Great job by the FO to sign Nick Leverett during the offseason, just in case something like this happened to our starting Center and/or our starting Left Guard… He’s been a valuable, versatile member of an OL meticulously crafted by our GM & pro scouting staff to withstand the rigors of a 17-game schedule and provide our QBs with the best protection possible. Kudos to Eliot Wolf & Matt Groh for a job well done.
Well done!
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The FO did a lot regarding the front line, some bad, some good. Mostly, the FO deferred the issue of obtaining a top LT until 2025.
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SOME OF THE MOVES
1. Bringing back JORDAN and bringing him on the 53 has been a huge plus. He has played at least as well as the other linemen.
2. Bringing back LOWE has been a plus. He is better than last year. Most would have cut him given the choices of Okorafor, Anderson and Wallace for LT this year.
3. Re-signing ONWENU was a plus. Hopefully, he'll be able to move to RG next year.
4. Signing OKORAFOR instead one of the old, and/or mediocre injured vets was a serious mistake.
5. Signing LEVERETT as a backup LG and C made sense, as you point out.
6. Drafting ROBINSON was a plus. He is a fine run blocker and will learn more in the off-season. He was a good use of a 4th rounder. Also, since Sow was moving to LG (because of Strange), a RG was needed.
7. Drafting WALLACE made little sense. If he is our future RT, then he should have been practicing at RT from the beginning of camp, and should have been the backup RT (and jumbo OL) from the beginning. THAT would have made some sense if we wanted to move Onwenu back to RG late this year or next.
8. Playing SOW at LG from the beginning of camp was always a good idea.
9. Claiming JACOBS and THOMAS made good sense. They are backups, but obviously were needed for this year, and to compete in camp
next year.
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BOTTOM LINE
The OL was always going to be a serious weakness at LT. And losing Strange was a serious loss, causing us to draft a RG.
However, we should have signed 2 of the mediocre free agent LT's out there even if we thought that they weren't any better than Lowe. From a free agent perspective, this would have prepared us better for the drafting of an LT. We would have expected to have 2 free agents, a draftee, Anderson and Lowe competing for the LT position, with one of them ending up being the swing OT or the backup RT.
