Can our OL compete?

[Spartacus87]

As much as people are against him right now, I am holding out hope that Haynesworth comes to TC ready to go. I think everyone, including Haynesworth himself, will be pleasantly surprised with how he performs in this defense.

This.

There were already a lot of people who wrote off Haynesworth's very strong performance last year, but now after everything that's gone down, there's a lot more revisionist history going on concerning how dominating of a player Haynesworth actually was/is.

We really needed him to be our DE in the 3-4. Losing him will set us back on the d-line.

As for our o-line, we're night and day from when this thread started.

Heyer is straight trash and will hopefully be cut finally. Having him penciled in as a possible starter for another season was a nightmare scenario.

Adding Williams and Brown is big time improvement. I knew Kyle's comments about being content with the o-line was just a smoke screen. Of course they weren't really pleased with Heyer and Artis Hicks as the starting OTs. No NFL team in their right mind would.

I'd love to see our center position upgraded within the next year.

[Jeff in D.C.]

As for our o-line, we're night and day from when this thread started.

Heyer is straight trash and will hopefully be cut finally. Having him penciled in as a possible starter for another season was a nightmare scenario.

Adding Williams and Brown is big time improvement. I knew Kyle's comments about being content with the o-line was just a smoke screen. Of course they weren't really pleased with Heyer and Artis Hicks as the starting OTs. No NFL team in their right mind would.

I'd love to see our center position upgraded within the next year.

Look at the OL Kyle had to work with in Houston last year:

LT: Duane Brown (1st rounder)

LG: Kasey Studdard (6th rounder)

C: Chris Myers (6th rounder)

RG: Chris White (undrafted)

RT: Eric Winston (3rd rounder)

And look at the numbers the passing game put up. Needless to say our OL is much better than that one so I'm excited about the possibilities of what Kyle can do this year.

[Chump Bailey]

Look at the OL Kyle had to work with in Houston last year:

LT: Duane Brown (1st rounder)

LG: Kasey Studdard (6th rounder)

C: Chris Myers (6th rounder)

RG: Chris White (undrafted)

RT: Eric Winston (3rd rounder)

And look at the numbers the passing game put up. Needless to say our OL is much better than that one so I'm excited about the possibilities of what Kyle can do this year.

True, but you also have to factor in Schaub and Johnson. Not exactly average players at their respective position. Anyway, our OL should definitely compete.

Williams

Dock

Rabach

Hicks

Brown

This should be the line heading into the season. Not too shabby if Williams plays how they envisioned and where he was selected.

[Morneblade]

This.

There were already a lot of people who wrote off Haynesworth's very strong performance last year, but now after everything that's gone down, there's a lot more revisionist history going on concerning how dominating of a player Haynesworth actually was/is.

We really needed him to be our DE in the 3-4. Losing him will set us back on the d-line.

As for our o-line, we're night and day from when this thread started.

Heyer is straight trash and will hopefully be cut finally. Having him penciled in as a possible starter for another season was a nightmare scenario.

Adding Williams and Brown is big time improvement. I knew Kyle's comments about being content with the o-line was just a smoke screen. Of course they weren't really pleased with Heyer and Artis Hicks as the starting OTs. No NFL team in their right mind would.

I'd love to see our center position upgraded within the next year.

This. Right now Rabach is the only really serious issue. Hopefully he will be gone next year.

[thebluefood]

I don't know, since we haven't seen them in action yet.

But, for McNabb's sake, I sure hope they're an improvement over last year; or else he will be in a world of hurt all season long.

[darrelgreenie]

Didn't want to start a new thread, but wanted to discuss how encouraging the picture below is:

At some early point in the 2nd Qtr McNabb ,our starting, QB was playing behind the 2nd/3rd string OL.

(LT) Capers, (LG) Montgomery, ©Cook, (RG) Rinehart, (RT)Robinson??

And we plugged in a RB that hasn't played football in over a year and an UDFA rookie and pretty much ran the ball at will and did a good job of keeping a clean pocket for our QBs.

Not to mention that the much maligned Heyer started the game at RT without any major issues.

