Thread: How each team has drafted OL the past few years

How frequently has your team drafted OL talent in the last 5 years

Feb 26th, 2013by Jimmy Kempski.
A few days ago, we published a timeline of the Cowboys’ unwillingness to appropriately fix their offensive line over the last 5 years. Buried deep within that post was a chart that showed how frequently all 32 teams draft OL talent. That post focused on the Cowboys, but I think there are a lot of other interesting things to analyze within that chart, especially leading up to the 2013 draft, which is loaded with talent along the OL. Here’s the chart, with some observations on other teams around the league following behind.
The last 5 years:

Team	Total picks	OL drafted 1st 3 rounds	Total OL drafted	% of picks on OL
Steelers	42	5	10	23.8
Packers	42	2	9	21.4
49ers	38	3	8	21.1
Broncos	44	4	9	20.5
Bills	45	3	9	20
Colts	40	3	8	20
Eagles	51	1	10	19.6
Saints	26	1	5	19.2
Redskins	43	3	8	18.6
Falcons	38	4	7	18.4
Ravens	39	4	7	17.9
Chargers	34	1	6	17.6
Texans	40	3	7	17.5
Panthers	41	2	7	17.1
Dolphins	41	4	7	17.1
Patriots	48	2	8	16.7
Cardinals	37		6	16.2
Chiefs	44	5	7	15.9
Bears	38	2	6	15.8
Vikings	38	2	6	15.8
Jets	27	1	4	14.8
Raiders	34	4	5	14.7
Bengals	48	2	7	14.6
Giants	37	1	5	13.5
Lions	38	2	5	13.2
Cowboys	39	2	5	12.8
Browns	40	3	5	12.5
Seahawks	42	4	5	11.9
Rams	44	3	5	11.4
Jaguars	31	3	3	9.7
Titans	43		3	7
Buccaneers	37	1	2	5.4

• The Giants have ignored their OL in a similar fashion as the Cowboys. However, they’ve won 2 Super Bowls in the last 6 years, despite terrible OL play in the most recent Super Bowl season. This basically makes Jerry Reese immune to criticism in the way the Giants were built.
• There are arguments to be made for drafting (or not drafting) offensive linemen heavily. The Packers, Steelers, and Giants all won Super Bowls in the last 5 years without stellar OL play. However, if you look at the chart above, exactly half of the NFL’s teams have drafted at least 7 offensive linemen in the last 5 years. 10 of the 12 playoffs berths in 2012 were occupied by teams within that group. Only 2 teams that drafted 6 or less made the playoffs.
• The Eagles were always known for drafting OL talent under Andy Reid, and to some degree that’s true. If you look at the chart above, you’ll see that no teams drafted more total offensive linemen than them over the last 5 years. However, they did not use high picks on the OL during that span. Only two teams (the Cardinals and Titans) drafted fewer offensive linemen (0) in the first 3 rounds than the Eagles (1). And that “1″ was Danny Watkins.
• Over the last 5 years, as noted in the last bullet point, the Cardinals and Titans drafted no offensive linemen in the first 3 rounds in the last 5 years. The Cardinals had 14 picks in the first 3 rounds the last 5 years. The Titans had 16. The Titans’ willingness to ignore their OL in the draft is a little more forgivable, since they found both of their bookends in the 2005 draft (Michael Roos and David Stewart), and both are good players. However, Roos and Stewart are both 30, and G Steve Hutchinson is 35. They’re going to have to address it this draft, I would think. The Cardinals, however, have no excuse. Their OL has had major holes for the last half decade, and they haven’t adequately addressed it in the draft. If your OL stinks and you continue to ignore it in April, it’s going to continue to stink. It’s not rocket science.
• The Buccaneers have drafted a shockingly low 2 offensive linemen in the last 5 years, and only one since GM Mark Dominik became the GM 4 years ago (Xavier Fulton, 5th round, 2009). Since Dominik took over, just 3% of their draft picks have been offensive linemen, and the one guy he did draft is now in the CFL. They’ve drafted no offensive linemen… at all… in the last 3 years. The site JoeBucsFan.com explained why:

Dominik explained that he’s only drafted one offensive lineman among his 30 draft picks and that’s because he believes it’s typically better to see an offensive linemen on some level of the pro game before committing to them.
The prevalence of the spread offense in college has made it more challenging to effectively scout O-linemen, Dominik said, and Dominik pointed to successes with Ted Larsen, Demar Dotson and Jamon Meredith.
“Personally, I like them to develop a little bit in this game and then go get a little more information about [them,] “ Dominik said of studying young linemen prospects after the draft. “So if you can be more meticulous, have a mindset as we do as an organization, and Greg’s 100 percent on board which is fantastic for us, you go find them.”

