8/15/01
When you are ten years old, male and have dreams of becoming a great
athlete there are two words you never want to hear on the football
field, "You block."
Those two monosyllabic words are so revealing about how your peers
perceive your ability to perform and they hurt. They mean you can't
throw the ball like Don Cross, or run like Gary Uliberri or even catch
like Marc Duke and that is a huge blow to the ego. Even worse than
that it meant you would have to stand there without the use of your
hands and defend against the dirtiest player on the field, Mark Landes.
To top it off Mark got a two-yard running start at you before he assaulted
you. Few people decide early in life, "I want to be an offensive
lineman so I can get beat up by very large and strong men." Despite
this initial reaction to the world of the offensive lineman, men still
resign themselves to the task and discover it requires a great deal
of talent and knowledge to be successful blockers for the stars. They
know most of the recognition and respect in their professional lives
will come from their teammates, as they will be likely ignored by
the public and even by fantasy owners.
Their counter parts on defense gain a certain amount of fan recognition
and respect. They get to gyrate wildly after leveling a quarterback
and pump their fists in the air. If their name is "Refrigerator"
they can even be a running back and score in the Super Bowl. A defensive
lineman can act like a man possessed, but an offensive lineman rarely
has an undignified display of emotion. They don't high five all of
their comrades when they spring a running back for a three yard first
down or prance around after being a stonewall for a game winning field
goal. Unlike their ball hawking brethren, the offensive line lacks
for sizzling name' de' plumes like, "The Steel Curtain","
Dooms Day", "The Fearsome Foursome", "The Killer
Bee's" or even the "No Name Defense." One of the most
famous lines in history had no name and was only known because a 250-pound
guard named Jerry Kramer wrote about them in his book, Instant Replay.
Perhaps the most famous name for a group of linemen was, "The
Hogs." They were great but they needed a PR man as the image
of a hog, basking in the mud, hardly strikes fear into most mortals.
The linemen of the current NFL are considerably larger, quicker, stronger
and more agile than their colleagues of the 60's, 70's and 80's.
To gain some sense of what an NFL lineman looks like today 19 teams
and 121 rostered linemen were pulled from the files of NFL.com. A
look at the projected depth charts provided most of the information
with which to construct the prototype interior player for the offense.
The average lineman stands 6'41/4" and weighs 311 pounds. They
have played in the league almost five seasons with the same team.
Their Alma Mata is probably from the PAC 10, Big East, Big 10 or Big
12 as 41% of the sample and there is a 70% chance they attended a
Division I NCAA school. They could also have come from a smaller school
like Sonoma State University or Texas A&M Kingsville. The biggest
player in the pool was Jonathan Ogden measured at 6'8" and 340
pounds while the smallest was 17-year veteran Lomas Brown at 280 pounds.
There were no players listed at being under six feet and few listed
at less than 300 pounds. It was a diverse group ranging in experience
from 0 to 19 years in experience and with degrees from Harvard to
Hawaii, yet they all have one thing in common. For their team to be
successful they must communicate and act as one.
Saying this is one thing, quantifying it is another. On the surface
there appeared to be very little difference between teams with 1000
yards rushers/receivers and 3000-yard quarterbacks, and the teams
lacking "skill players" with these lofty numbers. The lines
all weighed about the same, they had similar years of experience and
they were all within an inch of the 6'41/4" average. They had
linemen from USC, Ohio State and Texas A&M, but in digging deeper
some trends did begin to surface. These are the trends savvy fantasy
players should take a look at when planning for the 2001 season.
There appear to be two primary strategies organizations use to create
a successful line. One is building around an, "Anchor" lineman.
General Managers surround a stout fellow, who has seven or eight years
experience, with some quality young players hoping he will teach them
through example while molding them into a solid foundation. The other
tactic is to start out totally fresh from the draft and build a solid
"Core" of players through the shared failure most young
linemen in the NFL face. Suffice to say that neither strategy will
be successful if a team is forced into making too much change in the
"skill" positions.
One of the most overt moves by a team to acquire an "Anchor"
came from the Baltimore Ravens. They had an offensive line solid enough
to help win the Super Bowl, but they lacked a man of real experience
up front. They went after a ten-year successful survivor of the trenches
Leon Searcy. He, and Elvis Grbac, were to be the final pieces in the
puzzle for another title push. Sadly, Leon is out for another eight
to ten weeks with a muscle tear in his tricep, and the season ending
injury to Jamal Lewis will retard the growth of the offense. Still,
the Ravens will have a respectable offense and definitely be in the
playoff hunt for 2001.
Perhaps the ultimate anchor lineman in the league is 19-year veteran
Bruce Matthews of the Tennessee Titans. At 6'5" and 305 pounds,
this former USC giant has steadied the line since the team was in
Houston. He leads one of the most experienced lines in the league
with almost eight years experience and, as a unit, they match his
size at 6'51/2" and weighing in at 305 lbs. There has been little
change in personnel behind them and both Steve McNair and Eddie George
have been successful. There is no reason, short of injury, that the
Titans should not be successful again. Experience can make up for
a lot of things, and an anchor can help a line develop the ballet
like steps necessary to break a running back, but singular experience
alone is not a key to success.
