The General Offensive Line Thread

[Oldfaithful]

Yeah. I'm sick and tired of hijacking other threads. Let's do this instead.


My thought process is simple. If we have a good offensive line, we should be fine. If not, top 15 pick.

Likely the latter in this scenario sadly. I think we're screwed.

 

[The Raven]

Thanks, I like this.

Season depends on Alex Lewis and whoever plays center. If Alex turns out good and Jensen does good enough I think we're playoff bound. I'm confident.

 

[JoeyFlex5]

I feel like Jensen is gonna surprise the hell out of people. Something just tells me he has gotten his game together. It feels right this year(last season I was really skeptical of him). I'm actually more skeptical of Lewis than I am Jensen. In the end I think the coaches stick with Lewis at LG(maybe he isn't a quality RT after all) and I think he ends up being average forever as a guard.

Something that Hasn't been mentioned yet is that if Lewis does turn out solid at G, then we have a guy who can play RT at a high level. Say Lewis and goose are both solid guards, you can swing yanda to RT, that puts the best 5 on the field, and they all happen to fit in their spots

 

[The Raven]

I feel like Jensen is gonna surprise the hell out of people. Something just tells me he has gotten his game together. It feels right this year(last season I was really skeptical of him). I'm actually more skeptical of Lewis than I am Jensen. In the end I think the coaches stick with Lewis at LG(maybe he isn't a quality RT after all) and I think he ends up being average forever as a guard.

Something that Hasn't been mentioned yet is that if Lewis does turn out solid at G, then we have a guy who can play RT at a high level. Say Lewis and goose are both solid guards, you can swing yanda to RT, that puts the best 5 on the field, and they all happen to fit in their spots

As Yanda gets older, I'd like to keep him inside, not outside. He's highly athletic for a guard but he's only going to get slower from here, and he's not long enough to make up for it. Harbaugh did mention Yanda playing center the other day, and as crazy as it sounds, I'm no longer opposed to it. I think that could be one way to maximize the talent.

 

[Oldfaithful]

As Yanda gets older, I'd like to keep him inside, not outside. He's highly athletic for a guard but he's only going to get slower from here, and he's not long enough to make up for it. Harbaugh did mention Yanda playing center the other day, and as crazy as it sounds, I'm no longer opposed to it. I think that could be one way to maximize the talent.

YES. You know. I'm a lot more confident with Nico at one guard spot, and then Jensen at the other with Yanda at center. I honestly think he could be an all pro there too!

 

[Serrell Tuggs]

I'm very worried about the offensive line. We need a really good line to succeed because Flacco's lack of pocket awareness and movement makes a good line look average and average line look terrible. Look at our line a couple of years ago - Monroe (a starter level player), Osemele (Pro bowler), Zuttah (still a starter), Yanda (Yanda!) and Wagner (Highest paid right tackle) - that's a good line by any measure but it didn't look like it because Flacco doesn't step up and use the line properly.

This year we have 2 1/2 good players and Hurst who is valued for his versatility because he's equally terrible on the right or left and who knows who else. The rookies and second year players can't be looking that good if Hurst is still with the first team. Jensen has impressed me a couple of times on running plays but never in pass protection and Urschel is essentially Zuttah mk II - he can play the position but gets pushed around too easily. I don't see how the line can possibly be good enough.

 

[Sami84]

The lack of legit OT options in this draft was pretty depressing to say the least.
Cam Robinson is a bust in the making. the rest of the options were more interior linesman at NFL level.

 

[JoeyFlex5]

I'm very worried about the offensive line. We need a really good line to succeed because Flacco's lack of pocket awareness and movement makes a good line look average and average line look terrible. Look at our line a couple of years ago - Monroe (a starter level player), Osemele (Pro bowler), Zuttah (still a starter), Yanda (Yanda!) and Wagner (Highest paid right tackle) - that's a good line by any measure but it didn't look like it because Flacco doesn't step up and use the line properly.

This year we have 2 1/2 good players and Hurst who is valued for his versatility because he's equally terrible on the right or left and who knows who else. The rookies and second year players can't be looking that good if Hurst is still with the first team. Jensen has impressed me a couple of times on running plays but never in pass protection and Urschel is essentially Zuttah mk II - he can play the position but gets pushed around too easily. I don't see how the line can possibly be good enough.

Monroe was out for most of the year and James hurst got absolutely worked at LT. You can have 4 pro bowers from LG TO RT but if your LT is possibly the absolute worst in the league, your gonna have a bad time

 

[Adreme]

The only weak player possibly on the oline would be RT and plenty of teams do well with bad RT options. We know Yanda and Stanley will be elite, we can be pretty sure Lewus will be good to very good, and it's hard for me to see a C being worse then Zuttah.

 

[Serrell Tuggs]

I don't the the C will be a big improvement on Zuttah or he would have started last year. Other than that it's last year's line minus Wagner and that wasn't good enough to get us over 20 points very often. The Bengals and Steelers have added even more on offence. I don't see us holding them to under 20 points.

 

[RavensMania]

YES. You know. I'm a lot more confident with Nico at one guard spot, and then Jensen at the other with Yanda at center. I honestly think he could be an all pro there too!

Yanda is an amazing player and I could see him at center as well. He's just an extremely heady player.

 

[Oldfaithful]

Yanda is an amazing player and I could see him at center as well. He's just an extremely heady player.

He called the protections the year Gino was starting at center. So I think he's more than capable of doing that.

 

[RavensMania]

The lack of legit OT options in this draft was pretty depressing to say the least.
Cam Robinson is a bust in the making. the rest of the options were more interior linesman at NFL level.

Didn't you want us to draft Robinson or was that Winchester.

 

[SepticeyePoe]

From a technique standpoint, is center much different than guard?

 

[Oldfaithful]

Didn't you want us to draft Robinson or was that Winchester.

I'm pretty sure that he had "quick twitch muscle" of sorts and he could have ben a "beast" and that someone in the Packers organization thought that he would be a preferable player to TJ Lang.

 

[SepticeyePoe]

I'm pretty sure that he had "quick twitch muscle" of sorts and he could have ben a "beast" and that someone in the Packers organization thought that he would be a preferable player to TJ Lang.

I'm haunted that we didn't take an olineman early.

 

[Oldfaithful]

I'm haunted that we didn't take an olineman early.

Outside of Lamp, Elflein, and Siragusa I thought this class was honestly a crapshoot. I was ecstatic when we drafted Nico.

 

[RavensMania]

I don't the the C will be a big improvement on Zuttah or he would have started last year. Other than that it's last year's line minus Wagner and that wasn't good enough to get us over 20 points very often. The Bengals and Steelers have added even more on offence. I don't see us holding them to under 20 points.

I completely disagree with this statement. Zuttah had a decent year in 2015 until his injury and Jensen had slimmed down in 2016 and definitely wasn't ready to replace him. The Ravens defense has improved more than the Bengals and Steelers offenses combined!

 

[RavensMania]

Outside of Lamp, Elflein, and Siragusa I thought this class was honestly a crapshoot. I was ecstatic when we drafted Nico.

Agree

 

[Oldfaithful]

I completely disagree with this statement. Zuttah had a decent year in 2015 and Jensen had slimmed down and definitely wasn't ready to replace him. The Ravens defense has improved more than the Bengals and Steelers offenses combined!

I'd argue the Bengals really haven't improved. They've added Ross and Mixon but their oline is in even worse shape than ours. Which is saying something. Plus, Ross isn't a good fit with Dalton, and gets hurt a lot. So does Eifert.