Wow. For one, I think a very easy counter argument that can be made here is that it’s typically better to see ANY player on some level of the pro game before committing to them.
In reference to Ted Larsen, Demar Dotson, and Jamon Meredith, those were three players that were picked up off the scrap heap. Dotson starts, and is a nice player. Larsen has started 27 games over the last 3 years, but is a player that you would look to upgrade the first chance you got. Ditto that for Meredith, who got his first real action this season.
Otherwise, the Bucs have Donald Penn, Jeremy Zuttah, and Davin Joseph, which is a nice trio, but are all holdovers from the previous regime. They also have Carl Nicks, a great guard, but one the Bucs had to throw $47.5 million at over 5 years to get him to come to Tampa, and as previously mentioned, Demar Dotson. That’s the projected starting 5 in 2013 as it currently stands, which isn’t bad. However, going forward, if I understand the strategy correctly (and maybe I don’t), the Bucs are going to rely on overpaying really good offensive linemen on the open market, and filling in the rest with scrap heap guys because their GM isn’t comfortable evaluating college OL prospects? Good luck with all that when the holdovers from the previous regime begin their decline, Bucs fans.
• The Jaguars drafted a punter in the 3rd round last year. So that’s what they’re up to.
• The Browns are interesting. They’ve drafted the OL with less frequency than all but 5 teams, but that kind of makes sense for them. They drafted Joe Thomas 3rd overall in 2007 (not within the last 5 years), and have used Top 40 picks on Mitchell Schwartz and Alex Mack, both of whom have panned out. So while they haven’t drafted in bulk, they’ve used rich resources on their OL, and have one of the better OL units in the league. They just haven’t had a QB worth protecting.
• Since Bruce Allen took over as GM with the Redskins prior to the 2010 offseason, the Redskins have drafted 7 offensive linemen. That ties them with the Steelers for the most in the NFL.
• Not OL related, but the Eagles have had more total draft picks (51) than any team in the league over the last 5 years. They were followed by the Patriots, with 48. The Saints had the least, with 26, followed by the Jets, with 27.

I was going to add a winning % column to the chart to see if there was a correlation, but somebody else already did that. It's an interactive chart, so I can't post it in a working condition, but here's the link. The winning % is presented in colors. It's sortable on the various columns at the host website.

Other than the Bills and the Redskins, it's pretty obvious the teams picking the most OL are winning. Especially when looking at the right side of the chart, where the fewest OL pickers are lumped at the low end of the winning % scale.

I should've put why I thought people might be surprised: the Giants have done little to nothing to fix their o-line despite 2 SB wins (honestly, both teams were ****** flukes, and Manning is still worse than Romo), and the Steelers have a garbage line, despite picking so high.

I think that it's not how many you draft. It is having a team that has overall team talent. No glaring weaknesses with any of your team units on offense, defense or special teams.

We don't have to have the best oline. But we shouldn't have a weak one either. Team balance, with solid weapons everywhere possible should be the goal.

It isn't just about drafting quantity but rather quality.

I'd have to agree w/Shark on teams that draft OL are on the winning side. Of course there is more to that. I'd take into account factors as what a team did in FA, how many up and comers rose in ranks to start, how a line ranked collectively, and the blocking scheme used. Bottom line is it does "start up front". They can't all be 1st round top 5 but you do need to inject talent someway, somehow, perhaps nearly every year (at least for depth). I hope this is a lesson learned and never repeated again in Chicago.

Just curious, if one was to flip the script is there a stat or chart for Dline and how that correlates to winning?

One other point. If you are drafting quality OL players, then you won't have to draft OL as often. OL players (the solid ones) often play well into their mid 30's. So when you draft well, you end up with a starter for many years. You don't have to go back and draft an endless line of crap players.

It's not about quantity. It's ALL about QUALITY.

And when I say "quality" that doesn't necessarily mean a bunch of 1st round OL picks. Great talent evaluators DO find solid OL players in later rounds. I think a "sweet spot" for interior OL is the 2nd-3rd round area. Some great interior and even RT linemen come out of those two rounds

Originally Posted by Riczaj01

This is a small piece of a snapshot of the total picture.

That was my first thought too Ric. Each team is a unique and complex set of moving parts. Sometimes it's not accurate to grab a stat and try to read too much into it. I'm a nut about having a solid offensive line. But I realize there's a lot more than OL going on here (including coaching).

I'll get off topic a bit here. I'm really curious as to how the existing players will perform under new coaching, new blocking schemes, play calling - and simply letting players stay at one position long enough to maximize their playing skills. No more musical chairs stuff, playing people out of position (which can have a detrimental effect upon the players lining up next to different guys). I wouldn't be surprised at all, if we find out we already have a player or two who is MUCH better than we realized. At least I'm hoping this is the case.

It would be great to bring in a few upgrades, but ALSO have some existing guys step up too. It's not just the starters, but the depth, that needs to be better.