Plankton
Well-Known Member
- Messages
- 12,237
- Reaction score
- 18,606
https://www.si.com/nfl/2023/08/14/n...-young-anthony-richardson-cj-stroud-takeaways
Ferrell’s sack was also an example of where offensive line depth is across the NFL right now. Which is to say, it’s not in a good place. Few teams have backups they can rely on, and that much was evident all over the place this weekend. Just as it did on Ferrell’s sack, it showed up in the Panthers’ and Texans’ efforts to protect their rookie quarterbacks, and in decisions made by coaches elsewhere not to play their quarterbacks, with a heightened risk in putting them behind nonstarting linemen.
So what gives?
This is a remnant, as I and a lot of folks see it, of the 2011 and ’20 CBA negotiations. Practice time, and practice contact, were sacrificed, and while that’s great for some players, it’s not helping the NFL develop offensive linemen behind the starters. They hit less in the summer and barely ever in season, and those positions are ones where you don’t rotate or substitute much. So if you’re a backup, and there aren’t injuries, you’re going to go from September to January or February without hitting very much at all.
Which is to say those guys are getting a lot of training year-round, and very little training in-season, to do the job they were hired to do—young defensive linemen at least get to play a bunch in the games.
I don’t know how to fix this, either. But I do think when you see a good team’s season sunk, it can be traced to offensive line injuries. And why even marginally experienced linemen get paid well on the free-agent market. There simply aren’t enough of them to go around, largely as a result of the owners’ decision to trade work hours for financial concessions, and the union’s willingness to accept those terms.
Ferrell’s sack was also an example of where offensive line depth is across the NFL right now. Which is to say, it’s not in a good place. Few teams have backups they can rely on, and that much was evident all over the place this weekend. Just as it did on Ferrell’s sack, it showed up in the Panthers’ and Texans’ efforts to protect their rookie quarterbacks, and in decisions made by coaches elsewhere not to play their quarterbacks, with a heightened risk in putting them behind nonstarting linemen.
So what gives?
This is a remnant, as I and a lot of folks see it, of the 2011 and ’20 CBA negotiations. Practice time, and practice contact, were sacrificed, and while that’s great for some players, it’s not helping the NFL develop offensive linemen behind the starters. They hit less in the summer and barely ever in season, and those positions are ones where you don’t rotate or substitute much. So if you’re a backup, and there aren’t injuries, you’re going to go from September to January or February without hitting very much at all.
Which is to say those guys are getting a lot of training year-round, and very little training in-season, to do the job they were hired to do—young defensive linemen at least get to play a bunch in the games.
I don’t know how to fix this, either. But I do think when you see a good team’s season sunk, it can be traced to offensive line injuries. And why even marginally experienced linemen get paid well on the free-agent market. There simply aren’t enough of them to go around, largely as a result of the owners’ decision to trade work hours for financial concessions, and the union’s willingness to accept those terms.