I really don't think the Shanahan's were blowing smoke when they said that there was talent along our OL.

They just needed better coaching, better scheme and playcalling to bring it to bear.

And imo that's the difference between a good team and a bad team in the NFL.

[Califan007 The Constipated]

Didn't want to start a new thread, but wanted to discuss how encouraging the picture below is:

At some early point in the 2nd Qtr McNabb ,our starting, QB was playing behind the 2nd/3rd string OL.

(LT) Capers, (LG) Montgomery, ©Cook, (RG) Rinehart, (RT)Robinson??

I'm pretty sure that McNabb never played in the 2nd quarter, or past the 2nd series, correct?

[MartinC]

I'm pretty sure that McNabb never played in the 2nd quarter, or past the 2nd series, correct?

That is correct - he played two series with his last play being the TD throw. The next series the Bills had was the Hall interception and Grossman came in for the resulting short Field drive which ended with a Williams TD run as I recall.

I'm not sure when that picture was taken but I'm pretty sure McNabb did not play behind anything other than the starting line. Maybe it was in pregame warm ups?

[Redskins4ever]

GM Bruce Allen and Coach Mike Shanahan have done a tremendous job in bringing in pieces to fill out the offensive line. Adding Trent Williams with the first pick in the draft at LT, and attaining Artis Hicks, and Jamal Brown were great moves. Drafting Selvish Capers, who I think will develop nicely over time, was also a great move. The offensive line had been neglected for years by Vinny Cerratto, and now the O Line is probably without a doubt more solid than it's been since Marty was the coach.

[Duckus]

The OL will make or break this season. One injury and we could be done because of how thin we are at the position.

I think we are one draft and an off-season away from bringing in the final few pieces and a bit more depth to make our OL incredible for years.

[HBnotBlades]

I'm not sure when that picture was taken but I'm pretty sure McNabb did not play behind anything other than the starting line. Maybe it was in pregame warm ups?

I'd put my money on this being pre-game, there's not a spec of dirt on anyones jersey yet.

I think putting your mildly injury prone QB behind a subpar Oline in a preseason game would be down right negligent.

[TD_washingtonredskins]

GM Bruce Allen and Coach Mike Shanahan have done a tremendous job in bringing in pieces to fill out the offensive line. Adding Trent Williams with the first pick in the draft at LT, and attaining Artis Hicks, and Jamal Brown were great moves. Drafting Selvish Capers, who I think will develop nicely over time, was also a great move. The offensive line had been neglected for years by Vinny Cerratto, and now the O Line is probably without a doubt more solid than it's been since Marty was the coach.

Good post. I love seeing what we've done in less than a year and imagining what our young depth might look like 2-3 years from now. The OL has begun its overhaul and we won't be there in 2010, but you have to like the direction.

My hope is that Trent Williams will soon team with Edwin Williams and Selvish Capers as our new core. That would mean we just need to fill out some outside depth and interior starters to have a very talented/young OL.

[MustangSteve]

I will be much more confident in them if they can hold their own against defenses like Baltimore and NY coming up.

[darrelgreenie]

Quite right looking back at the game; McNabb was never played behind that OL.

It must have been a photo taken in the pre-game.

Mea Culpa

[Morneblade]

Well have a better idea about it in a couple weeks. I'd like to see Brown healthy too.

[RandyHolt]

i may be alone in my feelings, but I think Heyer had a great game. And I think he will excel in the ZBS, since well, he struggled in our old system.

[rd421]

I absolutely think they can

[MartinC]

i may be alone in my feelings, but I think Heyer had a great game. And I think he will excel in the ZBS, since well, he struggled in our old system.

If we get some luck with I injuries along the line we will not need to find out. It might be optimistic to expect Brown to go 16 games coming back from that hip injury but let's hope.

[darrelgreenie]

i may be alone in my feelings, but I think Heyer had a great game. And I think he will excel in the ZBS, since well, he struggled in our old system.

Nope, you're not alone.

I think Heyer is a much better player then the local media/fans give him credit for:

And finally everyones favorite whipping boy.[Heyer]

Everyone likes to ignore the fact that Steph was playing hurt for most of the season, hurt to the point where he couldn't even practice.

