Thread: OLine Better But Far Short of High Praise....................

I'd say it was a major improvement over the Bills game but that's like saying a sprained ankle is a major improvement over a compound fracture. They bent more than once this week but at least they didn't break. Still a long way to go though.

Tice pretty much tells us here who the other Olineman will be who'll make the final roster. EWill seems to be gaining some ground as an OG now that they're not trying to convert him into an OC and my dark horse guy Levi Horn looks like he may get off the PS this year. They've got him playing OG but he was an OT in college and if he could still play at OT that may save us from OMG.

As for Webb all I can say is that I hope Tice can turn him from a great athlete into a great football player. I'd even settle for passable right now. He still has a long way to go before he can match Carimi's polish as a pass blocker and according to most scouts that's not even Carimi's long suit. So where does that leave us with Webb protecting the blind side? He needs more than one satisfactory week before I'm convinced he over his problems.

My greatest concern is if and when the line becomes decent to remotely good there will be no more addressing in either the draft or FA. OMG needs a replacement as well as eventually Garza. JA needs to put as much thrust into the OL as the DL.

Originally Posted by short faced bear

My greatest concern is if and when the line becomes decent to remotely good there will be no more addressing in either the draft or FA. OMG needs a replacement as well as eventually Garza. JA needs to put as much thrust into the OL as the DL.

No doubt that's a concern shorty unless they've learned from past mistakes. For the next several years JA needs to keep upgrading this line with high to mid round draft choices and selectively looking for talent from other teams overstocks. It's kind of like the way the Packers were always drafting QB's even when they had Favre.

I think that if we can upgrade the backups so that their's little loss of talent when injuries occur we'll finally be where we need to be. As it stands we're real thin at OT and there's no one really pushing Webb at LT. That needs to change. The depth on the Oline needs to be more like we have at WR right now. There's very little difference in who we play. The level of talent is pretty consistent across the board so players are driven to improve via the competition and that's exactly what's happened this year in camp.

Every year for at least the next two or three there ought to be an Olineman drafted somewhere in the first three rounds. Most of those guys can be counted on to at least challenge for a staring spot on an NFl roster. You won't see the wealth of young Olineman in FA for the next few years because those guys all got sewed up in longer term deals. This is where JA blew it. So we need to keep bargain shopping for anyone who can improve on who we have. That's how you go about building an Oline.