The Indianapolis Colts do not have a lineman with more than 5 years
experience. In fact they average playing less than four years as a
unit, but they are an example of a unit that has developed a nucleus.
The number of sacks for Peyton Manning has declined significantly
over the last three seasons. Part of this could be contributed to
the fact that Manning himself is more experienced, but Peyton has
never been blessed with blinding speed and he is not considered to
be one of the more mobile quarterbacks in the league. He requires
a solid line for success. As an offense unit in their second season
together the Colts had the number one receiver in receptions and the
most productive running back in the league Edgrin James with a combined
total of 2,303 yards, 114 more total yards than Marshall Faulk, who
missed some time on the field. Marshall is only the point of the Ram's
offensive weapon, the thrust comes from an offensive line perfectly
blending both the anchor and the nucleus concepts of line building.
For 20 years Hall of Famer Jackie Slater was the Anchor for the Rams,
now they have 8-year man Andy McCollum and three players in the starting
five who have exactly five years in the league. For those of you who
count, that is the exact number of years a player has to be retired
to gain consideration for the "Hall". They are a little
lighter than most teams at an average of nearly 304 pounds, but they
would have to be able to keep up with the offensive scheme of the
organization. Out of the top 41 receivers in the league, 3 of them
are on the Rams and two of those, Issac Bruce and Tory Holt are in
the top twenty of the league. Their two QB's last year combined for
37 throwing touchdowns, against 23 interceptions and 44 sacks. Twenty
of these sacks went to the short stint of Trent Green when Warner
was hurt. They are still together and look to be formidable again
this season. Another team with a solid line that withstood change
is the Minnesota Vikings.
The Vikings have had to face one of the toughest changes a team can
face, the death of a player. Korey Stringer was a quality lineman
with seven years of experience on a line where change is a way of
life. They have adjusted to three different starting quarterbacks
in as many years. Nagging injuries to Robert Smith, and his retirement
this season, has lead to almost as many starters at the running back
position, but everyone of them has met with a certain degrees of success
thanks to a line working as one. With a mixture of experience and
cohesiveness the Vikings have molded one of the finest lines in the
National Football League and whether it be Moe Williams, Doug Chapman
or rookie Michael Bennett, they will probably rush for a thousand
yards this season. The man faced with the unenviable task of replacing
Korey Stringer is very much in his mold. Chris Liwienski is a three-year
veteran from the Big Ten school of Indiana. He stands at 6'5"
and weighs in at 321 pounds. No one will take the place of Korey Stringer,
but Liwienski will try to fill the position. The Vikings have a great
deal of experience together and they have two quality anchors, but
the Colts have no anchors and numerically little experience.
The Cleveland Browns had a revolving door at quarterback, running
back and at the wide outs. They did not have a skill player, with
the exception of Travis Prentice for receptions, in the top twenty
of the league for 2000. Outside of the line, the only top performer
for the Bengals was Corey Dillon. The rest of the offense was being
replaced either through injury or ineptness. Combined, the Chargers
and the Bills went through at least five quarterbacks and a 2000 season
bordering on calamity. The combined stats for all five of these players
are 107 sacks, 38 interceptions and 39 TD's. None of the running backs
for either club came close to a thousand yards and none of their receivers
were in the top 41. It is ironic Doug Flutie of the Bills is now the
man for the Chargers as he had both he fewest sacks and fewest interceptions
of the group. Both teams have, with some success, sought to settle
all position questions before the start of the season and both have
the potential to be a surprise this season. First round pick of the
Chargers, Ladainian Tomlinson, is a hold out but in the end it may
hurt him more this season than the Chargers. The ballet has already
started and he is not even back stage as an under study to learn the
steps.
There are other numbers you could look into and analyze the performance
of any offensive line. You could crunch sacks to attempts ratios,
interceptions to touch downs and other fascinating statistically insightful
numbers, but I think you would lose the big picture. Spend an hour
on line and review the depth charts for lines in the NFL. Look for
the level of experience, changes and past performance of the various
units. It does not matter what kind of credentials a skill player
is bringing with them, if they are not getting the support up front,
they are going no where fast. A quality line is the difference between
a consistent offense and one that has its moments.
At 6'7" and 318 pounds, Tony Boselli is one of the most respected
offensive linemen in the NFL, yet he did not always want to be a lineman.
At a fairly early age his dreams of super stardom were put to rest
when a coach told him he was going to be playing the line. At first
his heart was broken, but then he began to train and educate himself
about the nuances of protection and run blocking. Looking back, he
is happy with the coach, but he understands that initial sting of
being told he was going to be a blocker, not a "skill" player.
You won't find Tony in your fantasy magazines, just as you never found
Hall of Fame Inductees for 2001 Jackie Slater, Ron Yeary or Mike Munchak
during their playing years, but you will see their results. Few linemen
have been inducted into the Hall of Fame and some, like Jerry Kramer,
have been over looked. Don't overlook the foundation your fantasy
team is based upon, it could hurt. When I was a kid I used to read
the hard cover series, Heroes of the NFL, they had Bart Starr, Johnny
Unitas and Willie Wood, but they never had a lineman. Perhaps if they
did, those two dreaded words would not hurt so much.
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