What is wrong with the OL?

[Skins11]

Is it players, or is it scheme? Is it our overrated talent, or is it the fault of the rustiness of Bugel?

One thing is certain: Bugel has not been helped by the shoddy performances of many of the players. It is not his fault that Randy Thomas gets beat by Glover on a key play, Raymer gets owned every single play, and Ray Brown is 42 years old.

However, I thought the talent evaluation on the line would be better. We should have never been in a position to be starting Ray Brown after Jansen went down. Kenyatta Jones was not the answer.

The play of the line was epitomized by the failed 4th and inches conversion against Philly. The line can't create space if their lives depended on it.

Has there been any improvement from the beginning of the year?

I think we need to start anew with many of the o-line positions that have been terrible (C, G) and draft a lot of depth. No need to get more receivers. Our WR have actually been playing pretty well lately. And I still like our depth in that position.

[feeshta]

Originally posted by ramseyskins

Is it players, or is it scheme? Is it our overrated talent, or is it the fault of the rustiness of Bugel?

One thing is certain: Bugel has not been helped by the shoddy performances of many of the players. It is not his fault that Randy Thomas gets beat by Glover on a key play, Raymer gets owned every single play, and Ray Brown is 42 years old.

However, I thought the talent evaluation on the line would be better. We should have never been in a position to be starting Ray Brown after Jansen went down. Kenyatta Jones was not the answer.

The play of the line was epitomized by the failed 4th and inches conversion against Philly. The line can't create space if their lives depended on it.

Has there been any improvement from the beginning of the year?

I think we need to start anew with many of the o-line positions that have been terrible (C, G) and draft a lot of depth. No need to get more receivers. Our WR have actually been playing pretty well lately. And I still like our depth in that position.

I don't think we really need to start over at any position on the line except Center. The other positions we need better backups than we had this year, but center is the only position that routinely gets physically beaten. Even Ray Brown is better physically than Raymer. People think that dockery sucks, but I tend to believe that he is struggling due to playing next to Raymer. Opposing teams are attacking that gap because it is the weakest point on the line. It reflects the fact that Raymer is the weak link, and Dockery is more suspect than Thomas so they choose to go to his side.

I think we need to bring in all new blood at Center, one through FA and one through the draft. We may even be able to trade Gardner for a decent veteran center if there is a team out there with a complimentary need. Not going to bet on that though. After that we need to go after quality O-line depth in the low rounds of the draft if we can find any. We also need depth at DE, and maybe a quality new starter to replace Wynn.