Joe Bugel was giving Steph some love for his toughness, and imo that high praise.

The fact that he was still playing speaks to how poor our OL depth was last year; a hurt Heyer was better thenthe healthy back-ups we had.

Based on the fact that Steph was hurt last year leads to the logical conclusion that he would be better this year; not to mention that in 2008 Stephon played better at LT(4 games) then RT (4 games) and was the 44th rated OT ahead of names like: Chad Clifton, Joe Staley, Barry Sims, Levi Jones, David Diehl, Levi Brown, Gosder Cherilus, Flozell Adams, Tony Ugoh.

http://www.profootballfocus.com/by_p...=25&numgames=

[wildbill1952]

GM Bruce Allen and Coach Mike Shanahan have done a tremendous job in bringing in pieces to fill out the offensive line. Adding Trent Williams with the first pick in the draft at LT, and attaining Artis Hicks, and Jamal Brown were great moves. Drafting Selvish Capers, who I think will develop nicely over time, was also a great move. The offensive line had been neglected for years by Vinny Cerratto, and now the O Line is probably without a doubt more solid than it's been since Marty was the coach.

The OL will make or break this season. One injury and we could be done because of how thin we are at the position.

I think we are one draft and an off-season away from bringing in the final few pieces and a bit more depth to make our OL incredible for years.

Two different views of the same OL, but I tend to go more toward the former instead of the latter. Even with Big Mike out, there is depth on the OL with Capers, Rinehart and E. Williams. And depth is something the Skins haven't had in a very long time. (e.g. Remember Guisinger going in when Samuels went down?) I felt Vinny was a tool of DS but I believe he occasionally drafted some talented guys. His biggest problem was he consistently ignored the "non-skill" guys in the trenches and I will always believe the OLine was the biggest source of the offense's problems last year.

Heyer is much maligned because he is very bad. He can stand toe-to-toe with an average DE, but good DE's feast on him. I didn't watch the second half of the game with Buffalo, but I note from other writers Heyer was still playing right tackle when the second team came in and Capers had the left tackle spot. It shows the level of Heyer's talent if that's accurate.

I think the team now has an average to good OLine, which is leaps and bounds beyond last year's OLine. We need a replacement in the wings for Rabach and Hicks (both old) and those can be picked up in next year's draft or offseason if Rinehart doesn't finally do something. I'm waiting to see if Cook is a viable replacement for Rabach, but for now it's too early to tell.

But overall, I don't feel the dread I felt when assessing last year's OL. This year, you have something to build on.

[wvtbred]

Didn't want to start a new thread, but wanted to discuss how encouraging the picture below is:

I really don't think the Shanahan's were blowing smoke when they said that there was talent along our OL.

They just needed better coaching, better scheme and playcalling to bring it to bear.

And imo that's the difference between a good team and a bad team in the NFL.

This is the main reason I wasn't worried about the oline after Shanny was hired. Well that and the QB change.

I think we will surprise a lot of people this season.

[LeftCoast Skinz FAN]

I believe we have a pretty solid OL now. Not the greatest OL out there but a solid one. Too bad for Big Mike Williams having to leave do to medial issues but we added some really good players. The only concern I have is at C. But with the addition of Hicks, T.Williams and Brown the Skins should have a solid line.

:logo:

Edit: Adding the Shanahans to the team doesn't hurt either...

[darrelgreenie]

Heyer is much maligned because he is very bad. He can stand toe-to-toe with an average DE, but good DE's feast on him. I didn't watch the second half of the game with Buffalo, but I note from other writers Heyer was still playing right tackle when the second team came in and Capers had the left tackle spot. It shows the level of Heyer's talent if that's accurate.

Heyer started at RT and played without incident.

(I hope you aren't going by the picture i posted b/c its wrong)

[planter]

a lot hinges on the health of jammal brown.

if he, and the others, stay reasonably healthy, our o line looks much improved. trent w. looked great; he's got attitude! hicks and ed williams also had a strong exhibition game.

dock and casey looked solid.

we'll certainly know much more post ravens.

hurt my left wrist so no caps....