The league has an offensive line downside, based on longtime lineman Andrew Whitworth.
The Tremendous Bowl LVI champion and present Amazon broadcaster made an appearance on ESPN’s “This is Football with Kevin Clark” to debate what Clark labeled a “crisis.” When requested if 2023 was a low level for offensive line play, Whitworth wholeheartedly agreed.
“Oh, that’s for sure,” stated Whitworth, who spent 16 years within the league. “I mean I think it’s definitely not the quality of what we’ve seen. I think there’s some really good football players out there. That doesn’t mean there’s not some guys that are dominating at the offensive line position. But if you went in the totality, it’s rough. There’s a lot of weeks where you go, ‘Man, I don’t know how we can’t find another guy, or another three or four guys who are better than this.’”
Statistically measuring league-wide offensive line efficiency in isolation. Few publicly obtainable knowledge sources chart particular person offensive line stats. The workforce stats they do are contingent on different elements, like quarterback play or line of defense success. Nevertheless, even these statistics don’t point out notably poor offensive line play. According to knowledge from ProFootbalReference’s Stathead, defenses are averaging 2.92 hurries per sport in 2023, the second-lowest complete since 2017. Whole defensive pressures per sport are also down to their second-lowest per-game common over that very same span.
Whereas quarterbacks are on tempo to set a new career-high in sacks and sack charge, sacks are more a quarterback stat than an offensive line stat. The uptick in instances sacked could be indicative of latest kinds of play, will increase in two-high coverages, and even the sheer variety of inexperienced quarterbacks compelled to begin video games as a result of harm. Not less than from an offensive line perspective, quarterbacks have the time to throw. The typical pocket time of two.44 seconds at the moment ranks fourth by season since 2017.
A part of this notion downside, Whitworth notes, is that it’s additionally coinciding with an unprecedented crop of elite line of defense expertise. 13 totally different gamers have no less than 10 sacks this season. That’s the best variety of gamers with no less than 10 sacks via this portion of the season in 5 years, per Stathead.
The rise in success has led to greater paydays. Edge rushers get increased AAV contracts and extra assured cash than tackles. Similar goes for inside defensive linemen and their offensive counterparts. Not less than in Whitworth’s eyes, extra emphasis on line of defense impression – and greater paydays – are inflicting typical offensive linemen to flip to the opposite aspect of the ball.
“Really, it’s a mixture of D-linemen we’re seeing are getting more and more athletic,” stated Whitworth, who performed left guard and left deal with. “They’re bigger, they’re stronger. In the sense of not that they’re worse competition, but that may be some of your offensive tackles that are now playing D-tackles or defensive ends in a 3-4 that could have been left tackles. You see some of that in big, strong defensive linemen.”
Whitworth, who spent 11 years with the Bengals earlier than becoming a member of the Rams, additionally hammered poor developmental cycles. He started on the school degree, the place he famous that the fashionable school offense “isn’t anything like the NFL system,” citing much less of an emphasis on go safety and common blocking. His actual level of competition, although, got here in offseason coaching. Whitworth prefaced his assertion by emphasizing the necessity for the NFL Participant’s Affiliation’s continued emphasis on participant well being and security, then argued that the league has gone “too far” in limiting participant apply time.
“I think, in my opinion, we’ve gone too far in the sense that – there’s a big difference in requiring guys to come in for a long time in the offseason or to two-a-day practices and all that, and not developing people,” Whitworth argued. “I think there’s a huge difference in those two things.
“I don’t know if people understand this. When the season ends to when we begin again in late April or mid-April, you’re actually not allowed to even go in and work with your coach – even if you want to – because of PA rules. To me, if I’m a first-year, second-year, third-year player, if I want to go in the building – this is how I provide for my family, my life! This is the game and the job I want. I’m not allowed to go in and work with the person who’s employing me? That, to me, seems a little crazy. That’s a little too far.”
There’s a marketplace for offensive linemen trying to enhance their abilities away from the workforce services. Gamers can clearly rent private trainers. Some coaches, like Duke Mayweather, concentrate on offensive line improvement and have begun holding summits on studying and understanding offensive line play.
Nevertheless, all that comes at a threat. The NFL is just not answerable for any wage misplaced to accidents that occur away from workforce services. In 2021, Broncos proper deal with Ja’Wuan James tore his Achilles whereas figuring out away from the workforce. Denver was not held responsible for his $10 million in base wage, which contained an harm safety solely activated if it occurred below workforce supervision. The Broncos cut James, voiding his $10 million due and a further $5 million in 2022. James later filed a grievance, which the Broncos settled for $1.09 million.
The way forward for the place group
Whereas the information could not shake out that offensive line play is down, Whitworth is completely proper that the offensive line can dictate the way forward for soccer as we all know it. You see it within the poor makes an attempt at spring soccer. The more moderen iterations of the XFL had been held back by poor offensive line play, as was the USFL re-launch.
The dearth of expertise may get even worse this offseason. The highest offensive linemen hitting free company this offseason – Tyron Smith, Dyane Brown, Kevin Zeitler, Ryan Jensen – are all properly into their 30s. Jensen, the youngest of this crop, is coming off season-ending accidents. Whereas there’s a likelihood the 2024 draft class is traditionally good, it’s extra of the identical downside Whitworth has laid out.
Long run, the O-line drought may have the potential to kill soccer as we all know it. The NFL is making big investments into flag soccer and is pushing players to check out for the 2028 U.S. Olympic flag soccer workforce. Talent place gamers are already the face of the league due to fantasy sports activities. There’s no want to dam in flag, and it addresses the league’s long-established downside with concussions in touch soccer.
If the offensive line drought persists, and if the league doesn’t create a greater developmental pipeline for offensive line expertise, we could also be witnessing the final of a dying breed.
