutes left in the half and timeouts left more than once. To kick off to start OT. To be afraid to run a real offense in Miami. To have no choice but to pray they wouldn't suck in the AFCCG and find out they were worse than feared.
You do realize the OL is all by itself responsible for not repeating this year, right?
T
he players need to (1) get healthy - a huge improvement would be Solder at LT and Vollmer at RT.
I'm fine with those Ts.
(2) get better, especially the young players.
You say that like you are waving a magic wand. Players sucked this year. No problem he will just get better next year.
And (3) they need to add a better veteran interior OL. I'd also like to see them draft two OT this year.
They need to do whatever it takes to do a total rebuild of the IOL. It would be nice if the guys this year met your big hopes and improved, but we need better players and cannot rely on them. Moves should be made in the offseason that has the remaining players coming to camp in the following status.
Solder Starting LT
Vollmer Starting RT
Cannon- somewhere else
Waddle - probably somewhere else
Fleming - long shot to make the team
Stork - most likely to win the competition for the C job, but no lock
Mason - backup competing with the starter for a job
Jackson- backup competing with the starter for a job
Kline - competing with Jackson and Mason for a roster spot.
Wendell - out to pasture
Andrews - possible practice squad player if he gets stronger
It is THAT bad.
Me either.[/QUOTE]
