The O-Line

[jfs06473]

I think your analysis is dead on right. The guys we have are good when they're healthy, but they're all up there in age and I don't expect the injury bug to bite them less as they get older.

But let's not stop with the OLine. We need some younger, legitimate pass rushing and run stuffing studs on the DLine. Carter may be OK for now but the supporting cast needs to get younger and meaner. I'm not saying we can ever compensate for the loss of Sean Taylor, but the best way to keep from getting constantly beaten over the middle is for somebody to sack the friggin' quarterback! We just can't seem to get consistent pressure without blitzing a linebacker or two. That just can't be allowed to continue.:2cents:

[elkabong82]

Our O-line isn't overrated. When HEALTHY, it is one of the best in football. Sadly, it's our back-up situation that needs to be adressed. As far as tackle goes, I believe we are ok, as Heyer and Wade are decent back-ups (though Wade hasn't looked as outstanding as many of you wanting to replace Jansen claimed). However, guard needs to be adressed. We could find a good back-up, and eventual starter, in the third or fourth round.

It's obvious from the backlash against the coaches and players, that many of you either don't understand the impact of injury (which is stupid, because a drop-off in performance is going to happen almost every time) or refuse to in order to justify your continued ****ing. However, even Mr. Magoo can see that our decline in performance on the offensive side can be directly attributed to the O-line. You can put blame on the coaches, as so many of you love to do (because you're not running the team apparently), for sticking with Wade and Fabini the entire time, despite less than desirable results.

[RDSKNfaithfull]

Glen Dorsey or Chris Long in the first. Best O lineman available in the second

[alwaysaskin]

Our O-line isn't overrated. When HEALTHY, it is one of the best in football. Sadly, it's our back-up situation that needs to be adressed. As far as tackle goes, I believe we are ok, as Heyer and Wade are decent back-ups (though Wade hasn't looked as outstanding as many of you wanting to replace Jansen claimed). However, guard needs to be adressed. We could find a good back-up, and eventual starter, in the third or fourth round.

It's obvious from the backlash against the coaches and players, that many of you either don't understand the impact of injury (which is stupid, because a drop-off in performance is going to happen almost every time) or refuse to in order to justify your continued ****ing. However, even Mr. Magoo can see that our decline in performance on the offensive side can be directly attributed to the O-line. You can put blame on the coaches, as so many of you love to do (because you're not running the team apparently), for sticking with Wade and Fabini the entire time, despite less than desirable results.

I don't think the O-Line is overrated but I do think that cracks are starting to show, I think we need better backups and at a point we need to insert younger players on the O-Line

[alwaysaskin]

i dont know how much i agree. the oline we went into this season with was STOUT. no one could have foreseen the crazy injuries that we suffered early in the season. while i agree we need to start ushering in young guys to take over. i cant place blame on the front office

i have absolutely no problem placing blame on wade and fabini though

definitely agree with you on the FO part, though I think the Wade experiment can be blamed them. When healthy the Line is stout but health seems to elude the 'Skins

[method man]

Move Lorenzo Alexander full-time to guard.

Reasons:

1. Need more pass-rushing DTs, not runstuffers like Alexander

2. He is one of the hardest-working skins out there and with his skillset, he could be a really good guard

3. Very willing to learn and great character

Take Crummey too and you will be set at guard for the future

[JLU44]

I think that the biggest mistake made, one that we can blame the FO for, is overrating our Offensive Line. We weren't alone, ESPN experts thought that this line was great as well. Now when healthy I'd favorably compare our five starters with any line in football, but the Line has feet of clay.

1. Chris Samuels: While he is still one of the better Left Tackles in the NFL, there are games where he just seems to be living off his reputation. He is 30 now and while not technically past his prime (Ray Brown was still going strong at 43) his ACL issue this pre-season showed that he is becoming a little more injury prone. I think in the next few years we will seriously need to look at a replacement. He should still be our anchor for now.

2. Pete Kendall: He has been a decent suprise but we only have him for two years, the Dockery situation left us in an improbable place. He is also 34 years old which means that we should look at a replacement for him sooner rather than later. What disturbs me about the Dockery Situation is that we got older at a position where we should have gotten younger. Either we sign Kendall or find a stud LG in the draft

3. Casey Rabach: One of the best moves from Gibbs II but is injury prone, I hope that he can make through '08 healthy, but we might need to get younger at Center. Definitley an upgrade from Raymer. Plus he has been injured two years in a row now.

4. Randy Thomas: The best of the 2003 Jetskins, but has been injured in 2005 and 2007. He has had issues this season with knee surgury that kept him out of minicamp and a torn Triceps. We can still put together a stretch run if he comes back healthy, he is key. He is also 31 so questions remain there.

5. Jon Jansen: No one has been the face of this team more than Jansen, he was consistently underrated, and he is unquestioned leader. I think we miss his leadership the most. Yet I wonder if he doesn't shut it down after this season. He has only been healthy once since Gibbs II began. He has only played two seasons for us under Gibbs (2004 Achilles and this year with the broken Tibia) Those injuries will afect his footwork. As he becomes more injury prone, Right Tackle becomes a more Glaring need for the team to address. I hope he comes back healthy but those are two major injuries.

The Back-ups

Stephon Heyer: A diamond in the UDFA rough, Heyer is what this team needs, big, young and nasty. He has shown flashes of talent filling in for Jansen and could be counted on big time next year if Jansen shuts it down or goes down again. Hope for the future there.

Todd Wade: The Wade experiment is over, he should be cut after the season, if the cap hit isn't too big. He was an unmitigated failure as the starting LG and has been awful in spot duty this season.

Jason Fabini: We all saw him miss that block on Sunday he has been another disaster, worse yet he and Wade have a combined 18 years, we can draft young O-Linemen for depth who will eventually take over as starters we don't need Journeymen

The one constant is that our starting five O-Linemen are all injury prone and will be past there prime sooner rather than later. We overestimated the line at the start of the season, and we haven't used a 1st or 2nd round pick since Samuels in 2000. We need to get younger and healthier on the O-Line ASAP. :2cents:

Extremely well written post!.......Finally someone who understands something about football! Yes, and while I agree with your assessment I found your comments about Casey Rabach very interesting. Someone needs to really look carefully into the cause of all of our injuries. Jon Jansen? I've been saying from day one, he's very overrated......We need him to lead on the field not as a cheerleader. He's basically injury prone. Samuels is penalty prone and Wade is nothing but a stiff. Fabini is washed up so that essentially leaves us with Pete Kendall, Randy Thomas and Stephen Heyer. No doubt this offensive Line needs to be rebuilt quickly. Think back to what happened on our first two drives last Sunday. We should have blown them off the line of scrimmage and scored 2 touchdowns and instead we settled for 2 field goals. Instead of coming away with 14 points we came away with 6! This Offensive Line just isin't getting it done and the back-ups have failed miserably!