Thread: Football Outsiders: Ranking the OLs 1-16

http://msn.foxsports.com/nfl/story/7036746?CMP=OTC-K9B140813162&ATT=5

[size=12pt]Football Outsiders: Ranking the OLs 1-16[/size]
Michael David Smith
FootballOutsiders.com, Updated 8 hours ago   

No position in football is as tough to evaluate as the offensive line. If you want to know which guard in the NFL is the best, there aren't a lot of handy stats to tell you who had the most pancake blocks or who gave up the most sacks.

But at Football Outsiders, we do have a few statistics we use to evaluate offensive lines as a whole. With Adjusted Line Yards, we give the offensive line credit for the first few yards a running back gains, but we assume that the running back deserves credit for anything he gets after the first 10 yards. With Power Success, we credit the offensive line when a team has a successful run on third or fourth down with a yard or two to go. With Adjusted Sack Rate, teams are judged by their sacks per pass attempt adjusted for opponent, down, and distance. Those stats from 2006 are found here.

We use those stats — as well as our opinions from watching the games, and our thoughts about top rookies and free agents — to rank the 32 NFL teams in order of the quality of their offensive lines. Our rank from a year ago is in parentheses. As you'll see, there has been a lot of upheaval in the order of the league's offensive lines over the last 12 months, particularly in the AFC West.

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5. Minnesota Vikings (#8) Steve Hutchinson and Bryant McKinnie are a very good — and very expensive — left side. Quarterback Tavaris Jackson will feel confident knowing that he won't have much pressure coming from his blind side, and that's a huge comfort for a young quarterback.

After missing all of 2005, center Matt Birk started all 16 games in 2006 and made the Pro Bowl. He is one of the best centers in the game when he's healthy. Right guard Artis Hicks is a decent player, but nowhere near as talented as Hutchinson. Throw in right tackle Ryan Cook, and the right side of the Vikings' line isn't nearly as strong as the left. Cook is the line's biggest wild card. He played center at New Mexico, and the Vikings thought he'd spend the season on the bench when they chose him in the second round last year, but he had to move into the starting lineup when right tackle Marcus Johnson got hurt. Cook showed enough promise that he's expected to hang onto the job now that Johnson is healthy, but no matter which one of them wins the battle, right tackle will be the unit's weakness.

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the Vikings thought he'd spend the season on the bench when they chose him in the second round last year, but he had to move into the starting lineup when right tackle Marcus Johnson got hurt. Cook showed enough promise that he's expected to hang onto the job now that Johnson is healthy, but no matter which one of them wins the battle, right tackle will be the unit's weakness.

I didn't think he got the knod to start because of injury but because Hicks sucked.


Anyway, another example of our young guys contributing ahead of the percieved schedule.

RT has been the weakest part of the line since Korey Stringer died, hopefully Cook can develop into a good tackle.

"Marrdro" wrote:

the Vikings thought he'd spend the season on the bench when they chose him in the second round last year, but he had to move into the starting lineup when right tackle Marcus Johnson got hurt. Cook showed enough promise that he's expected to hang onto the job now that Johnson is healthy, but no matter which one of them wins the battle, right tackle will be the unit's weakness.

I didn't think he got the knod to start because of injury but because Hicks sucked.


Anyway, another example of our young guys contributing ahead of the percieved schedule.

Hicks didn't play RT last year - he's a RG.
RT was Johnson, Rosenthal and Cook.

=Z=

"Zeus" wrote:

"Marrdro" wrote:

the Vikings thought he'd spend the season on the bench when they chose him in the second round last year, but he had to move into the starting lineup when right tackle Marcus Johnson got hurt. Cook showed enough promise that he's expected to hang onto the job now that Johnson is healthy, but no matter which one of them wins the battle, right tackle will be the unit's weakness.

I didn't think he got the knod to start because of injury but because Hicks sucked.


Anyway, another example of our young guys contributing ahead of the percieved schedule.

Hicks didn't play RT last year - he's a RG.
RT was Johnson, Rosenthal and Cook.

=Z=

Sorry for confusion.
I was thinking Johnson and type Hicks.
Must be all the stress I am having over the whole Vick thing (sarcasim).
;D

Back to my point, I didn't think he got into the lineup over injury but rather that Marcus sucked.

"Marrdro" wrote:

Sorry for confusion.
I was thinking Johnson and type Hicks.
Must be all the stress I am having over the whole Vick thing (sarcasim).
;D

Back to my point, I didn't think he got into the lineup over injury but rather that Marcus sucked.

I believe Rosenthal came in when Johnson got hurt, Cook came in when Rosenthal sucked and Johnson could not get back in when he got better.
I also seem to remember that Johnson played some guard in front of Hicks at the end of the season, but I'm not sure.

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